"It is finished!"?..What is finished? John 19:30 Then when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up the spirit.
Just what did Jesus mean when He declared these dynamic and prophetic words as He died upon the cross on Golgotha at Calvary? What was He implying, and how are we affected by what He was referencing in this decree? Consider these thoughts:
The one sacrifice for the cleansing from sin that God had waited upon was now offered, with Jesus, the Lamb of God, literally carrying away the sin of the world! Every sin offering before Him was only a shadow and type, a partial picture of man's redemption, in the shedding of blood of animals. Every sin offering that man had offered under the Law of Moses offered only a temporary covering of sin, a grace period of God overlooking fallen mankind's spiritual condition, while God looked ahead to that fate-altering day of redemption at Calvary! God's ultimate plan for redemption didn't culminate with man offering a sacrifice to God, but far better, God would offer a sacrifice to man, in the person of Jesus!
Continual offering of sacrifices for sin was finished!
Mankind would no longer have to live in spiritual death, separated from the life and presence of God! Because of what Jesus was in the process of accomplishing through His death, burial, and resurrection, fallen man could soon be Born-again, and placed into the Kingdom of God, with the Kingdom placed into each Born-again believer! Never again would anyone have to live and die cut off from God, the Father, Son, and Spirit! In His death upon the cross, Jesus was manifesting the issues of eternal life that we have received for all of eternity! Because of Jesus' death and separation from the presence of God as the sin-bearer, we will never be removed from the presence of our Heavenly Father! We are not only united with Him spiritually, we are personally and literally, through being partakers of His divine nature!
Man's spiritual and personal separation from God was finished!
The Law of Moses had been fulfilled by Jesus, the perfect man. The Law brought condemnation upon everyone that tried to obey it through their inability to keep the Law. Jesus fulfilled the Law, and then through the New-birth, the Law has been fulfilled in us and for us, so it has no more power to accuse us of failing it! The Law was divinely designed to convict anyone trying to keep it of their failure and of their need for a savior. The Law held man accountable to do that which was pleasing to God, and by their offering of a sacrifice, they maintained the temporary favor of God. Through His own offering of Jesus, God provided Himself with the offering that fully and eternally pleased Him, and at the same time He freed man from earning His approval! We are now fully, freely, and forever approved of God by what Jesus did at Calvary and that we receive through our New-birth experience!
The Law of Moses' power to condemn was finished!
When Jesus died, all satanic and demonic powers were stripped of their authority over mankind, once and for all time! Satan, who held the power of death, was stripped of that power by Jesus in His death! The accuser of the brethren was spoiled, defeated, destroyed, and placed under the feet of Jesus, and under the feet of the Body of Christ, for as He (Jesus) is, so are we, in this world! Greater is He that lives within us, (the Holy Spirit), than is he, they, those, or that which is in the world. Because every Christian carries the authority of Jesus in them, as they submit themselves to God and resist the devil, he must and will flee from them! We have the full victory over Satan and his forces of darkness, through Jesus and by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit! Because we are complete in our union with Jesus, we have His victory, authority, power, dominion, and miraculous might! We can do all things through the anointing of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, and we tread upon serpents & scorpions, symbols of darkness. We have the victory in Jesus, and WE ARE HIS VICTORY!
Satan's dominion and authority over mankind was finished!
When Jesus died, He carried upon Himself and within Him every affliction, oppression, and malady common to mankind. Everything the first Adam lost in union with God, Jesus restored, and every evil that Adam released in the earth through his rebellion, Jesus stripped of it's power and rendered null and void against us. Through His death, Jesus would birth the New-Creation, the Body of Christ, the New Testament Church! Because of His death, we're Born-again, and in Him we live, move, and have our being. Conversely, in us He lives, moves, and has His being, in the earth! As Jesus is our completion spiritually, we are His completion ministerially! We are New-creation beings, kings and priests to Him, we are dead to sin, alive in righteousness, and our lives are hidden with Him in God! As He is, so are we in this world! In the New-birth, there's no difference between Him and us! We are sealed in Him, we are seated in Heaven in Him, and we are secure in Him, for He is our security! We have been delivered from the power of fear, condemnation, guilt, and from a sense of unworthiness! He is our righteousness, and we are literally one with Him in His righteousness! We are accepted by the Father in union with Jesus, the Beloved, and we are secured and sealed as His children, servants, and ambassadors by the Spirit! As New-creation people, we haven't received the spirit of fear, but the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind! So we fear not!
The power of fear, guilt and accusation was finished!
We are full heirs of God, co-heirs with Jesus and we're empowered with the presence and person of the Holy Spirit in life and ministry, to go about doing good, healing all that are sick, diseased, and oppressed!
Powerlessness to live in victory and to give the victory in life was finished!
Christopher Longgrear (D.Min., Ph.D.) of Fresh Fire Ministries International is senior pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Marietta, Parkersburg and Athens. Thoughts of Faith is a weekly column written by various ministers and lay people. Those interested in scheduling a date for writing a Thoughts of Faith column should contact Christy Hudson at 376-5446 or chudson@mariettatimes.com.
