It Is Finished

THE PUBLISHED CHAPTER

The final word of Christ from the cross before He bowed His head was not uncertainty.

John records, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). The word is brief, but the doctrine contained in it is immense. Christ does not die wondering whether the work has been accomplished. He does not surrender to death with the saving mission incomplete. He declares completion.

“It is finished” is not merely the end of suffering. It is the completion of the work the Father gave Him to do. It is the fulfillment of Scripture. It is the finishing of His obedience unto death. It is the completion of the sacrifice. It is the accomplishment of redemption. It is the answer to every repeated offering that could never take away sins. It is the cry of the Lamb whose blood has been shed, the Servant whose soul has been made an offering for sin, the Priest who offers Himself, the Son who came to do the Father’s will.

This chapter stands close to the previous one, but the emphasis is slightly different. Chapter 28 considered the once-for-all character of Christ’s sacrifice, especially through Hebrews. This chapter listens to the Lord’s own cry from the cross and considers what was finished there. The finality of the sacrifice is not only a doctrine later explained by the apostles. It is announced by Christ Himself at the moment of His death.

The atoning work was not almost finished.

It was not potentially finished.

It was not finished only if man could add his part as atonement.

Christ said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus moves toward an appointed hour. Early in His ministry He says, “Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). Later His enemies seek to take Him, but they cannot, because His hour has not yet come. He is not hurried by man, trapped by circumstance, or forced into the cross before the Father’s time.

Then, as the cross approaches, the language changes. Jesus says, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:23). He speaks of the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, so that it may bring forth much fruit. He says, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27).

The cross is the appointed hour. Christ came to it knowingly. He was not swept there by powers greater than Himself. Judas betrayed Him, the rulers condemned Him, Pilate delivered Him, soldiers crucified Him, and yet over all those human actions stood the purpose of God and the obedience of the Son.

By the time He says, “It is finished,” the hour has been entered. The cup has been received. The suffering has been endured. The Scriptures have been fulfilled. The Son has obeyed unto death. The work appointed for that hour has been accomplished.

The finished work belongs to the appointed hour. Christ did not merely reach the end of earthly life. He completed the saving mission for which He came.

Before the cross, Jesus prayed, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). That prayer looks toward the completion of the whole mission. The Son came from the Father, revealed the Father, kept those given to Him, obeyed the Father, and was about to finish the work through His death.

The cross must be seen within that obedience. Christ’s death is not detached from His life of faithful mission. He came to do the Father’s will. He spoke the Father’s words. He did always those things that pleased Him. He kept the law. He fulfilled righteousness. He loved His own unto the end.

When He says, “It is finished,” He is not saying merely that pain is over. He is declaring that the work given by the Father has reached completion. The Son has not failed in any part of the mission. Nothing assigned to Him as Redeemer has been left undone.

This guards the church from thinking of the cross as only the tragic conclusion of Jesus’ public ministry. It is the appointed completion of His mission. His teaching revealed the truth. His miracles bore witness. His obedience fulfilled righteousness. His sufferings displayed holy submission. But the mission reaches its atoning completion at the cross.

The Father gave the work. The Son finished it.

John places the cry “It is finished” near the fulfillment of Scripture. He writes, “Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst” (John 19:28). Then, after receiving the vinegar, Jesus says, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

The cross fulfills Scripture down to the details. The casting of lots for His garments, the piercing, the vinegar, the unbroken bones, the betrayal, the rejection, the suffering, the numbering with transgressors, the Lamb, the Servant, the sacrifice—all converge in Christ. The written Word had spoken, and the incarnate Word fulfills.

This matters because the cross is not interpreted after the fact by human imagination. Scripture had already prepared its meaning. Christ dies according to the Scriptures. His cry of completion includes the fulfillment of what God had spoken beforehand.

The apostles preach this way. Paul says Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Peter says those things which God had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He so fulfilled. Jesus Himself taught that the Christ ought to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory.

The finished work is therefore a Scripture-fulfilled work. Every shadow, prophecy, pattern, and promise appointed by God reaches its proper end in Him. The cross is not a rupture in God’s plan. It is the fulfillment of it.

Philippians says Christ “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). His obedience did not stop short of death. It went all the way to the cross.

That obedience must be remembered when hearing “It is finished.” The Son’s obedience was not partial. He obeyed in childhood, in obscurity, in public ministry, in temptation, in rejection, in Gethsemane, before His accusers, under mockery, and at Calvary. He obeyed actively by doing the Father’s will, and He obeyed passively by enduring the suffering appointed to Him. At the cross, obedience reaches its climax.

This does not mean His death was merely the last act of a moral example. His obedience is saving obedience. The obedient One stands where disobedient sinners should stand. He fulfills righteousness and bears sin. He gives the life He lived in perfect obedience as the sacrifice for those who had not obeyed.

Romans says, “by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). The obedience of Christ is not ornamental to the atonement. It is essential. The One who dies for sinners is the One who obeyed for them. His cry from the cross declares that nothing in that obedience is lacking.

