John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!'' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Many people take this one statement of Jesus without understanding the mission of Christ and build all kinds of false doctrines.
If we truly take some time and study the prophetic work of Christ here on earth we will soon begin to understand why He made the statement, "It is finished".
All throughout the OT we find prophecies of Jesus' coming and all that He would have to suffer and accomplish. We find times in Jesus' earthly ministry where He would comment on the fact that what He was doing at that moment was a fulfillment of prophecy.
Luke 4:17-21 And Jesus was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'' Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.''
Jesus had a work to do for the Father which entailed fulfilling all the OT prophecies. This very special mission that Jesus was commissioned to do was not to be foiled by any means. We find at the moment Jesus was to be taken by the mob Peter responded by cutting the ear off of one of the men in the mob. Jesus responded by healing the man's ear. Some people take this to mean that we are not allowed to defend ourselves but a closer reading of the context and understanding Jesus' mission for His Father we will soon see He was not teaching us that self-defense is wrong. Lets take a closer look at the context and we will see that Jesus did not want Peter to stop what needed to take place in order that prophetic scripture may be fulfilled, which was Jesus going to the cross.
Matthew 26:49-54 Then immediately he went up to Jesus and said, "Greetings, Rabbi!'' and kissed Him. And Jesus said to him, "Friend, why have you come?'' Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him. And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. "Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? "How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?''
Did you notice the reason for Jesus stopping Peter? It wasn't because self-defense is wrong, but rather, those who live by the sword will perish by the sword. Jesus' prophetic mission was to die on the cross, not by a sword. Jesus Himself said that if He wanted to escape these men and foil this prophetic mission all He had to do was call to His Father and He would send twelve legions of angels to rescue Him but then, notice what He says, how would scripture be fulfilled.
This missions of Jesus had a time line in which Jesus knew. We know this by the way Jesus responded to many of the attempts on His life. He would say things like, "It is not yet my time". This indicates that Jesus was on a prophetic schedule.
I say all this to bring us to the statement, "It is finished". To understand this statement we first must understand the mission and time line Jesus had.
The statement, "It is finished" does not mean we never have to worry about sin any longer because Jesus died for our sins. This is where the false teaching of, once saved always saved, comes from. This statement that Jesus made was in response to Him fulfilling His last prophetic requirement here on earth, which was to be numbered with the transgressors according to the scriptures.
Mark 15:26-28 And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS. With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors.''
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!'' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Psalms 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
We know what the NT continues to teach us about sin and how what Jesus did on the cross and His statement, "It is finished" does not mean we are carefree regarding sin. The wages of sin is still death for the non believer, as well as, the believer.
We know that what Jesus did on the cross made it possible for our sins to be covered if we bring them to the cross. We also know form scripture that if we don't forgive others, as God through Christ forgave us, neither will the Father forgive us.
Matthew 6:15 "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
This is referring to future sins.
Jesus had a mission here on earth in which He was commissioned by His Father to do. That mission was to represent the true character of the Father to a lost and dying world. To live a sinless life so that He could be that acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world.
To become that acceptable sacrifice was between Him and His Father. Jesus had to personally keep Himself from sin in order for Him to be the Lamb without spot. This was an awesome task for Him to achieve. All the forces of darkness was against Jesus' whole earthy mission for the Father from birth to death from the beginning to the end.
Jesus knew He had to become and did become the sacrificial Lamb without spot that was slain from before the foundation of the world according to His Father's prophetic plan. Knowing this, Jesus could say at the moment of His death on the cross, "It is finished" and give up His life...AMEN
