Finished Business

SEVEN AWESOME STATEMENTS

FROM THE

CROSS

Series 5 of 5

Finished Business

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’  When He had said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).

This prayer profound in its simplicity, because it indicates a willingness to deposit the most precious thing, the most prized possession, in the safest deposit place of all.  This sixth statement from the cross is an example of the Lord’s confidence in the hands of His Father.

The world commit in this verse literally means to go and leave  something somewhere and walk away from it, knowing full well, with absolute confidence and trust, that when you come back, it will be there.

When Jesus cried out and said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit,” His hands were fastened to that rugged wooden cross, His hands were not free.  The hands of wicked, evil men nailed Him to that cross.

In Matthew 17:22 Jesus warned His disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.”  Those hands flogged the Son of God, those hands hammered the nail through His flesh into the wood, those hands crowned Him with thorns.  For twelve hours He had been in the hands of men and had been subject to the worst that human hands could do.

Jesus was ready to be deposited into the hands of the Father, the greatest hands of all.  He was about to go into paradise.  To be in the hands of His Father meant that on the third day He would rise from the grave with a glorified body. To be in the hands of the Father meant that for forty days He would walk with His disciples talk, with them, instruct them, and commission them (this is where Jesus gave His disciples The Great Commission, Matthew 28:16-20. This was Jesus final command to us all, before His ascension into Heaven). To be in the hands of the Father meant that on that fortieth day, the disciples would see Him on the Mount of Olives rise up into heaven, and the and the angel would tell them that the same Jesus is going to come back to judge every human being that has ever lived.  He will never again be in out hands, but we will be in His hands.

Do you deposit your all in the hands of the Father or do you deposit some in His hands and hold on to the rest?

The final statement from the Cross was only recorded by John.  John was there.  He heard every word from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross.  John 19:30 tells us.  “Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

It is finished.  Tetelestai. It took three English words to get that one word.  Tetelestai is a perfect passive verb, meaning that the purpose has been fulfilled.  It means that the goal has been realized.  It means that it is finished.

A perfect passive verb also indicates that the result of that fulfilled purpose continues forever.  It means that the impact of the benefits that were accomplished on the Cross will go on until Jesus comes back.  The effect and blessing of the finished work of Christ dying on the Cross are for eternity.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” it meant that in every generation and from every nation, anyone who comes to Him and bows at His feet and receives and accepts the blessings that come from that finished work of Christ will be eternally saved. Jesus made it so simple for us.  Jesus had to suffer unimaginable torture and pain, and if that was not bad enough, God His Father could not look at Him with the entire world’s sin. That day Jesus died all alone.  Like all great stories, it does have a happy ending, because of Jesus selfless suffering.  He made a path for us, so we all who believe will take our rightful place in Heaven with our Lord Jesus and our Father and with all our Christian family.

His sacrifice was once and for all, but its effect, its blessings, continues on and on and on to everyone who comes and bends their knees before Him and acknowledges Him as their Savior and Lord.  The action is finished, but the results continue.  The work is done, but the effect continues.  Only its effect is felt and remembered by us.

What effect does the finished work of Christ have on you today?

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15