“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30).

Victory

It was not a whimper of defeat. Matthew and Mark tell us that just before Jesus breathed his last, he “cried out again in a loud voice” (Matthew 27:50, cf. Mark 15:37). 

The victor announced his victory loudly, and it echoed across the hilltop to the world beyond. “It is finished!”

Reassurance

It was a declaration of victory, and besides, it was a reassurance. 

A mother cradles a child who has fallen in her arms and reassures her, “It’s okay. It is over.” 

So the One who loved us enough to die for us reassured us: “It is finished.”

He has paid the full price. We are reconciled to God.

The enemy is depending on you not knowing that it is finished. That the battle is already won. That he is already defeated. 

Consider this:

In the United States, slavery was abolished through the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But for two more years, many slaves in Texas didn’t get the news that they were free. Their ‘masters’ did not tell them this news.  It wasn’t until June 19^th 1865 that 2000 troops arrived in Texas to inform them that they had been free for 2 years. Juneteenth is still celebrated as a holiday in the United States, commemorating this date when the Texas slaves finally got to know that they were free.    

Two years may seem like a long time, but consider this:

In a jungle in the Philippines, a Japanese soldier called Hiroo Onoda continued fighting World War II for 29 years after the Japanese surrendered. He didn’t know the war was over. He continued to engage in guerilla warfare, raiding farms and often surviving on bananas and coconuts. People tried many times to let him know the war was over by dropping leaflets and newspapers in the jungle, but he refused to believe it. It wasn’t until March 10th, 1975 at the age of 52, that Onoda, in full uniform, finally marched out of the jungle and surrendered his samurai sword to the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. 

How could a man continue to fight a war that had ended almost 30 years before?

About 2,000 years since Jesus won the battle for us. Still, too many people don’t know that “it is finished.” Do you know anyone who hasn’t heard the Good News yet? Who is still fighting in the war that ended so long ago? Still living in slavery to addiction? As a prisoners to unforgiveness?   Overwhelmed by fears? Won’t you tell them?

The bill had been paid in full. The obligation has been completed. The debt has been paid off. —  it is finished, and Jesus is Lord.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen