What did Jesus mean when He said it was finished? This devotion looks at Jesus completing the plan of salvation.
Nuggets
- God knew before He created us that we would be disobedient.
- God asked for one thing – obedience, and Adam and Eve messed that up.
- God needed was a Sacrifice Who’s blood could pay the price for sin once and for all.
- In order to shed His blood, Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross for us so that His blood could pay the price for our sins.
- The plan of salvation was accomplished on the cross.
- In order to receive the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, we need to repent.
Devotions in the Sayings from the Cross series
Jesus’ time on this earth was drawing to a close. When He asked for the drink in the last devotion, He had completed all of the prophecies.
I’m sure He was ready to get off of that cross and get the pain behind Him.
In this devotion and the next, we will look at the last two sayings from the cross. Our topic of discussion today is what Jesus meant when He said, “It is finished.”
Let's Put It into Context
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Eph. 1: 4 NLT)
Isn’t it amazing that before He created us, God knew that we would be disobedient? We know this because He had “… already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ …” (Eph. 1: 4 GNT).
We know this union had to be something other than creation. When speaking of Jesus, John wrote, “He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created” (Jn. 1: 2-3 CSB). Since Jesus also had a hand in our creation, the union would have already been there.
Because He is all-knowing (I Jn. 3:20), God knew man was going to disobey Him. He put the plan of salvation in place that He could forgive us and redeem us. That plan was the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
But let’s walk through the steps.
Creation
"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created" (Rev. 4: 11 ESV)
God created everything. “For the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days …” (Ex. 20: 11 CSB). All we know – all we need to know – is God spoke with raised arm, and things were created. The how isn’t as important as the Who.
God’s creation is a testament to Him. “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Rom. 1: 20 NLT).
One thing God created was mankind. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1: 26-27 ESV).
The Fall
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 23 NLT)
God asked for one thing – obedience. The Scriptures tell us He put only one restriction on Adam and Eve.
Yep, they had one job. One job. And they messed it up.
That mess up is called sin. Sin is when we disobey God and break one of His laws and commandments.
God had told Adam he couldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for he would die if he did (Gen. 2: 16-17). But Satan being Satan, He twisted that to make disobedience attractive.
Punishment was decisive.
- spiritual death
- separation from God
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
God’s Solution
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 8 NIV)
Bottom line, God wants to have a relationship with His people. The problem was sin has no yet received permanent payment.
God had the Israelites take care of that yearly by observing the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a fire offering to the Lord” (Lev. 23: 27 CSB).
Paul told us what was expected. “But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance” (Heb. 9: 7 NLT).
But God wasn’t satisfied with that bandaid. It really didn’t defeat or eliminate sin. It just whitewashed it.
What God needed was a Sacrifice Who’s blood could pay the price for sin once and for all. There was only One Person Who fit the specifications.
God sent His Son Jesus to earth to be the Redeemer of mankind. Jesus was born of a virgin (Lk. 2: 7), making Him 100% God and 100% man. He had to be Man to correct our current and God so that we could get back to the nature Adam and Eve possesses before the fall.
In order to shed His blood, Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross so that His blood could pay the price for our sins.
It Is Finished
"When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (Jn. 18: 30 NLT)
What was finished? The plan of salvation was accomplished on the cross. Jesus had accomplished all of the churchy words.
Jesus justified us. Justification means the act of making something righteous before God.
He became the propitiation for us. Propitiation means that a substitute is offered to avoid God’s wrath.
He was the atonement for us. Atonement is about repayment for a wrong.
He provided for our regeneration. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
He sanctified us. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Receiving Jesus
"Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Ac. 2: 38 CSB)
“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Ac. 2: 38)
In order to receive the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, we need to repent. Repentance is expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments.
But it is not just feeling sorry for doing those things. It is making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things. Obedience means to hear and carry out the instructions that God gives us.
The thing we have to pay particular attention to is that this repentance brings regeneration. What was regeneration? It is a change.
This change is our submission to God. We have to give Him control of our lives and live the way He wants us to live.
It is all spelled out in the Scriptures. Don’t think it is just a big to-do and to-don’t list.
It is a character guide. It gives the examples of how God wants us to live our lives and the behaviors and attitudes that are conductive to living godly lives.
It would be very hard to put every to do and to don’t in a book. So God works on our character so that we have the tools to evaluate the situation and determine what He would want us to do. We are to imitate His nature.
Making the Connections
In my opinion, the plan of salvation was completed on the cross. That is because the atonement was made my Jesus’ blood, not His life.
If Jesus bled out (as the sacrificial animals were), redemption would have been completed when the blood was offered to God and He accepted the sacrifice. Stewart wrote that His death on the cross “… was our whole redemption, from which every event, whether past or future, stood in the relation of an effect to its cause.”
Flavel told us how Jesus accomplished His duties: obediently, freely, diligently, and fully. Because He did, we will be reconciled to God when we ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
How Do We Apply This?
Hare wrote that we should complete the duties to which God calls us — including trials — with patience, meekness, endurance, humility, faith, holiness, and love. We’ve discussed those as we have been looking at self-discipline.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Jesus loved us greatly to die for us. His time here on earth had one purpose — shed His blood to pay the penalty for our sins. He succeeded in doing that.
Father God. Thank You that Jesus was willing and able to become the sacrifice for us. Thank You for loving us enough to make sure a way was found so that our relationships with You could be restore. Help us to live our lives to honor You – with patience, meekness, endurance, humility, faith, holiness, and love. Amen.
What do you think?
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