It Is Finished

Good Morning Faith Filled Friends! It’s Josh here once again and I am excited to be presenting this morning’s devotion. Today, the message is based on ‘It Is Finished’ by Jimmy Needham. Originally, I was planning to do the devotion on another Jimmy Needham song called ‘The Gospel’ but I changed to this song as it so beautiful and reflective and it has a wonderful reminder about Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins, which is central to what we believe as Christians. I believe it is so important to remind ourselves about what Jesus has done for us on the cross. In our busy day to day lives, it can be difficult to find the time to reflect upon Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We remember his death on the cross when we take Communion and on Good Friday, but we should seek to be reminded of this everyday! Without Jesus’ death on the cross, we would still be stuck in our sin, destined for eternal condemnation. May we seek God’s help to be continually reminded of and be thankful for what He has done for us.

I have only recently discovered Jimmy Needham’s music. But what an incredible artist He is! The lyrics of His songs, as you will hear in this one are very much centred on the gospel and the message of Christianity. ‘It Is Finished’ is from the ‘Hymn Sessions’ album released in 2013 and I would encourage you to listen to some of Jimmy’s other songs from the album. It is a beautiful collection of hymns sung by Jimmy, with his own original style.

There is great significance in what Jesus said in His final moments on the cross. When He yelled “It is finished”, Jesus was declaring that He had completed what He come to earth to do. He had completed His Father’s Will. God’s Will was that He would send Jesus, His one and only son to come to earth as a man and to die for the sins of the world. He would take the punishment that we rightly deserved and put it upon Himself.

We read about this profound moment in John 19:30-  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The word Tetelesti appears at the beginning of each verse; “It is finished, It is finished
Tetelesti”. This is a Greek word and literally means ‘It is Finished’. It is yet another reminder of the amazing love of Jesus shown on the cross. Because Jesus Has Finished the work of God, it means we do not have to do anything. It is all about faith. That’s where Christianity differs. Many other religions are based on works or what you have to do to earn salvation. The incredible truth about Christianity is that all we have to do is to trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross. He payed the price of death for our sins so that we can receive the gift of eternal life through Him. Salvation through the grace of God and not through our own efforts is discussed in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:8-“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast”.

“The Son of Man succeeding where I failed, the wrath of God now satisfied In Jesus, my Emmanuel”. These lyrics at the end of the second verse talk about how we failed through our sin. We destroyed the perfect order in which God had created things by bringing sin into the world (see Genesis 3). But even so, Jesus won over our sin through His sacrifice. God’s punishment of sin was brought upon His only son, not on us as it should have been. “It was satisfied in Jesus”. He loves us too much to see us suffer for our sin, even through it is what we deserve. Jesus became the perfect substitute, the one who had no sin had the sin of the world placed upon himself.

“No longer need I labor for His love, for Christ fulfilling the law of God, was deemed by God to be enough”. With Jesus’ finished work on the cross, He has done all that is required for us to be connected with God once again. We can never ever earn it, “we cannot labour for His  love”. We can never be good enough for salvation because of sin. As I said earlier, it is because of this that we receive God’s salvation through faith,through trusting in what He has done. How amazing it is that salvation is so simple!!! It continually makes me thankful to God because it is that simple! It is a matter of trust, there is nothing we have to do, rather it is all about what Jesus HAS DONE.

The final chorus, which talks about the freedom we now have because of the amazing grace of God; “The wedding bells of freedom now ring”, leads onto the final verse repeating the words of another beautiful hymn ‘On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand’.” On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand”. I really like the way this hymn is worked in at the end. What a wonderful reminder it is of the sure foundation we have in Jesus. Because of His awesome love for us, displayed in His death on the cross, we can stand on His salvation that He freely offers to us. Jesus is the only person who we can totally rely on. As Christians, we should continually seek to build our lives on Jesus, who is the sold rock. All other things we seek to trust and put our hope in are sinking sand. The finished work of Christ gives us the basis on which we should live.

Praise be to God for His death on the cross that payed for the sins of you and I. The very fact Jesus declared “It Is Finished”! says to us there is nothing more to do, He has done it all! By accepting the salvation Jesus offers to us because of His death, we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. We do not even come close to deserving it, it is through the Lord’s amazing love that we can be offered His gift of salvation. Spend time today reflecting on what Jesus achieved for us and thank him for it! If the Lord has spoken to you today through this message, feel free to leave a comment below and I also encourage you to spend some time in prayer with God. Jesus, our saviour and redeemer payed the punishment we deserved. It means we can live lives that are free, not weighed down by the burden of sin any longer.

John 10:10- “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”

To end today’s devotion I would like to leave you with some words from one of my favourite songs; “Amazing love, how can it be? That you, my king. would die for me”.

Prayer thought: Thank you Lord Jesus for your amazing love shown on the cross. We don’t come close to deserving your grace. We are sinners, yet you love us so much that you gave your life for us so that we can have life that is free from sin. Thank you that we can look to the cross and be reminded of your grace and finished work, not requiring us to do anything but to trust in your death and resurrection Thank you that you didn’t just die but you rose again from the grave and defeated death! We praise you that through this trust, we have the hope of eternal life with you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

God Bless

Josh Clarke- The Faith Filled Friends