Glory Song - Devotional By Matt RedmanНамуна

It Is Finished

From the album ‘Glory Song’ by Matt Redman

“It is finished.” Do three more poignant words exist in the history of mankind? Jesus, the Son of God, the savior of the world, hung on the cross and with these words made it evident that He had come to accomplish something and, more importantly, He accomplished it. 

“It is finished”

“It is finished”

O, what else is there to say?

Shame is silenced

Death defeated

Hallelujah, God be praised

John recounts Jesus’ final moments on the cross: “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst!’ Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” (John 19:28-30). 

Jesus did not die with unfinished business. He died with “all things now accomplished.” He had drawn a line through our faults, through our failures, through the fall, and said, “No more.” Now, there is mercy, there is forgiveness, there is newness.   

That is Good News. 

When we first come to believe in Christ, we cling to this Good News as our new identity. It is a breath of fresh air. We feel the newness. But after some time, we may begin to forget the completeness of that phrase, “It is finished.” We can backslide into operating out of our own strength. We try to prove ourselves, our abilities and our worth. We forget that the job is done. It is not up to us. 

Much like the Galatians who Paul rebukes in his letter by saying, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 1:1-4).

“It is finished” reminds us that with the Spirit, we no longer have to rely on the flesh and if we do, we are disregarding his final words. Let’s remember them today and be grateful that for all of our shortcomings and sin and shame, for all of our struggles, there is a final word. And the final word isn’t the world telling us who we are, the final word isn’t our hearts condemning us, or someone else condemning us. The final word is Jesus. He alone has the final say over our lives, over our futures, and over our eternity. It is, indeed, finished.