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JonC said:
But I do not understand "it is finished" to be "the debt is discharged." Rather, I think this was that Christ's obedience in becoming flesh to reconcile humanity to God was completed. We are reconciled through his death, and will be saved in his life.
The word
teleo, translated ‘finished’ in John 19:30, appears quite a few times in the New Testament and has some very interesting meanings :-
Matt 11:1, A.V.
‘…..When Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples…..’
Matt 17:24.
“Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”
Luke 2:39.
‘So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord…..’
Luke 18:31.
‘…..And all the things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.’
So what was
made an end of at the cross? Our sins, the guilt of them and their very memory in the mind of
God (Jer 31:34).
What was
paid? The price of our redemption (2).
‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us’ (Gal 3:13).
What was
performed? All the righteous requirements of the law.
What was
accomplished? All the work that the Father had given Christ to do (John 17:4).
There are seven things that we may see finished, fulfilled or accomplished on the cross.
1. On the cross we may see the fulfilment of all the prophesies which had been written of the Messiah in the Old Testament. He was
‘Despised and rejected of men’(Isaiah 53:3); ‘Hated without a cause’ (Psalm 69:4; ‘Led as a lamb to the slaughter’ (Isaiah 53:7); His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:16); He was forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1); He was ‘numbered with the transgressors’ (Isaiah 53:12); His clothes were distributed by lot (Psalm 22:18); He was mocked by passers-by (Psalm 109:25), taunted because God did not deliver Him (Psalm 22:7) and, finally, given vinegar to drink (John 19:28; Psalm 69:21). Indeed, there remained a few prophesies concerning Him that could only be fulfilled after His death, such as the piercing of His side (Zech 12:10), His bones not being broken (Psalm 34:20) and His being placed in a rich man’s grave (Isaiah 53:9), but all that needed to be done before His death had now been done and so,
‘When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit (v30). Note that it was He who gave up His spirit; no one can kill God.
“Therefore My father loves Me, because I lay down My life that In may take it up again. No one takes it from Me but I lay it down of Myself” (John 10:17-18). Having fulfilled all the prophesies, He dismissed His Spirit.
2. On the cross we see the completion of all His sufferings. We are told that all His life our Saviour was
‘A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,’ He declared,
“I am afflicted and ready to die from My youth up” (Psalm 88:15). From His earliest days, the shadow of the cross hung over Him. In His conversation with Nicodemus He spoke that,
“the Son of Man must be lifted up” (John 3:14) and again, ‘
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die’ (John 12:32-33). When Peter confessed that He was indeed the Christ,
‘From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things’ (Matt 16:21). On the mount of transfiguration, He was speaking with Moses and Elijah,
‘Of His decease which He was about to accomplish (Gk.
teleo)
at Jerusalem’ (Luke 9:31). The cross was always before Him, and though He naturally shrank from it as a Man, yet He pressed steadily on towards it (Luke 9:51; John 18:11).
“Shall I not drink the cup which My father has given Me?” And drink it He did, right down to the dregs. His physical sufferings must have been immense, but they were as nothing compared to the spiritual and mental tortures that God laid upon Him. All the sins of His people, all our wickedness and vileness, were laid upon His sinless shoulders (2Cor 5:21); He became the very epitome of sin. And the Father turned away. The Lord Jesus had said,
“Yet I am not alone, because the Father is always with Me’ (John 16:32). But on the cross the Father, who cannot look upon wickedness (Hab 1:13) had turned away from Him, and the sun had darkened and the weight of sin upon Him became intolerable, and He cried out,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
‘We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.’
But now, the hours of darkness have passed, atonement has been made.
“It is finished!” His sufferings are completed.
3. On the cross we see the purpose of His coming attained. Before the Lord Jesus came to earth- indeed, before the very foundation of the world- He had been given a task by the Father.
“Behold I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O My God” (Psalm 40:8). As a boy of twelve He told His earthly parents,
“Don’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business?” At the start of His ministry on earth, He declared,
“The works My Father has given Me to finish, these I do” (John 5:36). Under the shadow of the cross He told His Father,
“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). There on the cross, the divinely-given task was achieved. The Father’s will was done.
‘Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief’ (Isaiah 53:10). The Pharisees, the priests, Pilate, Herod, the Roman soldiers, they all performed their wicked parts in the death of our Lord; yet they only did what God’s own counsel had decreed before ever time was (Acts 4:28). The Lord Jesus performed what the Father had ordained, and there on the cross, it was completed.
4. On the Cross we can see the accomplishment of the Atonement.
‘For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost’ (Matt 18:11). The Lord Jesus came, above all other things, to save. We owe a debt that we cannot possibly pay- a debt of righteousness which we do not possess. We need a Mediator to come between us and an offended God; we need a city of refuge to which we can run; we need an ark to shelter us from the waves of God’s righteous anger against sin; an advocate to plead our cause before God and to satisfy His outraged justice; we need a robe of perfect righteousness to cover all our sins, a surety to pay our debts on our behalf. The Lord Jesus is all these things for us. He has come between us and God’s justice. He is our refuge, our Surety who has paid the last farthing of what we owe.
Tetelestai. ‘It has been paid.’ He is our covering for sin and He is our great High Priest who has offered the one perfect sacrifice for sin, acceptable to God. It is finished.
[To be continued]
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