"It is finished"

Mark 15:33-39
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, " Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, " Behold, he is calling Elijah." 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, " Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, " Truly this man was the Son of God!"

Between Jesus receiving the sour wine in a sponge and a centurion saying that Jesus was the Son of God, there is a loud cry (with words) that come out of Jesus' mouth, recorded by three different Gospel writers in three different ways. Matthew and Mark are identical. Matthew says, "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit." Mark says, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last." Luke says, "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last." But John says, "When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

This is powerful! Jesus suffering on the cross, for you and for me! For your sins and my sins! He cried out with a loud voice, and it seems obvious that there were words attached to Jesus' cry. After the three hours of suffering and darkness and total abandonment
by the Father, Jesus' words he cried out were not the words of despair and unbelief and tragedy. But they were words of hope and trust that God the Father is still his God, and that his sacrifice for the sin of the word was acceptable and accepted by the Holy God. And the words "It is finished!", meant and mean, "It is finished"! The payment for our rejection of God by our sins, has been payed in full, by Jesus Christ! It, is, done! Once, and, for, all! Those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, in who he is, and what he has done for them, need not to be afraid of anything, and anyone anymore! Because they know that, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6) And so, this truth is true for us as well, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his (Christ's) life." Jesus Christ lived life as a man perfectly, we ought to have lived, but now we are accounted perfectly righteous in the sight of God! Jesus Christ died our death we ought to have died and be dead forever in torments of hell, but now we are justified from all our sins, because God has accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sins as ours! And Jesus Christ was resurrected from he dead, indicating that God the Father has accepted Jesus's sacrifice for our sins. And so our faith in Jesus Christ is not futile, not in vain. Jesus is not dead anymore, he is alive forevermore, with the Father, but he is also alive in us as our life! We were raised to life with him. His life is now our life! And this Jesus, and all his benefits may be ours, simply through faith in him! There is nothing we can, should or are able to add to what Jesus Christ has done! Because his last words from the cross of Calvary were, "IT IS FINISHED"!

So, everything we as humans were supposed to be, and do, Jesus is and has done for us. Therefore, "It is finished" is a daily food, because we are prone not to believe that Jesus is and did all, in order for us to be loved and accepted by God. And so we try to be and do in order for God to notice us - to love and accept us. And that's a daily temptation and struggle for all of us, to forget God and his perfect righteousness as a gift to us through faith in Jesus; and to look to our own righteousness which will never measure up in this world to God's holy standard. We'll know if we daily trust in Jesus' "finished" work, or us trying to finish his work for us, by whether we have "joy and peace in believing", or we have a heavy heart and restlessness in trying hard to measure up. Where do you, and where do I find myself today before a Holy God?