What did Jesus mean when He said "It is finished"?

"It is finished." He had come to do the work that God had given Him to do, and it is here in John's record that we learn that it was done. The Lamb of God had offered Himself up — the great sacrifice to take away the sin of the world; He had drained the cup that His Father had given to Him; He had glorified God on the earth and maintained that glory on the cross; and now the suffering is behind Him, and e'er He yields up His Spirit He utters the triumphant word "It is finished." The infinite work was accomplished to stand for ever in its solitary grandeur, the wonder of eternity, and the unshakeable basis of God's glory and our salvation. We feebly enter into the meaning of this word, but as we meditate upon it we are in communion with our God about it, for in that finished work His attributes have been vindicated and His nature revealed and our redemption secured. "Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." "It is finished."

"It is finished." Here is the gospel indeed, and now it can be joyfully declared "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2). The work is done, and for us, by Him who does all things well. This alone gives us access to God in peace; here He can meet us with an eternal forgiveness and the kiss of "His great love wherewith He loved us."' The worst, the weakest, the most worthless may rest here, and none will find rest either now or hereafter who does not only and altogether rest on this finished work. We cast away our choicest works, as "filthy rags"; we confess that it was when we were "without strength" that Jesus finished the work for us, and we praise Him,

Of none but Jesus is it or could it be said that He gave up (παρέδωκεν) the spirit, which is wholly distinct from the "expired" (ἐξέπνευσεν) of Mark and Luke, confounded with the former by our translators. To expire could apply to anyone's death, the blessed Lord being man as truly as any other; to give the spirit up, as said in John, expresses His Divine glory though a dying man, as the One Who had title to lay down His life no less than to take it again. So Matthew implies Who the dying Messiah was in "He dismissed the spirit" (ἂφῆκε τὸ πν.). Nor can words be more characteristic of Luke than "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit," nor of John than "It is finished." He was man, though God; He was God though man; and both in one Person.

The reader will remark how perfectly the account of the Lord's death suits the general character and special design of John's Gospel and of no other. Here Jesus is the conscious Son, the Divine Person Who made all things, but became flesh that He might not only give eternal life, but die as a propitiation for our sins. And here, therefore, here only, He said, "It is finished, and bowing His head, delivered up His spirit." There are witnesses, as we shall see, but they are of God, not of man or the creature, and they intimately flow from His own Person. No darkness is mentioned, no cry that His God had forsaken Him, no rending of the veil, no earthquake, no centurion's confession; all of which meet to proclaim the rejected Messiah (Matt. 27). So substantially, save the earthquake, the Servant Son of God obedient to death in Mark 15. Luke 23 adds the testimony to His grace in the crucified robber, His firstfruits in Paradise, and the centurion's witness to "Jesus Christ the righteous," after He had committed His spirit into His Father's hands. It was reserved for John to set forth His death Who was God not less surely than man, and as such. The Creator but man lifted up from the earth could say, in dying for sin to God's glory, "It is finished." The work, the infinite work, was done for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice. Thereon hangs not only the blessing of every soul that is to be justified by faith, but of new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. "It is finished," τετέλεσται: one word! yet what word ever contained so much?

The End. — The Lord had interceded for His murderers (Luke 23:34). He had assured the penitent thief of being with Him that day in Paradise, granting more than the man had asked (43). He had commended His mother to the care of John the son of Zebedee (John 19:26-27). The awful cry, recorded by Matthew (27:46) and by Mark (15:34), had been heard proceeding from His lips. The three hours of darkness were, we presume, now passed. All, too, that He had to suffer at the hands of His creatures, short of actual death, He had patiently endured. So writes John: "Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says, I thirst" (19:28). It is questioned, whether the clause "that the Scripture might be fulfilled" is to be connected with "all things are now finished," or with "I thirst." Many names may be cited for the one and for the other. We would rather connect it with "I thirst." All that the Lord had to suffer of indignity from man and the forsaking of God was over. But a scripture had spoken of giving Him to drink vinegar, or sour wine (Ps. 69:21). Was that to be left unfulfilled? No. So thirsty, the common effect of crucifixion, the Lord said, "I thirst." Really a man, the natural feelings of a man He experienced. And provision had been made to meet such a want. A vessel with the sour wine, the drink of common soldiers, was there. A sponge was at hand, and a stalk of hyssop was in readiness. To His utterance attention was given, and one of the soldiers proceeded to administer to the want. Just when crucified He had been offered wine mingled with myrrh to deaden the pain. He refused that. Then Luke informs us (23:36), that the soldiers in mockery offered Him of their sour wine to drink. But now it was not in mockery, but to relieve His thirst, that one ran, we elsewhere read, dipped the sponge in the wine, and gave Him to drink. He received it, and said, "It is finished." No Scripture now remained unfulfilled of all that had been written of Him ere He should die; hence His word, but one word in the Greek, "It is finished." And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.

