It Is Finished - 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." John 19:30

As we approach Good Friday, the day when our Lord died for us on the cross, I am reminded of John 19:30. This is the verse that tells us that just before He died, Christ cried out, "It is finished!"

Now a lot of people have pointed out that this cry of victory was Jesus exulting in His finished work. He had accomplished the task that the Father sent Him to do (see John 17:4). He had borne the sins of the world and paid for our forgiveness with the sacrifice of His own body and blood. This is the most important point and we need to remember it often, not just on Good Friday. Having stated the obvious, there are still a few other truths that not everyone realizes (I didn't at first).

First, when the verse says He "...gave up His spirit", we need to recognize that Jesus was not just involuntarily succombing to death. He was actively choosing at that particular moment to die. As Jesus stated earlier in His ministry, no one could take His life away, He would lay it down by His own authority, and He would raise Himself back up by His own authority (see John 10:18). In Matthew 27:50, the literal translation is that He "sent it away", referring to His spirit. Only the Son of God could choose the exact moment His spirit would depart. No mere mortal could do this. When His work was done, Christ chose to die.

The second very interesting truth related to this verse is that Jesus took a drink of "sour wine" offered to Him by a soldier in response to Him saying, "I am thirsty". We know from Matthew 27:45-50, a parallel passage, that this occurred at the ninth hour. The Jewish ninth hour was 3 pm in the afternoon; the time of the afternoon sacrifice in the temple. The point is that when an animal, probably a lamb, was being sacrificed as a temporary covering for sin, the Lamb of God was atoning for the sins of the entire world. No longer would animal sacrifices be necessary. Jesus had paid it all! These sacrifices continued until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD because of the ignorance and rebellion of sinful men. But in truth, the work of redemption was done. Hallelujah, what a Savior!