The Death of Jesus

28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.

30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 

IT IS FINISHED

 

What was?

 

His earthly life – v. 30 With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit

 

But far, far more than that!  It was the end of much, much more.

 

The old covenant that God had made with his people, the Jews

 

Hebrews 8:7-13

7 … if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

8 But God found fault with the people and said (in Jeremiah 31:31-34): “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

11 No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete…

 

The OT is a revelation of the old covenant that God made with his people, but the OT itself promised that the day would come when God would make a new and better covenant with them.

 

We are not living under the old covenant that God made with the Jewish people, but under the new covenant which is sealed with the blood of Jesus.

 

When Jesus died on the cross he declared, IT IS FINISHED (John 19:30). The word ‘finished’ here means ‘accomplished’ or ‘completed’.

 

Jesus had completed the work his Father had given him to do. His death on the cross provided atonement for our sins and was the fulfilment of all OT law. His finished work on the cross is the basis for the new covenant which extends beyond the Jews to the Gentiles as well…

 

The barrier between Jew and Gentile

 

Ephesians 2:14

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility

 

The barrier between God and man

 

Matthew 27 :51

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom

 

The written code that was against us

 

Colossians 2 :13-14

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

 

The tyranny of the principalities and powers

 

Colossians 2 :15

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

 

The power and fear of death

 

Hebrews 2 :14-15

…he too shared in (our) humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

 

 

‘Tis finished! The Messiah dies, cut off for sins, but not his own.

Accomplished is the sacrifice, the great redeeming work is done.

 

‘Tis finished! All the debt is paid. Justice divine is satisfied,

The grand and full atonement made. God for a guilty world has died.

 

The veil is rent in Christ alone. The living way the heaven is seen.

The middle wall is broken down and all mankind may enter in.

 

The types and figures are fulfilled. Exacted is the legal pain.

The precious promises are sealed. The spotless Lamb of God is slain.

 

The reign of sin and death is o’er, and all may live from sin set free.

Satan has lost his mortal power. ‘Tis swallowed up in victory!

 

Saved from the legal curse I am. My Saviour hangs on yonder tree.

See there the meek expiring Lamb. ‘Tis finished, he expires for me.

 

Accepted in the well-beloved and clothed in righteousness divine,

I see the bar to heaven removed, and all thy merits, Lord, are mine.

 

Death, hell, and sin are now subdued; all grace is now to sinners given.

And lo, I plead the atoning blood, and in thy right I claim thy heaven.

 

Charles Wesley