The disobedience of Adam brought condemnation and death. The obedience of Christ brings righteousness and life. At the cross, that obedience is finished.

The sacrifices of the old order could never say, “It is finished,” in the final sense. Their very repetition testified that the work was not complete. Another lamb would be needed. Another sin offering would be brought. Another Day of Atonement would come. Another priest would stand.

Christ’s sacrifice is different. Hebrews says, “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). The sitting follows the offering. The offering is complete.

When Jesus says, “It is finished,” the sacrifice is not beginning a cycle of repetition. It is reaching completion. The Lamb of God has given His life. The blood of the new covenant has been shed. The Priest has offered Himself. The Servant has borne sin. The curse has been taken on the tree.

The altar language of Scripture finds its answer here. The offering is not unfinished because Christ dies. It is finished through His death. His bowed head is not defeat. It is voluntary surrender after the work is done. John says He “gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). Even in death, He gives Himself.

No sacrifice after Christ can improve upon Christ. No blood after His blood can add atoning worth. No priestly act after His self-offering can complete what He declared finished.

The finished work includes redemption accomplished. Hebrews says Christ entered by His own blood, “having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). He did not merely make redemption imaginable. He obtained it.

That word matters. Redemption is not left suspended as a possibility waiting for another atoning act. The ransom price has been given. The blood has been shed. The curse has been borne. The captives are released through Him. The purchase has been made.

Ephesians says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). The believer has redemption because Christ finished the work. He does not wait for a future sacrifice to pay the price. He does not add his suffering to complete the ransom. He does not purchase forgiveness with his obedience. Redemption is through His blood.

This finished redemption gives assurance. If Christ has obtained eternal redemption, then the believer’s freedom rests on accomplished purchase, not unstable performance. If redemption is through His blood, then no lesser currency can be demanded as atonement. If the Redeemer has said, “It is finished,” then the redeemed must not live as though the price remains unpaid.

The ransom is not pending.

The blood has been given.

Redemption is accomplished.

Paul says that God has forgiven, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us” (Colossians 2:14). He continues, “and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). The cross is the place where the charge against sinners is dealt with.

The handwriting was against us. The record was not favorable. Sin stood charged. The law exposed guilt. Man could not erase the accusation by denial or improvement. It had to be taken away by God through Christ.

Paul says it was nailed to His cross. The imagery is strong. The condemning record is not left hovering over those in Christ. It is taken out of the way. Forgiveness rests on the cross where Christ bore what stood against His people.

The next verse says Christ spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. The cross is therefore not only payment and sacrifice; it is triumph. The accusation is answered. The hostile powers are disarmed. The written charge cannot condemn those for whom Christ died.

This belongs to the finished work. If the handwriting has been taken out of the way, the believer must not live as though it still stands in its former condemning power. The cross has answered it.

If Christ said, “It is finished,” then no remaining atoning work exists for man to perform. There remains worship, obedience, confession, repentance, service, suffering, growth, discipline, and mission. But none of these complete the atonement.

This distinction must be guarded. The Christian life is full of obedience, but obedience is not atoning addition. The believer confesses sin, but confession does not shed new blood. He repents, but repentance does not become the sacrifice. He suffers, but suffering does not pay for guilt. He serves, but service does not purchase forgiveness.

Christ’s work is finished. The believer’s obedience is response, not completion. His holiness is fruit, not foundation. His worship is gratitude, not payment. His perseverance is sustained by grace, not a contribution to Calvary.

To confuse these things is to unsettle the conscience and diminish Christ. If man’s work completes atonement, then Christ’s cry was premature. But Christ did not say, “I have begun.” He said, “It is finished.”

The gospel does not invite sinners to finish what Jesus left undone. It calls them to believe in the One who finished the work.

The finished work of Christ must not be distorted into universal salvation apart from faith. Scripture is clear that the gospel must be believed. Those who reject the Son do not have life. Those who believe are justified. Those who come to God come through Christ.

Finished atonement means the saving work is complete in Christ. It does not mean unbelief is harmless. It does not mean men may remain outside Christ and still enjoy reconciliation. The gospel announces finished redemption and calls sinners to repent and believe.

This distinction protects both the sufficiency of Christ’s work and the necessity of faith. Faith does not finish the atonement. Faith receives the finished Christ. Repentance does not add blood. Repentance turns from sin to the Savior whose blood was shed. Union with Christ is not a human addition to Calvary; it is the way sinners come to share in the benefits of the accomplished work.

The cross is finished objectively. Its benefits are received in Christ. Therefore the church must preach both with clarity: nothing can be added to Christ’s atoning work, and no sinner is saved by remaining apart from Him.

The finished work is not a license to unbelief. It is the ground of the gospel call.

When Christ says, “It is finished,” He is speaking of the work appointed at the cross. This does not mean every aspect of God’s redemptive program had already reached its final historical expression at that moment. The resurrection follows. The ascension follows. The session follows. The sending of the Spirit follows. The intercession of Christ continues. His return, kingdom, judgment, and eternal state remain future from the cross.

