This was not just a casual remark by the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross, or the Holy Spirit would not have recorded it in the Scriptures. It was loaded with meaning. It was not a moan of defeat, but a shout of victory. As Son of God, He was in complete control of all the events at His own crucifixion. His life was not taken from Him; He laid it down by His own authority (John 10:11,18). So, we see in John 19:30 that He purposefully bowed His head and gave up His spirit, immediately after crying "It is finished!"
What had He so deliberately and surely finished? The answer is found in what He prayed shortly before: "I have finished the work which You have given me to do" (John 17:4). That doesn't mean He had actually finished the work at that exact moment, but He was looking ahead to the crucifixion, when it actually would be finished. God viewed it as already finished because it was really as good as done, since nothing could thwart His sovereign plan. As it says in Hebrews 4:3, in this sense God's work was actually finished from the foundation of the world.
What was the work that the Father gave the Son to do? First, there were many good works with the purpose of showing the world that Jesus truly was the Son of God. He said in John 5:36 that the works bore witness of Him. And, in John 10:37, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." And, by showing the world that He was God, His work also proved the guiltiness of man in rejecting Him. "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin" (John 15:24).
But by far the most important work that Jesus finished was the work of redemption. Christ came specifically to do God's will (Hebrews 10:9), and John 6:40 says, "This is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life." This was the work that was specifically accomplished by the crucifixion, since it was His death for us sinners that makes this possible (Romans 5:6).
This task troubled Christ's soul, as seen in the garden of Gethsemane, and also in John 12:27: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." The reason for this dread was that in the crucifixion Christ would actually have to "bear our sins in His own body" (1 Peter 2:24). He who "knew no sin [was made] to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This shows us what a serious work this was for our Lord, and yet "for the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Thus He completely finished the work of our salvation.
The completely finished aspect of this work is a truly amazing and very important fact. His blood cleanses us from all sin; there is no part of that work left for us to do. This is in sharp contrast to the Old Testament offerings. Hebrews 10:2 points out that if those sacrifices could have cleansed us from sin, they would have only had to have been offered once. Instead, it goes on to say, in them there was actually a continual reminder of sin. But, of Christ, it says in verse 12, "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, He sat down at the right hand of God." And, in verse 14, "By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
To those who are trying to earn salvation by doing good works, that verse (Hebrews 10:14) should be taken as a severe warning, because by their actions they are rejecting the one and only true work that can save them, namely the offering of Christ. But to those of us who have been made sons of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that verse is a tremendous comfort. We freely admit that we still sin, although that tendency is counteracted by His sanctifying work in us. But we never have to worry about our standing before God, because, as that verse says, we are "perfected forever" by that one offering of Christ on the cross for us.
If Christ had not finished the work of salvation for us, we could not possibly have that kind of confident peace before God, because we would always have to wonder whether or not we would truly be faithful to the end, and human beings are not reliable. But when we receive Christ as the completely reliable "rock of our salvation" that He is, we can truly and surely say, "We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). The victory over sin and death has already been won by Jesus, as surely as He is Lord and has been resurrected and glorified by God. That's what "It is finished!" is all about.
Complete in Thee, no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, that place of Thine;
Thy blood has pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too shall be.
--From a hymn by Aaron Wolfe
This page copyright © 2001 Edward A. Morris. Created May 6, 2001. Last updated May 11, 2001.