"It is Finished"

It Is Finished

“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

One of our special songs today is Bill and Gloria Gaither’s ‘It Is Finished” first published in 1976. The song is based on the Seventh, and last of Jesus’ words or saying from the cross.

In his book, Paid in Full, Rick Renner tells us about the meaning of the phrase uttered by Jesus from the Cross, It is finished.” Renner says that” It is finished” is a translation of the Greek word tetelestai, is a form of the Greek word, telos, meaning “ to end; to bring to completion; to bring to a conclusion; to complete; to accomplish; to fulfill; or to finish.” Anything that has reached telos has arrived at completion, maturity, or perfection.

So, what was finished? Was Jesus finished? Did He mean He was dying now and His life was at an end? Well, it a literal sense, yes, but there is much, much more in the phrase and the Gaithers have captured it well.

“There's a line that is drawn through the ages
On that line stands an old rugged cross
On that cross, a battle is raging
To gain a man's soul or its loss”

”On one side, march the forces of evil
All the demons, all the devils of hell
On the other, the angels of glory
And they meet on Golgotha's hill “

”The earth shakes with the force of the conflict
And the sun refuses to shine
For there hangs God's son, in the balance
And then through the darkness he cries “

”It is finished, the battle is over
It is finished, there'll be no more war
It is finished, the end of the conflict
It is finished and Jesus is Lord”

Renner tells us that there are four things that are finished or completed:
First, the work the Father had sent Him to do was completed. Another writer says that in the near East, it was the custom for a servant to receive orders from his aster, go do the thing expected and then report back. The manner of reporting was to bow the head say telestai, I have completed the task. So we see that Jesus fully and perfectly completed the work His Father sent Him to do.

That moment of telestai marks the defining victory in the history of the universe. Jesus was called to give up his divine crown for one of thorns, come to Earth, live as a man, be ridiculed, beaten, scorned, scourged, mocked and eventually crucified – what a struggle. And now, it is over. Telestai!

Second, Renner tells us, Telestai is the equivalent of the words uttered by the Jewish high priest when he has completed sacrificing the lamb in the Levitical fashion in the Holy of Holies. When the blood of the lamb was poured on the mercy seat, the sins of the people were forgiven – for another year. Jesus, according to Hebrews is not only our High Priest, but the sacrifice as well, thus he sacrificed himself “once for all.” Never again would blood have to be spilled to atone for man’s sin. That work was finished. Telestai

Continuing, Renner points out that in the commercial world, the phrase, telestai meant that a deal or transaction was completed. In a spiritual sense, Jesus’ blood has bought and paid for our sins – and it’s done. It is paid in full. Telestai.

Lastly, in classical Greek thought, telestai was the phrase used to indelicate the changing of an era or epoch – like going from times BC to times AD. Until that moment, mankind is still under the curse of the law, but at the moment of telestai, a page turned in history and that period is now old news.

But the song is not over; there is yet another verse and a phrase in that verse is yanked from the pages of the news papers. Remember, this song was written in 1976. What was happening then? The Viet Nam War was finally over, but something remained. There were many POWs who were not yet “come home.” Some never would. Gaither alludes to that fact in the phrase, “not all prisoners’ of war had come home.”

“Yet in my heart, the battle was still raging
Not all prisoners of war had come home
These were battlefields of my own making
I didn't know that the war had been won
Oh, but then I heard the king of the ages
Had fought all the battles for me
And that victory was mine for the claiming
And now praise his name, I am free.”

The difference, though Gaither tells us is that the battlefield is not the Mekong Delta or the DMZ or the killing fields of Cambodia, but in our own minds. And the enemy, that Great Satan, has not told us that the war is over. He continues to delude us into thinking that we have to continue to fight the battle. But that is not the case. Second Chronicles 20:15-17 tells us the “battle is the Lords.” And it has been won. It is ours for the claiming, letting go of ourselves and accepting it – accepting Him and His sacrifice, and when we do, we can say, “and now, praise his name, I am free.”

Telestai!