We call him Saviour part 8 It is finished
We call him Savior
The sixth cry from the cross.
Lesson 8
John 19: 30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
In this lesson we look at the sixth cry from the cross, "It is finished." but to get to "finished." We have to go back to the beginning.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ([KJV])
Let's notice what it says here, that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. It doesn't say he made them. It doesn't say that he xeroxed (copied....oh you will love this one, took your pastor a while to figure that one out. I had a brain cramp...my brain wanted to pronounce the X as ex not Z) nor does it say he built or developed them. He didn't mass produce the heaven and earth, but it says that he created.
That one word says a lot. Creating something is far different than constructing something. Constructing something engages taking the hands to form an idea. For example a carpenter takes wood and other material and with his hands he can construct a book case, table, house and many more things.
Creating somethings is much deeper than that. True creation is taking nothing, and bringing forth something. God put his heart and soul into the creation of the heavens and earth, into the animals and mankind. He started with nothing, there were no blobs of mist and floating rocks in the universe when God created the heaven and earth.
You and I can get an idea of creating by inspiration, poets, songwriters and artist have a form of creation but not like God's. With stokes of a paint brush painters can bring a picture to canvas. Poets can take experiences in life and put them to line and rhythms. Songwriters can take words and put them to music. With all these things though we start out with something.
God to void which means, containing nothing and brought forth the heaven and earth.
God had a great time in his creation, we see that when something was made, he said "and it was good." can you imagine the joy he had painting the stripes on the zebra, putting the giggle in the hyena or stretching the neck of the giraffe.
Then he created man. Why? To have fellowship with him. What joy, What a finale to a brilliant performance, to make man. To take a clump of useless dirt and end up with an invaluable species called a human. A human that had the unique honor of bear the stamp of "in his image."
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ([KJV])
At this point in the story, one would be tempted to jump and clap. Encore! Bravo! Beautiful! But the applause would be premature. The Divine Artist has yet to unveil his greatest creation.
As the story unfolds a devil of a snake feeds man a line and a piece of fruit. Gullible Adam swallows it hook line and sinker.
This one act of rebellion set in motion a dramatic wedge between man and God that breaks the fellowship. Though the characters and scene change, the scenario repeats itself endlessly. God still the compassionate Creator, woos his creation. Man, the creation, alternately reaches out in repentance and runs in rebellion.
If you think the creativity that God used to create the sea and stars was something, wait till you read what he does to get his creation to listen to him.
A ninety year old woman get pregnant (Sarah)
A woman turns to salt (Lot's wife)
A flood blankets the earth ( Noah and the Ark)
A bush burns / but is not burned up/ (Moses on the Mount)
The Red sea is divided (Moses' exodus from Egypt)
The walls of Jericho fall (Joshua has the trumpets to blow after marching)
They sky rains fire (Elijah)
A donkey speaks(a warning to Balaam)
What some special effects ! But these acts, as great as they were still could not compare to what was to come.
Nearing the climax of the story, God motivated by love and directed by divinity, surprised everyone. God became flesh, he through his Son Jesus came to this world. Determined to prove his love for his creation sent his son to live in a dusty Judaean village as a carpenter and walk through his own world. His calloused hands touched wounds and his words touched hearts. He became one of us.
Have you ever seen such determination? Have you ever witnessed such a desire? God spoke in various ways in the past. But in these days he spoke to us with his best.
Hebrews 1:1-2 1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; ([KJV])
As beautiful as this act of incarnation was, it was not the zenith. Like a master painter God reserved his masterpiece until the end. All earlier acts of love had been leading to this one. The angels hushed and then the finale. God unveils the canvas and the ultimate act of compassion is revealed.
Jesus on the Cross.
The Creator being sacrificed for the creation. The reconciliation. The Grace, the free gift was given. Fellowship restored. As Jesus cries out "it is finished."
A cry of triumph and exultation.
What he said, and we may suppose him to say it with triumph and exultation, -It is finished, a comprehensive word, and a comfortable one.
It is finished, that is, the malice and enmity of his persecutors had now done their worst; when he had received that last indignity in the vinegar they gave him, he said, "This is the last; I am now going out of their reach, where the wicked cease from troubling."
It is finished, that is, the counsel and commandment of his Father concerning his sufferings were now fulfilled; it was a determinate counsel, and he took care to see every iota and tittle of it exactly answered, Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: ([KJV]). He had said, when he entered upon his sufferings, Father, thy will be done; and now he saith with pleasure, It is done. It was his meat and drink to finish his work (John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. ([KJV])), and the meat and drink refreshed him, when they gave him gall and vinegar.
It is finished, that is, all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, which pointed at the sufferings of the Messiah, were accomplished and answered. He speaks as if, now that they had given him the vinegar, he could not bethink himself of any word in the Old Testament that was to be fulfilled between him and his death but it had its accomplishment; such as, his being sold for thirty pieces of silver, his hands and feet being pierced, his garments divided, &c.; and now that this is done. It is finished.
It is finished, that is, the ceremonial law is abolished, and a period put to the obligation of it. The substance is now come, and all the shadows are done away. Just now the veil is rent, the wall of partition is taken down, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances,Ephesians 2:14-15 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;([KJV]). The Mosaic economy is dissolved, to make way for a better hope.
It is finished, that is, sin is finished, and an end made of transgression, by the bringing in of an everlasting righteousness. It seems to refer to Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. ([KJV])
The Lamb of God was sacrificed to take away the sin of the world, and it is done, Hebrews 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ([KJV])
(6.) It is finished, that is, his sufferings were now finished, both those of his soul and those of his body. The storm is over, the worst is past; all his pains and agonies are at an end, and he is just going to paradise, entering upon the joy set before him. Let all that suffer for Christ, and with Christ, comfort themselves with this, that yet a little while and they also shall say, It is finished.
It is finished, that is, his life was now finished, he was just ready to breathe his last, and now he is no more in this world, John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. ([KJV]).
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This is like that of blessed Paul, I have finished my course, my race is run, my glass is out, mene, mene-numbered and finished. This we must all come to shortly.
II Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: ([KJV])
It is finished, that is, the work of man's redemption and salvation is now completed, at least the hardest part of the undertaking is over; a full satisfaction is made to the justice of God, a fatal blow given to the power of Satan, a fountain of grace opened that shall ever flow, a foundation of peace and happiness laid that shall never fail. Christ had now gone through with his work, and finished it, John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.([KJV]). For, as for God, his work is perfect; when I begin, saith he, I will also make an end. And, as in the purchase, so in the application of the redemption, he that has begun a good work will perform it; the mystery of God shall be finished.