It Is Finished

Good Friday 2026

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30).

Father, please give us Your Holy Spirit now so that as we consider these words, You might reveal Your Son Jesus Christ to us in great majesty, so that we may worship Him, as our crucified and risen Lord and King. Amen.

It is finished. Tetelestai. It’s a Greek word that was found on ancient papyruses, stamped on bills of sale and tax documents, meaning “paid in full.” It’s related to the word telos – which means end, goal, completion, or purpose.  It is finished. It is fulfilled. Mission accomplished. 

Jesus said, it is finished, and then He gave up the ghost. Notice that verb: He gave. It’s active. Jesus had said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (Jn. 10:17-18). 

Jesus not only willingly allowed Himself to be betrayed, allowed Himself to be bound and taken before the Jews and before Pilate and Herod; He not only willing allowed Himself to be beaten and mocked and spat upon and finally nailed to the Cross, but He did it all while remaining in control. He had authority over it all. He had power over it all. And this authority and power continued even while suffering on the Cross, bleeding out, suffocating. 

No one took His life from Him. When He had suffered for the sins of His people, then, and only then, did He announce that the debt was paid. The work commanded by His Father was complete. It was finished. And then, and only then, did He freely and authoritatively relinquish His life and gave up His spirit. 

No other human being has done that. No other human being has authority over His own death. All other humans ultimately relinquish authority and power, and there is an important sense in which our lives are taken. But Jesus gave His life. He laid His life down because He is Lord of all. 

The next verse in John says that the Jews asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the three men on the crosses so that the bodies could be taken down before the Sabbath (John 19:31). And so just after Jesus announced that His work was finished and He gave up His life, they came to break the legs of the men, and they did so with the robbers on either side of Him. But the text says that when they came to Jesus, He was already dead. This certainly underlines the historical veracity of the account of His death. It also fulfills the prophecy from Psalm 22 that not one of His bones would be broken.

But it also implies that Jesus has completed a new creation. “It is finished” is what the Lord said at the end of the first creation and He rested from all His labors on the first Sabbath: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which He had made; and rested on the seventh day…” (Gen. 2:1-2).

Matthew and Mark do not record this final word of Jesus, but they say that He cried out and gave up His ghost and then they immediately add that at that moment the veil in the temple was torn it two from top to bottom and there was a great earthquake (Matt. 27:50-51). That veil in the temple was covered with ornate woven cherubim representing the separation of God and man going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when God had sent Adam and Eve out of the garden for their sin and placed cherubim there with a flaming sword to guard the entrance. 

Ever after, God’s presence was fiercely guarded. Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement. But this had to happen again and again, year after year, for thousands of years. But when Christ gave up His life, that was finished. The system of separation and those rituals of exile were finished. The debt of our sin was paid in full, and a new creation had come into existence. The Old Covenant sacrifices and rituals were finished, completed – what they pointed to had come in Jesus Christ, our High Priest and our perfect sacrifice once for all. 

Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats never could take away sin. They were just signs of the need for shed blood to take away our sins, to make peace with God, to satisfy His holy justice. Those ancient priests served daily, sprinkling animal blood all around the altars, which could never take away sins. “But this man [Jesus] after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). He sat down because He was finished. The work was finished: the way back into the Garden and into the Holy of Holies was torn wide open. “For by that one offering He has perfected forever them that are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). 

It is finished. Debts paid in full. New Creation. Sabbath rest. Full access. Perfected forever – those who are being sanctified. 

These are the doctrines of justification and sanctification side by side in the same verse. “He has perfected” those who are “being sanctified.” And you might ask, which one is it? Are we perfect or do we still need to grow in holiness? And the Bible’s answer is yes. 

John Calvin said that justification and sanctification are the double grace that Christ gives and He always gives both – at the moment of conversion. Christ is the sun, and He always gives light and heat. Justification is that “perfected forever” status, and sanctification is that becoming holy process. This is what theologians sometimes call redemption accomplished and applied. 

And that application includes the certainty of the process completed. When Christ died, He not only paid for the sins that would separate us from God, He also guaranteed the holiness and perfection of all His saints. Justification is the declaration at the beginning of the Christian life of what God promises He will complete and will most certainly say at the end. It is the judgment of the end of the world come forward into the middle of history. 

This means that when Jesus cried, “It is finished” and gave up His spirit in death, He declared then, on a mountainside outside of Jerusalem the verdict He promises to declare at the end of history over every single one of His people. He paid for it in full. He guaranteed its completion – the perfection and holiness of His saints – a new creation, a new heavens and new earth and perfect Sabbath rest. 

All who love Him, all who bow before Him, all who sincerely worship Him, and look to Him in faith as their Lord and Savior – you have heard already what Christ has promised to say to you on the last day, at the Great Judgment, seeing what He has worked in your life by His Spirit. Like a great Artist, standing back in admiration, looking upon His masterpiece, He will smile and this time with great joy, He will cry out: It is finished. It is complete. This is what I paid for. Mission accomplished.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.