This matters for the shape of the systematic theology set. Volume 6 treats the atoning work of Christ in His mission, obedience, suffering, death, and sacrifice. Volume 7 will consider the risen and exalted Christ. The cry “It is finished” does not erase the need to speak of resurrection and exaltation. It declares that the atoning work of the cross is complete.

Christ’s resurrection does not finish an unfinished sacrifice as though the cross failed. It vindicates the finished sacrifice and brings the Redeemer forth in triumph. His intercession does not repeat atonement. It represents the finished atonement. His return does not add blood. It brings salvation to its appointed consummation.

Therefore the word “finished” should be held exactly where Scripture places it. The cross-work is complete. The risen Christ applies, represents, and consummates the redemption He accomplished.

The conscience needs Christ’s finished work. An awakened conscience is often tempted to continue the atonement inwardly. It punishes itself. It rehearses guilt as if repetition could pay. It tries to feel bad enough to become clean. It promises enough future obedience to balance the past. It turns shame into a false priest.

But Christ says, “It is finished.”

That word does not make sin light. It means sin has been dealt with by the only sacrifice that can deal with it. The conscience is not healed by pretending sin was small, but by believing Christ’s work is complete. The believer may confess sin fully because he does not need to atone for it personally. He may grieve sin honestly because grief does not have to become payment. He may pursue obedience freely because obedience is no longer a desperate attempt to purchase peace.

The finished work gives rest without producing laziness. It frees the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. A man trying to complete atonement is not free to serve rightly. He is still chained to the impossible task of saving himself. The blood of Christ breaks that chain.

The conscience rests where Christ rested His word: finished.

Worship must be governed by the finished work. The church does not gather to re-sacrifice Christ. It gathers to remember, proclaim, praise, pray, hear, obey, and rejoice in the sacrifice once offered. The Lord’s Supper shows the Lord’s death till He come; it does not repeat the atoning death.

This is important because worship easily drifts toward human contribution. Men want visible acts that seem to make them acceptable. They want something to bring that feels like payment. But Christian worship begins with the accepted sacrifice of Christ. The redeemed do bring praise, thanksgiving, obedience, generosity, confession, and service. Yet none of these are the blood by which they enter.

The finished work humbles worship. No one comes as a co-redeemer. No one comes as a priest adding to Christ’s offering. No one comes with merit that improves the cross. All come by the blood of Jesus.

The finished work also enriches worship. If the sacrifice is complete, the church has something sure to sing. Its praise is not wishful. Its prayers are not guesses. Its confession is not despair. Its table is not another altar of atonement, but a remembrance of the Lamb who died once for all.

Christ finished the work, and worship answers with praise.

Colossians connects the cross with triumph over principalities and powers. After saying the handwriting was nailed to the cross, Paul says Christ “spoiled principalities and powers” and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). The finished work defeats accusation.

Satan’s strength as accuser is tied to guilt. He points to sin and demands condemnation. If sin remains unanswered, accusation stands. But if the handwriting is taken out of the way, if the blood has been shed, if the curse has been borne, then accusation has lost its condemning power against those in Christ.

The believer does not overcome accusation by claiming personal innocence. He overcomes by the blood of the Lamb. The finished work gives him an answer stronger than his memories, failures, fears, and feelings. Christ has died. Christ has finished the work. Christ has taken the charge out of the way.

This does not mean Satan stops accusing. It means accusation has no final authority where Christ’s blood speaks. The enemy may trouble the conscience, but he cannot reverse the cross. He may remind the believer of sin, but he cannot make Christ unfinished.

The finished work is armor for the soul.

The cry “It is finished” should be heard as the Redeemer’s own testimony concerning His work. Men may doubt. Consciences may tremble. False religion may add. Accusers may charge. But Christ has spoken.

The work the Father gave Him to do is finished.

The Scriptures concerning His suffering are fulfilled.

The obedience unto death is complete.

The sacrifice has been offered.

The blood has been shed.

The ransom has been given.

The curse has been borne.

The handwriting has been nailed to the cross.

The way of atonement is not left half-open. The altar does not wait for another victim. The priestly work of sacrifice does not wait for another death. The sinner does not need to search for another ground of peace.

Christ’s final word from the cross before death is the death of every attempted addition to His atonement.

The church must learn to rest upon that word.

Not because obedience is unnecessary.

Not because holiness is optional.

Not because confession is irrelevant.

Not because faith is passive indifference.

But because atonement belongs to Christ alone.

He came to do the Father’s will, and He did it. He came to give His life, and He gave it. He came to save sinners, and He accomplished the work by which sinners are saved. He came as Lamb, Servant, Priest, Substitute, Redeemer, Propitiation, and Curse-bearer, and He finished what He came to do.

The believer’s peace does not rest on an unfinished cross.

The church’s worship does not gather around an unfinished sacrifice.

The gospel does not announce an unfinished redemption.

Christ said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

And because He said it from the cross, with His blood about to be poured out in death, the words carry the authority of the Redeemer who knew exactly what He had accomplished.

The work is finished.

The sacrifice is sufficient.

The Savior has spoken.