Seven Words From The Cross - It Is Finished - Into Thy Hands

You know, it's a wonderful thing to be able to say, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He died actually, he died confidently, and he died willingly. 

We come now to the sixth word from the cross found in John 19:30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the spirit. When you compare the gospel records, you discover that he shouted this statement. With a loud voice he cried, It is finished, and then he bowed and he gave up his spirit. At the age of 33, most people are saying it is beginning. But at the age of about 33, Jesus was saying it is finished. Now he did not say I am finished. It was not a cry of defeat, it was a shout of victory. And in the original manuscript that John wrote, it was one Greek word with 10 letters in it, and that word is tetelestai. 

Now perhaps that's a new word to you. It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished. Tetelestai. I want you to consider with me three important facts about this word that our Lord uttered: it is finished. It was a familiar word. And if you were to pick up the Greek lexicons, you would find that the servants and the slaves used this word. A master would tell his slave or his servant to go do something, and when he had completed the task, he would come back and say, tetelestai. Here is the servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, doing the Father’s will. Tetelestai, it is finished.

I also have discovered that the priests used this word. You’ll remember that the Jewish people had to bring their sacrifice to the priest to be examined. It was against the law to offer any kind of a faulty sacrifice at the altar of God. And after the priest had examined the sacrifice, he would say, tetelestai. Now of course he would use the Hebrew or the Aramaic equivalent, but this is the word that would be used: tetelestai. It is a perfect, faultless sacrifice. Jesus Christ dying on the cross was God's sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now the big question is this: is he a faultless sacrifice? 

Well, God the Father says that he is. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, God the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And God the Father put his seal of approval upon God the Son. The Holy Spirit came down as a dove and put his seal of approval upon the sacrifice. Even the demons admitted that he was the Son of God and that he had the power to judge them. Even his enemies had to admit that he was faultless because they had to hire liars to bolster their case when they arrested him. He is the spotless, perfect sacrifice. Pilate said, I find no fault in this man. Even Judas said, I have betrayed innocent blood. Tetelestai, the priests used this word. It means a perfect and a faultless sacrifice. You'll not find any other sacrifice for your sins who is perfect, spotless, and faultless. Jesus Christ is the only one. 

Well, the servants used this word. It was a familiar word. And the priests used it, and the artists used it. A painter or a sculptor would complete whatever he was painting or molding, and he would step back and say, tetelestai, it is finished. The picture is completed. Now when you read the Old Testament, you have a very difficult picture, don't you? There are ceremonies and types and prophecies, there are symbols, and even those of us who have been studying the word of God for many years often find serious difficulties as we study the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament was God’s picture gallery in the shadows. And then Jesus Christ came along, and the Lord Jesus Christ completes the whole picture. He is God's wonderful completion to the Old Testament revelation. 

I like that scene in Luke 24 where those two discouraged men are walking on the road to Emmaus, and a stranger joins them and they say to him, Are you the only one who doesn't know what's going on? And they tell him about the death of the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine telling Jesus about his own death? And he says to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, the Lord Jesus went through the Old Testament and he explained the picture. When he died on the cross, Calvary completed the picture. Tetelestai, it's finished. And now we go back and read the Old Testament, and even though there are some difficulties and some hard places to understand, the light is shining. The portraits are no longer in the shadows, and we can see the picture that God has painted. 

It was a familiar word. The slaves used it, and the priests used it, and the artists used it, and the merchants used it. It means the debt is fully paid. If you had purchased something, the merchant would take your money and he would give you a receipt, and that receipt would say, tetelestai. It's finished, it's paid, the debt has been fully paid. You see, you and I as sinners are in debt before God, and we can't pay this debt. We've broken God’s law, we're bankrupt, the wages of sin is death, and Jesus came and paid the debt for us. That's what tetelestai means. It was a familiar word. The servant had finished the work. The perfect sacrifice had been offered. The picture had been completed. The debt had been paid. 

Fact number two: it was a familiar word shouted by a faithful Savior. He came to do a great work. Now what was that great work? The work of salvation. When he was 12 years old, he said, I must be about my Father's business. In John 2 at the wedding in Cana, he said, Mine hour is not yet come. In John 4 he says, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. On the Mount of Transfiguration, our Lord discussed with Moses and Elijah his decease that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. One day he said to his disciples, I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished! Luke 12:50. And of course John 17:4: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, I have glorified thee on the earth. 

A familiar word spoken by a faithful Savior. I'm glad that he was faithful to do the work God gave him to do. And that leads us to our third fact: it was a familiar word spoken by a faithful Savior about a finished work. All of the prophecies were finished that referred to him and his work on the cross. Beginning back in Genesis 3:15, God had promised that a Savior would come and defeat Satan. All of the pictures in the tabernacle—the priesthood, the sacrifices, the furnishings—all of these were now completely finished and fulfilled. The types and prophecies are finished. The veil of the temple was rent in two, and everything said, enter in, God has opened the way of salvation. 

The law is finished. Now some folks don't appreciate this truth, but it's there in the Scriptures. Colossians 2:14: blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled through the finished work of Jesus Christ. God the Father upheld his own holiness and yet fulfilled his own demands when Jesus died on the cross. And there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1. 

The types and prophecies are finished and the law is finished, all of which means the work of salvation is finished. The word that we have in the gospel is not "do" or "try"; it is "done," "trust." The work has been finished. Book of Hebrews tells us about that. Now in the end of the age he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:26. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Hebrews 9:27-28. It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, but he does take away sin. This man, says Hebrews 10:12, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. And so the work of salvation is completed. Nothing more has to be done. 