No tongue of man can ever perfectly tell all that was finished when the Lord cried "It is finished"; but we do know that the great work of atonement was fully done. All that had been foretold in prophecy regarding the cross; all that had been foreshadowed in the sacrifices of old, was now perfectly fulfilled. Many had been the types of Christ's death since Adam entered his deep sleep to procure Eve for his helpmeet, and now there was nothing more to do so far as this great work was concerned: it was for ever done.

He appeared to put away sin, to blot it out from before God's face, to deliver us from its guilt and power. And in what way? "By the sacrifice of Himself." Ah, nothing else could put away sin, and He has appeared once to do it. No need of repeating that. When those words of triumph rang out from Calvary: "It is finished," all was done. In the very language of the Son of God Himself it meant that nothing could be added to the work now accomplished. Oh, let that precious word take hold of our inmost souls, a finished work, to the praise of His glory!

3) God's glory : just before going into death the Lord exclaimed victoriously ‘It is finished' (John 19:30). The same word is used here: all was fulfilled, everything completed; not only all prophecies and God's counsel but also everything necessary in order for God to be fully glorified. This is the perspective of John's Gospel.

A final quality not demonstrated by the Old Testament typology lay in the fact that the Sin-bearer must be able to exhaust the judgment of God on sin. All the antecedent sacrifices had remained in death. Thus only One who was infinite could satisfy God's righteous claims and besides glorify God as to every aspect of sin. He only could have exclaimed as He died on Calvary's tree, Tetelestai, lit. "finished." That was not merely relative to His life here, but that the work of redemption was absolutely completed.

What He will do simply stated, what He has done He next declared. "I have glorified Thee on the earth, having finished," as we should read, "the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (17:4). What had He finished? We take it, comparing this last clause with v. 36, "the works that the Father has given Me to finish," that it is His life-work in service, which had now come to an end, not including His death, then not accomplished. We are aware, of course, that this view is not that commonly entertained. We lay it, however, before the reader, with the ground for our conclusion, that he may judge for himself of the correctness, or otherwise, of that which we have advanced.

"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." After His great sacrifice He entered heaven itself, where He now is, appearing in the presence of God for His people. "Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the consummation of the ages hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The sacrifice He brought needs not to be repeated, it is all-sufficient for all eternity. If He were to offer again it would be necessary also to suffer again. Both are impossible. (The Romish assumption of the Lord's Supper being a sacrifice and that the blasphemous mass is an unbloody sacrifice are completely refuted by verse 26, by this entire chapter and by the teaching of the New Testament.) At the completion of the ages of probation (the age before the law and the age under the law), when man's utter ruin and hopeless condition had been fully demonstrated, He appeared in the fullness of time (the completion of the ages) and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And here let us remember that the full and complete results of this work are not yet manifested. Sin will ultimately be blotted out of God's creation. The blessed words which came from His gracious lips, when He gave Himself on the cross--"It is finished"-- will find their fullest meaning when all things are made new, when the first heaven and earth are passed away and a new heaven and new earth are come, when all things are made new. Then His voice will declare once more "it is done" (Rev. 21:1-6).

We rightly insist on the fact that the work of Christ in relation to redemption is done. He said ere He left this world, "It is finished". While that is true, as we rightly emphasize in the preaching of the gospel, the work of Christ is still going on in relation to those who have believed the gospel and now stand in relationship with God. Christ in glory is officially the Head, the Lord and the Priest; and these titles describe for us His present activities at the right hand of God as supporting and leading in safety through the wilderness those who have trusted him as Saviour. Hence His priesthood both Godward and manward has in view the supporting of the divine system He has brought into being as the result of His work upon the cross.