The Sixth Cry from the Cross

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

We are now ready to look at the sixth cry that the Lord made while He was on the cross. He had been through dark, tormented hours while He experienced all the torments of hell and then had cried out in thirst but by this time the sun was shining again and he cried out “It is finished”.

The word “finished” occurs 54 times in the Bible and it is instructive to look at some of  these occurrences and find out what the Bible means when something is finished.

The first time we see the word “finished” in the Bible is in Genesis 2: 1 where we read that the heavens and earth were finished and the Lord ended His work on the seventh day and He rested. This tells us that “finished” relates to the end of a work and the beginning of rest. The first time we read about something being blessed occurs after God made living creatures that move and He told them to be fruitful and multiply and the second time occurs after God made man in His own image and He gave them the same command. The third time God blesses is when He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a day of rest. There are many that tell us that man is the pinnacle of God’s creation but God made man to know rest because he set the seventh day apart of man’s benefit.

The last time that something finishes in the Old Testament is when the Lord prophesies in Zec 4: 9 that the hands of Zerubbabel who laid the foundation of the Temple would finish it. This give us another principle: if God calls someone to start something then God will bring that thing to completion. When God’s project has been brought to completion then we can be sure that the Lord has sent this person.

The last time that we read about something being finished is in Rev 20: 5 where the Lord tells us that the thousand years are going to be finished and then the dead will live again in the first resurrection. Anyone who has a part in that resurrection is blessed and holy.

The words “it is finished” only occur twice in the Bible, here and in James 1: 15 where we read that sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. But, after this the Lord reminds us that ever good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with who is no variableness or shadow of turning.

When we take these things together it is easy to see that the Bible always attaches finished to the concept of something that is complete and leads to rest. We also discover that God always finishes what He starts. He had a plan for all of creation but especially man, whom He created in His own image. Those who believe will experience the completion of His plan and they will be blessed and holy.

However, if we go back to Gen 1 we can discover that God saw that everything He had made was very good therefore we can say that, at that time, God saw that creation was perfect. This means that God is only satisfied when things are perfect.

If we read from John 1 we find out that the Word was God. This doesn’t mean that Word was God at some time in the past but is not God now, it just means that the Word was God before the world began and the Word remains God today. When the Lord Jesus Christ uttered those words; “it is finished”, He spoke as God and indicated that the work He had set out to do was now perfect and that He was satisfied and that He could now rest.

The next question we should consider is what was finished at that time?

In Psalm 22: 12 we read about the Lord’s experiences on the cross, looking forward.He quoted the first verse at the end of the long painful hours of darkness but we see that many bulls, bulls of Bashan had beset Him around and that they gaped upon Him with their mouths as ravening lions. This is descriptive of all the howling hordes of hell that were arrayed against our Lord as He hung and suffered on the cross. He truly experienced severe spiritual attack during His life and especially during the time of His ministry. On a daily basis, Satan attacked Him, either personally or by sending his devils. This moment was prophesied on the day that sin entered into the world, this was the day when the serpent’s head was bruised. All the ferocious attacks of the howling hoards of hell were now finished forever. Never again would Satan or his devils attack the Lord, for Satan is a defeated foe; this is why we can use the Name of the Lord to fight agains the devils who attack us.

In John 11: 47-53 we read that the chief priests and Pharisees held a council and they decided that the Lord Jesus Christ would have to die. Prior to that they had attacked Him at every possible opportunity making every effort to force Him to lose His credibility. At this time it was impossible for His enemies to hurt Him any more. These attacks were finished forever.

The last cry that that the Lord made before He made this cry reflected the fact that He thirsted and this cry reminds us that He will never thirst again. This fact moves us on to Rev 21: 4 where we read that there will be no more tears, death, sorrow, crying and pain. The Lord Jesus finished His experience of our pain and, as a direct consequence, our experience of the consequences of sin will be finished.

The Lord’s first cry concerned forgiveness of sin and this cry now delights in the fact that all the legal requirements for sin to be forgiven have been fully met. Righteousness and peace have now kissed each other (Psalm 85: 10). Isaiah 32: 17 tells us that the work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and assurance forever. The Lord proclaimed that Divine righteousness is now satisfied so all the effect of righteousness can now flow unhindered.

From the first day that sin entered into the world, the Lord promised that the Messiah would come. In fact, the entire Old Testament is the most hopeful book in the world because, while it promises consequences, it also promises the salvation of the remnant through the work of Eve’s greatest descendant. God told us that all the promises concerning the Messiah’s coming were now completely satisfied. There is nothing left to be fulfilled concerning the Suffering Servant.

The ceremonial Law that was established when Moses met the Lord on Mt Sinai is over. The shedding of the blood of bulls and goats (compare Heb 9 13, 10: 4) for the forgiveness of sins looked forward to the ultimate sacrifice of the shepherd (John 10: 11). Now there is no longer any need for the ceremonial Law.

There are some people who suggest that because the Lord Jesus Christ cried out “It is finished” before He died then He didn’t need to die. However, this is quite wrong. In Isa 46: 10 the Lord tells us that he declares the end from the beginning. This means that He knows everything that is going to happen before it ever happens. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that He was soon to die and Satan and his hosts could do nothing about that. The Lord said “it is finished” before He died because it would have been very hard for Him to say these words after He had died. They only make sense because He is God as well as being man at that time.

These words are the most comforting words for any Christian. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the righteous Judge (compare 2 Tim 4: 8 with 2 Tim 4: 1). If is was satisfied at that time then we can rejoice that He is satisfied now for He doesn’t ever change (Heb 13: 8). We will never have to be judged by our own works because He is satisfied with the work that He has done and He died in our place for our sins. There will never be a time when anyone will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8: 38, 39). There are only two religions in the world, one says “Do” and is based on self indulgence, the other says “Done” “finished” and is based on self denial.