My Lord was buried, he arose from the dead, he returned to glory, and he sat down because the work was finished. In the Old Testament tabernacle, there were no chairs because the work of the priest was never finished. Now since salvation is a finished work, don't you dare add anything to it. And don't you take anything from it, and don't you substitute anything for it. There is only one way of salvation: it is faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When my Lord died, he cried tetelestai, it is finished. A familiar word shouted by a faithful Savior about a finished work. Lifted up was he to die, it is finished was his cry. Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah, what a Savior!

We turn to Luke 23 and I'm reading verse 46. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice—now this of course was his statement, It is finished—he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, he gave up the ghost or he gave up the spirit. Now how did the Lord Jesus die? What were the characteristics of his death? Well, I've noticed that there are at least four characteristics to his death. There may be more, but in this particular statement, I note four characteristics of our Lord’s death. 

First of all, he died actually. His death was not an illusion of some kind; he actually died. The Lord Jesus had a real human body. As I've mentioned in previous studies, he experienced all of the sinless infirmities of human nature. He knew what it was to grow up. He knew what it was to have to eat and drink and sleep. He knew what it was to go through the normal sinless infirmities of human flesh. And our Lord Jesus knew what it was to die. He died actually. His death was a real death. 

Luke does not tell us this, but John tells us that they checked very carefully to make sure that he had died. You’ll recall when the soldiers came to look at the bodies on the cross, they discovered Jesus already was dead and therefore they did not break his legs. When Joseph and Nicodemus wanted to get a hold of the body of Jesus to give it a decent burial, they had to check with Pilate. And Pilate was marveling that Jesus was already dead. The official evidence of the Roman Empire was that Jesus actually had died. And of course, this was the evidence of the Gospel writers: that he actually died. He did not swoon on the cross and then when he was put into the cool tomb, he revived and that was his resurrection. That kind of foolish thinking went out a long time ago. Our Lord Jesus Christ died actually. He tasted death for every man. And when you stop to think that he died for us, that means that we don't have to be afraid of death. 

Which leads me to the second characteristic of my Lord’s death. He not only died actually, but he died confidently. He died confidently for he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. You see, he died confidently because he had the Father’s presence. He said, Father. Now three times on the cross, Jesus addressed God. When he prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, this was a reference to Isaiah 53:12: he made intercession for the transgressors. When he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?, this was a quotation from Psalm 22:1. And now when he says, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, he is quoting Psalm 31:5. You see, our Lord Jesus lived by God’s word. And if you live by God’s word, you can die by God’s word. What assurance do you have to have confidence in death? The only assurance we have is the word of God. 

He died confidently with the Father’s presence and with the Father’s promise. Thirdly, he had the Father’s protection. Into thy hand I commit my spirit. You see, our Lord for many hours had been in the hands of sinners. In fact, he said that. He said, I'm going to be delivered into the hands of sinners. And those hands of sinners took hold of him and bound him. The hands of sinners beat him. The hands of sinners stripped him. The hands of sinners put a crown of thorns upon his head, and then the hands of sinners nailed him to a cross. And I want you to know, my friend, that when he came to the conclusion of his work, he was no longer in the hands of sinners. He was in the Father’s hands. The sinners had their hour. He said, this is your hour and the power of darkness. But he died confidently because he was in the Father’s hand. 

He died actually, and he died confidently. Thirdly, our Lord Jesus Christ died willingly. Now this is an amazing thing. No Old Testament sacrifice ever died willingly. No lamb or goat or sheep ever came and said, I want to die. He willingly laid down his life for us. You know, it's a wonderful thing to be able to say, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He died actually, he died confidently, and he died willingly. I think it's worth noting that before he laid down his life, he had forgiven his enemies. Before he laid down his life, he had given salvation to a repenting thief. Before he laid down his life, he had cared for his mother. Before he laid down his life, he had finished the work God gave him to do. 

Now I don't know how long God's going to enable me to live. Every day I have, every minute that I have is a gift of his grace. But I today want to forgive my enemies, just in case I should die. I don't want to die with anything on my heart against anybody. I want to come to the time of death having shared salvation with others. I want to be faithful in taking care of those who depend upon me. I want to be able to come to the end of my life and lay down my life willingly because I have done the work God wants me to do. 

He died actually, he died confidently, he died willingly, and finally, he died victoriously. He cries out, It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Here we have the seventh word. And of course in the Bible, seven speaks of fullness and completion. The seven days of creation are given in Genesis 1. Here we have the seven words of the new creation. Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the work that God gave him to do. 

And when he gave up his spirit, several things happened. The veil of the temple was rent in twain, and God opens the way into the Holy of Holies. The graves were opened, and there was a resurrection of some of the saints. Jesus Christ is victorious over sin—that’s the rent veil. He is victorious over death—the open graves. There was even an earthquake that shook that area, sort of reminds you of the earthquake at Mount Sinai when God came down and gave the law. But this was not the terror of the law, this was the fulfillment of the law, and the Lord Jesus Christ died victoriously. 

Now, my friend, the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners. He died actually, he died confidently, he died willingly, and he died victoriously for sinners. He was not dying for his own sin, he had none. He was dying for the sins of the world. And it's worth remembering that you are going to die just the way you lived. Now I know at the last minute God can move in and people can be saved. I have led people to Christ on their deathbed, but oh you don't want to take that chance. You don't want to gamble with eternity. We can die confidently. We can die with the assurance that we're going to the Father’s house. We can die with the promises of God’s word to give us grace and strength and comfort. We can die in the safest place in all of the universe: in the hand of God. Jesus said in John 10:27-28: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. What a wonderful thing it is to die the way Jesus died: confidently, knowing that we are in the Father’s hand. 

Have you trusted him? Do you have this kind of confidence as you face an unknown future? Believer in Jesus Christ, rejoice today that death has been vanquished and we can die in the Lord to his glory.