It is finished

"It Is Finished!"

by David Scott

Twenty years ago I heard an interesting testimony about a woman God raised from the dead. Because she was a believer, she immediately found herself before the throne of God after she died. The LORD told her He intended to send her back with a message for those who were serving Him in the ministry. His message was brief and to the point -- "You've neglected to emphasize the importance of the blood My Son shed upon the cross. I want you to preach and teach more about His blood."

When I heard this message, I was strongly impressed to study every Bible reference about Jesus' blood and the cross. What I read gave me a powerful revelation about the last words Jesus spoke before He died for our sins upon the cross. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He was referring to everything necessary to restore us into right relationship with the Father.

Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that His blood would establish a new covenant (Mt. 26:28). The writer of Hebrews stated this covenant is everlasting (13:20). In Rom. 3:25, Paul wrote that when we put our faith in Jesus' blood, it provides a propitiation for our sins. In other words, His blood appeased the wrath of God against our sins. Thus, when Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant that the old covenant had come to an end. The blood of animal sacrifices was no longer needed because His blood appeased God's wrath.

There are several scriptures which explain how Jesus' blood also provided for our redemption (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Acts 20:28; Rev. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:18&19). When something is redeemed, it means that it is bought back by the original owner. Adam sold us into sin (Rom. 7:14), but Jesus bought us back with His blood. The reason we call Jesus our Lord is because the word, "Lord," means "Owner." When we place our faith in His blood, not only is God's wrath appeased, but He also becomes our Owner (Lord). Thus, when Jesus said, "It is finished," He revealed that the only purchase price necessary for our redemption was His blood.

Two of the above verses also explain that our forgiveness was made possible by His blood (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). God's grace and mercy was extended to us because our faith in Jesus' blood enabled Him to forgive us. When the Father forgave us, He also justified us by His blood (Rom. 5:9) in that same instant. Thus, when Jesus exclaimed, "It is finished," He also indicated nothing else was needed for us to be justified and forgiven.

According to Col. 1:20, the blood of Jesus also reconciled us to the Father. Reconciliation is a word that refers to the restoration of friendship between two parties who had formerly been enemies. When we lived in sin, we were enemies of God (James 4:4), but when we put our faith in Jesus' blood, we became His friends again. Thus, when Jesus said, "It is finished," He stated that nothing else was needed to restore our fellowship with the Father.

1 John 1:7 further states that as we have fellowship with the Father and His Son, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin. This reveals that being cleansed from sin is a continuous process. The word used to describe this process is "sanctification." The suffix, "fication," means that the root word involves a process. The root word, "sancti," means "holy," so sanctification means "the process of making holy." References to our sanctification by the blood of Jesus are found in Heb. 13:12; 9:14; 10:22; 12:22-24; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:5; 7:14. So when Jesus shouted, "It is finished," He was also referring to our cleansing from sin.

The first reference cited above states that we will be cleansed from "all" sin once this process is complete. Jesus isn't sanctifying us from "some" or "most" sin, but "all" sin. Neither is He saving us "in" sin, but "from" sin (Mt. 1:21). Mt. 26:28 and Heb. 9:22 further state that His blood enables us to experience the remission of sin. The word, "remission," means more than what many think. It can also be translated as "deactivated." When something is deactivated, it ceases to exist. When the process of our sanctification by the blood of Jesus is complete, sin will cease to exist in our lives. Thus, when Jesus proclaimed, "It is finished," He was saying that His blood provided for the washing away of all of our sins.

Jesus said in John 6:54-56 that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life. Although this is not done literally, it is done spiritually by everyone who has been born again. It is done by faith every time we celebrate communion (1 Cor. 10:16). Because Jesus bore our sicknesses as well as our sins, physical healing can occur when believers partake of the Lord's supper in remembrance of Him. I personally know two people, who were healed during a communion ceremony. So when Jesus said, "It is finished," He was referring to all that was necessary for our physical healing and the impartation of His divine life.

Heb. 10:19 and Eph. 2:13 tell how we can have access to God's presence in the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. Under the old covenant, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies; the common people could not. The high priest could only approach His presence in the Holy of Holies once per year. He couldn't do it whenever he wanted to; the precise time and date was commanded by the law. At the same moment Jesus exclaimed, "It is finished," the veil to the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn from top to bottom. If anything more than the shedding of Jesus' blood was necessary to provide access to the presence of God, the veil would have been rent later instead of then.

It was for this same reason that Jesus was able to promise the repentant thief, who was crucified with Him, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." To properly understand what Jesus meant by this promise, it's necessary to understand the Hebrew word "sheol" (equivalent to the Greek word "hades"). These words both mean "the abode of the dead." Under the old covenant, both the righteous and the wicked dead went to sheol/hades. Jesus gave us a clear explanation of this in Luke 16. Sheol/hades had two parts - one for the righteous dead and the other for the wicked dead, with a gulf between them. Jesus met the repentant thief after they both died on the side of sheol/hades where the righteous were. Just as Abraham was able to speak to the rich man across the gulf in Luke 16, Jesus heralded the gospel across that gulf according to 1 Pet. 3:19.

The main reason I emphasized everything written above in the way I did is because there are some preachers, who are teaching doctrines which deny these truths. They claim to have a revelation which required Jesus to suffer at the hands of Satan on the side of sheol/hades where the wicked dead were. However, they have forgotten that Jesus committed His spirit to the Father just before He died, not to Satan (Lk. 23:46).

They also had to retranslate Jesus' promise to the thief by moving the location of the comma. They changed what Jesus said from "Verily, verily I say to thee, 'Today you shall be with Me in paradise'" to read, "Verily, verily I say to thee today, 'You shall be with me in paradise.'" However, for such a retranslation to be accurate, it would be necessary to change every quote Jesus made in the same way that was prefaced with, "Verily, verily...". If you look up every verse where Jesus began, "Verily, verily I say unto you...," and move the comma beyond the next word, you will retranslate these statements into nonsense. It should also be noted that the Jehovah's Witnesses retranslate this verse in the same way in order to prove one of their cultic doctrines. The same spirit of error at work among the Jehovah's Witnesses is responsible for this insidious doctrine infiltrating the body of Christ today.

The blood of Jesus Christ was enough for everything we need for salvation. Nothing needed to be added to it. Those who have added to it have actually taken away from it. It was finished at the cross, not in hell. Satan never became Jesus' father on the cross or in hell. Jesus was not only the Son of man, but also the Son of God; He never ceased to be the Son of God. Jesus was also God in the flesh (John 1:1); after He died on the cross, He did not cease to be God for three days in hell either. Deity cannot die.

Jesus Christ was triumphant from the cross to the throne (Col. 2:15). It was finished at the cross. His blood is enough for everything we need. Don't be deceived by anyone who says otherwise.

If you have never experienced the saving grace of God, you can do so now by believing what the blood of Jesus Christ has done for you. If you aren't sure how to pray, I suggest the following:

"God, I come to You acknowledging that I'm a sinner. I desire Your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son, and that He shed His blood for me. I believe He shed His blood not only for my forgiveness, but also that I can be redeemed and cleansed from sin. I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior right now. I invite You to live in my heart by Your Spirit. Please forgive me and sanctify me by Jesus' blood. Thank you for Your love and saving grace. Thank you for making me a member of Your family through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."