It is Finished
Remsen Bible Fellowship, 04/17/2025, Good Friday
Why is Good Friday called “good”? How could the day of the history’s greatest crime—the unjust execution of the only innocent man to ever live—be a “good” day? The answer is found in three simple words which Jesus uttered from the cross: “It is finished.” We find those words in the nineteenth chapter of the gospel according to John.
In John 19:28-30 we read,
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of the sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
I want to meditate for a few minutes this evening on those words in verse 30—“It is finished.” To what, exactly, was Jesus referring?
Public Ministry
We can see, first of all, a reference to his earthly ministry. Jesus’ outward, crowd-facing, ministry was completed at the cross. Though Paul mentions Jesus appearing to over 500 people at one time after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15), this seems to primarily be as evidence of his victorious resurrection from the dead, not a continuation of the teaching and healing ministry which he had initiated some three years earlier.
Even before the cross, Jesus’ focus had shifted from the crowds and onto his immediate followers. John 17:9, “I am praying for them [his disciples]. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” Just before this, in John 17:6-8, we read: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”
Jesus had come to make the Father known, both through his actions and his words. Though no one had ever seen God the Father, Jesus made him known—one of the great themes of John’s gospel (John 1:18). He did this, to be sure, through his powerful actions, but those actions were generally meant to illustrate and validate the authority of his words. Thus we read in John 5:19-20,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.”
At the point Jesus spoke those words in John 5, he had turned water into wine, healed a man’s sick son, restored a man’s ability to walk after he had been lame for 38 years. And Jesus would multiply signs of power over the physical realm: feeding the five thousand, walking on water, healing a man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. John tells us that these are but a small part of a list so long that, were it all written down, the whole world could not contain the books (John 21:25). But all of these mighty works, all of this powerful, authoritative, and God-revealing teaching, were but the tip of the iceberg. There was greater power to show, greater love to demonstrate, more of God’s character to be revealed.
Jesus’ public ministry was completed before the cross. His public teaching, which had led to this moment, was finished before he hung there. His public miracles of healing and provision, these, too, were completed before the cross. Something else was completed—finished—as he hung there on that tree.
Lifted and Planted
In John chapter three, Jesus makes a cryptic-seeming statement to Nicodemus. In a reference to Numbers 21, Jesus reminds Nicodemus of the time that God sent fiery serpents into the midst of the people of Israel. He judged them for their complaining spirit when they grumbled against God and his servant, Moses. After many of the people died, and those who lived began to repent, God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent, and that all who looked upon that serpent—lifted up—would live. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Son of Man would be lifted up in the same way. Lifted up on a pole, a staff: a tree. As the serpent, the source of death, was lifted high, so sin would be lifted high as the Son of Man was raised on a cross.
Jesus uses another metaphor when speaking to Andrew and Peter in chapter 12. After telling them it was his time to be glorified, Jesus said in John 12:24, “Truly truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Does a kernel of wheat, or a grain of corn, sitting in a silo or a seed bag do anything? No. But if you put that seed in the ground and it dies—it ceases to be a seed and is utterly transformed—it produces much fruit.
What connection does the lifted serpent have with a planted seed? And in what way is either image glorious? In the image of the serpent lifted up, what we see is the source of death lifted up so that all who looked upon it would be saved. And in the analogy of the grain of wheat we find a life buried in death: hidden from sight, that it might produce abundant life. This is a strange kind of glory. Death lifted high, life buried in the ground.
And as perplexing as it is to us, it was that troubling to Jesus. So we read in John 12:27, “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” What Jesus was about to endure was apparently so troubling that he considered asking for it to be removed. In fact, Luke records Jesus doing just that. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)
But the Father’s will, and ultimately that of Jesus himself, was to follow through with their eternal plan. Indeed, as we read, for this purpose Jesus had come to the hour of his betrayal and crucifixion. He came to be lifted up and then planted, to be crucified and buried, that the Father might display his glory. So we read in John 12:28, “Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
The crowd didn’t recognize the voice of God, but I imagine it must have been reassuring to Jesus in that moment to have God’s voice audibly confirm the truth of everything he said.
How was God glorified in the death of Christ? A key component, one we can’t overlook, is the glory God receives when sin is judged. And there, on the cross, Jesus cries out “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The Son forsaken by the Father as the Son was made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) and judged. In a very real sense, the cross became the full expression of hell.
But why would Jesus be the one who bore this wrath of God, his judgment against sin? Shouldn’t God give that punishment to us, the creatures who deserve it? Here we find help from the words of Jesus in John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” God is love (1 John 4:8). And that love comes to full display when Jesus lays down his life for his friends.
We each are under a death sentence for our sins, but if we will become Jesus’ friends, if we will trust in him for the forgiveness of our sins, the pardon of our guilt, and embrace him as our only access to eternal life with the Father, then that death on Good Friday transforms from being the worst tragedy in human history to being the greatest gift ever given. The glory of Jesus, and thus the glory of his Father, is on full display at the cross because there is no clearer picture of God’s love for you. And when Jesus had paid the full price, fulfilled the prophecies, absorbed the wrath of God against human guilt, he had three simple words: “it is finished.” And with that, he gave up his spirit.
As we’ve noted a couple of times in recent weeks, it’s important that Jesus “gave up” his spirit. He said in John 10:17-18, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Jesus voluntarily laid down his life for his sheep. Are you one of his sheep? Have you listened to his voice calling you to accept the gift of his death in the place of your sin? Will you give up on loving sin and calling your own shots - a path that Jesus calls darkness, and that leads to eternal separation from God? Hear the words of the Good Shepherd - “it is finished.” He’s paid for your sins, you can lay them down. He has provided perfect righteousness, having died to sin so that you might walk in newness of life. Your old life can be finished. Is the shame of your past too much for you to bear? “It is finished”—he takes the shame away. His death was for you. And he calls us to embrace his death as our own.
One writer put it this way,
He hell in hell laid low;
Made sin, he sin o’erthrew;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And death, by dying, slew.
Jesus died for you. He did it for his own Joy: the joy he experiences by having purchased sons and daughters for God. He did it for his Father’s glory: for on the cross the justice and love of God were on full display. And he did it for you, that you might be forgiven, and reconciled to God. Jesus paid it all. “It is finished.”
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