It Is Finished
It Is Finished: The Power of Jesus’ Last Words
Famous last words have a way of sticking with us. They carry weight, meaning, and often, a final message the speaker wants to leave behind. Throughout our Lenten journey, we have explored the final words of Jesus on the cross—words of forgiveness, assurance, anguish, and fulfillment. But today, we arrive at what may be the most powerful of them all: It is finished.
Three words. A simple phrase. And yet, these words changed everything.
A Declaration, Not Defeat
At first glance, we might hear It is finished and think Jesus was admitting defeat. That his suffering was over, his life was ending, and he had no strength left to continue. But in the original Greek, the phrase carries a deeper meaning. It is not a cry of surrender, but of completion—of victory. Tetelestai—a word often used to signify the completion of a task, the fulfillment of a mission, or even the payment of a debt.
Imagine an artist adding the final brushstroke to a masterpiece and stepping back to say, It is finished. A carpenter running his hands over a perfectly crafted table, satisfied that it is ready for use. A soldier returning home after a long and victorious battle. Jesus’ words on the cross were not about loss, but about triumph. He had done what He came to do. The work of salvation was complete.
The End of Sacrifice, The Beginning of Grace
For centuries, God’s people had lived under a system of sacrifice. In order to be forgiven, they had to continually offer lambs, bulls, and goats to atone for sin. Year after year, the cycle repeated—because sin never stopped, and the need for atonement never ended.
But when Jesus breathed his last and declared, It is finished, the need for those sacrifices ended. He became the final, perfect sacrifice. As Hebrews 10:10 reminds us, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” No more lambs. No more blood on the altar. The debt was paid. The veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom—signifying that the barrier between God and humanity had been removed.
Once. And. For. All.
Living in the Freedom of “Finished”
And yet, how often do we live as though our forgiveness is incomplete? How often do we act as though we need to do something—pray more, serve more, give more—to deserve God’s love? It’s easy to fall into that mindset. We are conditioned to believe that nothing in life comes free. That we must work to earn what we receive. That we must prove ourselves worthy.
But Jesus’ words remind us that salvation is not about what we do—it’s about what He did. There is nothing we can add to His finished work. Nothing we can do to make ourselves more deserving. And nothing we have done that makes us unworthy of His grace.
Think about that for a moment. Every sin you have committed—every mistake, every failure, every regret—was accounted for on the cross. Jesus saw it all, and still, He chose to say, It is finished.
A Call to Respond
So, what does this mean for us today? How do we live in light of Jesus’ final words?
First, we rest in His grace. We stop striving to earn what has already been given. We release the guilt, the shame, and the feeling that we are not enough for God. Because through Jesus, we already are.
Second, we embrace the freedom He has won for us. The work of salvation is finished, but our calling is not. We are invited to live as people who have been redeemed—to love, to serve, to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Finally, we accept the gift. If you have never fully received what Jesus has done for you, now is the time. You don’t have to clean yourself up first. You don’t have to get everything right. You simply have to come.
Jesus paid it all. He completed it. He perfected it.
It. Is. Finished.
Will you receive it?