‘It is finished!’ (John19:30)
God is the Creator of all; He is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. When God finished His work of creation in the beginning, He saw that it was good. (Gen 2:1-2) John has already reflected this work in the beginning of his gospel, describing Jesus as the Word who speaks salvation into existence. Now ‘knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled’ (John 19:28), Jesus receives the drink and cries out, ‘It is finished!’ A good salvation work has been completed: there is nothing left to do. Jesus has finished the work the Father gave Him to do. He can now bow His head and give up His spirit. The once-for-all sacrifice for sin has been completed (see Hebrews 9:26, 10:12).
It is extremely difficult for us to accept that there is, in the words of the hymn, ‘nothing left for us to do, for Jesus did it all.’ We are people who like to be in control, who feel that salvation must be earned. Even when we theoretically accept that only Jesus was spotless and sinless and therefore salvation can be found in no other name, we tend to want to add to our salvation through our own good works. The New Testament was written, in part, to remind us that all the ‘Jesus-and’ philosophies just don’t work. We don’t need anything else. As Eugene Peterson says, ‘”It is finished” deletes the hyphens.’ (‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 260)
Good Friday, the day when we remember the most unjust, cruel death imaginable, is forever to be cherished and loved by Christians, for it is the day when our salvation was finished. To be sure, we are still being saved and perfected: but, as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, ‘by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.’ (Hebrews 10:14) There really is nothing left for us to do except accept the salvation offered to us and offer our lives back to God in faithful obedience. Though the disciples at the cross could not possibly have understood all that Jesus meant by this last victorious cry before death (and the paradox inherent in that situation so often goes over our heads as it probably did theirs), we wait in anticipation for Easter Sunday, knowing that God accepted that final sacrifice and our salvation is secure.