IT IS FINISHED; BUT WHAT AND WHEN?

Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama)

March 26, 2016

John 19:28-30 says: After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Moments before he died Jesus said it is finished. The word means completed, ended, done, perfected, concluded, executed, discharged, filled up, and performed. But what was finished or completed in the moment he died? In verse 28 before he said, it is finished, he said, all things were now accomplished. What were the things that were accomplished and finished and concluded in the moment he died? In John 4:34: Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

God gave Jesus a job to do and it was finished and concluded when he died on the cross. The death of Christ on the cross finished and completed and accomplished the work his father sent him to do. His death on the cross finished the work he came into the world to do and the work he did was the will of his father. But what was it? The answer is in Hebrews 10:4-10 which says: For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This is the work Christ’s father sent him to do in John 4:34. Jesus came to do the will of his father. He said it twice in these verses. And the will of his father which is found in verse 9 was for him to take away the first covenant law and establish a new covenant of grace in its place. Jesus did the will of his father and finished the work his father sent him to do when he died on the cross. By his death on the cross he abolished the law and at the same time established a new covenant of grace and mercy in its place.

When he said it is finished, he meant he had concluded the work his father sent him to do. He accomplished the will of his father; to take away the old covenant law and establish a new covenant of grace in its place that is far better than the old. One of the main reasons his father’s will was for him to take away the old covenant law is because the sacrifices of the old covenant law did not satisfy him or give him pleasure. He said it twice for emphasis in Hebrews 10:6 and Hebrews 10:8. They did not satisfy him or give him pleasure because they could not take away sin forever or make believers perfect. Hebrews 10:1-4 says: For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

These verses explain why God the Father sent Christ into the world to abolish the old covenant law and to establish a new covenant of grace. By his death, he provided a once for all sacrifice that takes away sin and makes believers perfect.

----A Summary of Hebrews 10:11-18----

Hebrews 10:11: And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. The reason the old covenant priests always stood is because there were no chairs for them to sit down. Why? Because their work was never done. Their work was never finished. Why? Because their sacrifices could not take away sin forever. They provided a temporary covering, but not a removing of sin. So, they were required to stand all day, week after week, month after month and year after year offering imperfect, unsatisfactory sacrifices for sin that gave God no pleasure.

Hebrews 10:12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. Jesus offered one sacrifice and sat down. Why? His job was FINISHED. Why? Because by his one sacrifice all sins are forgiven, blotted out, remitted and removed forever. And his sacrifice gave God pleasure; not in the sense of seeing his Son suffer, but because his sacrifice removed the sins of believers out of his sight. Isaiah 53:10-11 says: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. According to these verses, the sacrificial death of Christ pleased the Lord and gave him pleasure and satisfied him. Why? Because by his death on the cross he justifies sinners and when they are justified their rotten stinking sins are removed from his sight. And how do we know this is true? Because Romans 4:7-8 says: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Hebrews 10:13-14: From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. This is another reason it was the will of God for Christ to take away the old covenant and establish a new covenant by his death. The atonement he made for sin makes the believer perfect once he believes it. The old covenant could never make a believer perfect. See Hebrews 10:1.

Hebrews 10:15-16: Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. The Holy Ghost said through Jeremiah the prophet that God would make a new covenant that would take the place of the old covenant. After the days this promise was made, the time came for that covenant to be established. The time came when Christ died, for that is when the new covenant promised by the Spirit in Jeremiah 31:31 was established. Paul refers to those days and that time in Galatians 4:4-5: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (The time came after the 69 weeks of Daniel 9:25-27)

Hebrews 10:17-18: And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Under the new covenant, God does not remember the sins of the saints once he forgives them. This is one of many reasons why salvation is secure under the new covenant. Under the old covenant there was always a remembrance of sins, because the sacrifices could not take away sin forever. See Hebrews 10:3-4

----There is no more offering for sin.----

Under the old covenant, offerings for sins were made continually, but under the new covenant there is no more offering for sin. The one sacrifice of Christ made the Levitical priesthood obsolete. By his one offering for sin all sins are forgiven and all believers made perfect in Christ Jesus.

These verses in Hebrews 10 explain what Jesus meant when he said, it is finished in John 19:30. He finished the work his father sent him to do. The work was concluded on the cross. It was the work and will of his father for him to take away the first covenant and establish a second new covenant in its place. He said in Hebrews 10:9; Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

The old covenant gave the father no pleasure or satisfaction because the offerings for sin could not take away sin forever or make a believer perfect. But, the one offering of the new covenant pleased and delighted and satisfied his father for by the one offering of Jesus Christ all sins can be forgiven forever and saints perfected.

Even though the new covenant was originally made with Israel, gentile believers partake of it today for there is no forgiveness or perfection outside of the new covenant sacrifice of Christ. This is why God counts us gentiles the seed of Abraham and heirs to the promises he made to his seed in Galatians 3:29. The greatest promise he made to his seed was the promise of a new covenant.

This is why God made us gentiles nigh to the covenants of promise we were afar off from in Ephesians 2:12-13. And the covenant with the best promises was the new covenant.

This is why God made us gentiles partakers of Israel’s spiritual promises in Romans 15:27. And the greatest promise he made to them was the promise of a new covenant. The greatest promise in the new covenant is the once for all sacrifice of Christ that not only forgives all sins and sinners forever, but perfects all those that believe.

-----Additional Notes-----

When Jesus said it is finished and then died, the following were also finished, completed and concluded.

*All of the prophecies of the prophets concerning the sufferings and death of Christ were then finished and accomplished and fulfilled such as Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22 and Genesis 3:15.

*All of the just demands God had against our sins were accomplished and finished when he closed his eyes in death.

*The breaking down of the middle wall of partition between Jew and gentile was finished and accomplished when he died.

*The bringing in of a New Covenant gospel of grace was finished when he died.

*Reconciliation for all sins and sinners was finished and completed.

*A full ransom for sins and sinners was finished.

*His tasting death for every man was finished.

*Pardon for all sins and sinners was finished and accomplished.

*Peace between God and man was finished and accomplished.

*The destruction of Satan’s power over believers was finished and accomplished.

*Eternal redemption for sinners was finished and accomplished.

*Propitiation for the sins of the whole world was finished.

*Intercession for all transgressors was finished.

*Peace and reconciliation between Jew and Gentile was finished and accomplished.

*Salvation minus works was accomplished and finished.

*Salvation by grace was accomplished and finished.

*Eternal security was accomplished and finished.

*Sabbath days, feast days and holy day observances were concluded and finished.

*The Levitical priesthood was abolished and finished.

*The dietary laws were abolished and concluded.

*Animal sacrifices for sin were finished and abolished.

These blessings show us the full scope of Christ’s words when he said; It is finished.

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