It is Finished

This morning, all over this world, churches are doing songs, dramas and sermons on one topic – Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Yes, He is! The grave couldn’t hold Him.

However, there are many that don’t look at today as being a special day. They are going on about their lives, but taking this as a great time to be able to gather with family to eat. There are also many that are in the hospitals, homes and nursing homes sick and unable to be in church; but they are joining, if they can, to a live feed stream of their choice. Some believe that us Christians are just foolish going on and on about some man dying and then coming back to life – what science fiction. Some focus on the angels that spoke to Mary, some focus on the women that carried the gospel to the disciples, some focus on a risen Savior, and some focus on the open grave and some on the sealed grave …

Ahh, the grave – something so confining, so dark, so disturbing – a sealed grave. Here on Resurrection Sunday Morning, we want to focus all of our attention on an open, empty grave, yet it will serve our faith well if we do not rush past the closed grave and the events leading up to the empty grave too quickly.

Our tendency is to hurry past the “It is finished” and rush to the “He is risen” and we forget the many things that happen in between, yet, those events deserve our attention as well.

When we look at the empty grave, we must realize that it is NOT the only evidence of a risen Savior; the burial leaves no doubt that Jesus was dead and is alive. We must also look at the fact that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is a part of the plan of salvation!!!

John 19:30 ~ “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

So what is finished? I have heard SO MANY sermons on these three words and some sounded great and some, well ….

So what is finished? These three words in English are one word in the greek. This one word was usually written on tax receipts to mean “Paid in Full”. The words on Jesus’ lips that day showed the whole world then through today that His redemptive work was completed. He had been made sin for people and suffered the penalty of God’s justice which sin deserved.

These three words were a great shout of victory. Jesus has completed His work, His mission, His task. He was not crying the cry of a defeated martyr, He was crying the cry of a victorious conqueror.

Even in the moment of His death, Jesus remained the One who gave up His life, no one took it. It must always be remembered that Jesus willingly died. He willingly came to this moment of yielding and giving up His spirit unto death. Both Paul and Peter cover the Lord’s work during the three days immediately following His death until the resurrection.

• Paul says that on the cross, Jesus (Colossians 2:15) “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
• Peter says that on the cross and after death, (1 Peter 3:18-20) “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”
• Paul says that after death, (Ephesians 4:8-10) “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

John 17:4 “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

We are buried with Christ and we are raised with Christ to the newness of life! Do  you remember the words of John the Baptist, the words describing Jesus’ mission?

John 1:29 ~ “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Christ, the Lamb of God, took our sins. He took them to the grave and those sins and the tormets from those sins are forever buried, forever gone!

1 Corinthians 15:56-57 ~ “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What in your life have you held onto that Christ took to the grave for you? Your sin? Your shame? Your pride? Your fear?

Crucified! Died! Buried! Risen! All this for us and for our salvation. This is the Gospel and the Good News, the truth that conquers our most fundamental fear, the fear of death, the fear of being separated from God.

We are buried with Christ and we are raised with Christ. For us, the grave is the doorway into our Savior’s nearer presence. The death that once cut us off from the land of the living is now the entryway through the torn veil of Jesus’ flesh and into heaven, where the resurrected Christ has gone before us. Knowing this, we are able to shout in victory:

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 (ESV) ~ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.