IT IS FINISHED!
The word 'finished' actually means "done well, produced and completed with skill and professionalism." Our Lord Jesus Christ completed the task with ultimate excellence, and what a "task." It was not a task, but the extreme and final "Sacrifice" for a world with still a multitude of people who know not and care not what He did, but It Is Finished means it is completed, even for those who do not see the end of themselves ... which is salvation! Praise the Lord of Lords!
View from the Cross
Jesus Christ looked down on the crowd, no doubt filled with emotions, love for the women who were so close to Him, the three Mary's, and love for those spewing and cursing Him with hatred in their hearts. What was He saying within Himself, between gasps of breath and pain such as none of us has ever known? We know He was full of forgiveness, full of compassion, and every gush of blood from His sinless body exuded love. He was God in the flesh, dying for the flesh He created, bleeding for that abhorrent flesh, yet screaming through the whispers of His mind, "Don't you know who I am; don't you know why I'm doing this; don't you know how much I love you?" They didn't know; they didn't care, but all the while, the honest hearted of them felt a qualm of guilt, a sickening shame, and a pressing impulse to get Him down from that cross, to wipe that blood away ... that blood ... the thought of that blood was eating at them like a flesh-hungry leprosy ... they couldn't bear to see that blood ... It was the blood of God who became man to redeem man unto Himself.
"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud
voice, he gave up his spirit."
(Matthew 27:50)
"It is finished;" the most profound three words in the history of the world. The plan from the mind of Almighty God from the beginning of time had finally come to an end. But, the end was the beginning! Mankind had a Hope, for the first time, from the inception of man's creation. Fallen man had been bought with a price, redeemed by the blood of His Creator, had an eternal destiny laid before him for the taking, and all he had to do was match those three words, "It is finished," with his own three words, "Please forgive me."
"Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn
and finely twisted linen ..." (Exodus 26:31)
"And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain,
from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake,
and the rocks rent."
(Matthew 27:51)
From the building of the tabernacle in the old Testament, God longed that all men would feel His presence and know His Spirit. Before the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, only the Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but now we all have access to the Spirit and presence of the God of eternity. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the veil enclosing the Holy of Holies was rent from top to bottom, to let us in. We can now enter that Holy place and be filled with His Spirit (Acts 2; Acts 10; Acts 19), baptized in His name, and live continually "behind the veil." When He said "It is finished;" He meant death, Hell and the grave will not conquer us; He ransomed our eternal existence and we shall live with our mighty Savior forevermore! After we meet Him in the air, in just a little while, He will come back riding on a white horse with His saints following. "It Is Finished," but it's not over, He'll be back!
"It Is Finished"
By Sheryl Fowler
(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.
PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)
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