It Is Finished: His Atoning Death

It Is Finished: His Atoning Death

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

John 19:30

As we continue our consideration of the broadest implications of Christ’s words, ‘It is finished.’ Let us dwell, please, upon those words in relation to what theologians call His ‘passive obedience,’ that is, His atoning death on the cross. As Christ hung, naked, bloodied, thirsting, and forsaken upon that most cruel instrument of torturous death, He could look back upon all that He had suffered and declare, in triumph, ‘It is finished!’ He had endured all the insults and calumny against His Holy Character. He had silently borne the shame and spitting. ‘As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.’ It is one thing when a man suffers for his faults and bears it patiently, but ‘this man had done nothing amiss.’ Cruel and hard men had done unspeakable things to Him. The Noblest of Character had endured the most despicable of treatment. Finally, for hour after hour, He had hung in public view, a spectacle for passersby. All of this He endured to make ‘His soul an offering for sin. ‘He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ Christ could look back upon this obedience which He had successfully rendered and say with utter satisfaction, ‘It is finished!’

‘Dear Dying Lamb,
Your Precious Blood shall never lose its power.’
You have purchased our redemption, and made Your Soul an offering for sin,
so that, ‘all the ransomed church of God, shall be saved to sin no more.’

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning