Words From the Cross: "It is finished."

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

John 19:30

These final words of Jesus that John records for us are precious. To understand their depth and richness, we have to span back from this one moment and hear them within the context of Jesus’ understanding of his life. We have to pull back and hear these words with the entire Biblical story as the backdrop. They are words that are rooted in two gardens.

In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve reached out for autonomy and independence from God, they had no idea of the consequences and lasting implications of this one fatal choice. They wanted freedom, but what they set into motion was an unraveling they could never have imagined. If they had known what this one decision would do, I can’t fathom that they would have rebelled. They flung wide the door to sin, death, and pain.

God pursued them and he made a promise to them. He promised that it wouldn’t always be this way. He promised Eve that one day her son would rise up and crush the head of the serpent who had just deceived her. Her boy would fight for her, for all of her children who would be born under the curse of sin. He would fight, and he would win, but he would be wounded in the battle.

All throughout the story of Scripture, the curse of sin unfolds. The children of God fight with one another. They kill each other. They abuse and hurt one another. They run away from their loving Father again and again. And in all of this pain, they wait. They wait for the son of Eve to come and rescue them from the mess they have made.

In the waiting there is a tension that seems to run throughout the entire Old Testament. As God’s children sin against him and each other, they understand that their sin has consequences. They deserve the wrath and judgment of God, and they fear that it may one day come upon them. As their history and wickedness progresses, an image surfaces through the mouths of the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Habakkuk all refer to a cup. They warned the people of God that they had all earned God’s judgment for their sins, rebellions, hatred and hurt. They foretold that God was storing up his wrath for those sins in a cup and that the day of judgment was coming. One day God would pour that cup out and satisfy the justice they had offended. The prophets pleaded with God’s people to repent.

This cup followed them throughout their rebellion and exile. The people of God waited for the day the “cup of staggering” (Isaiah 51:17, 22) would be poured out on them and they would be required to pay for all they had done. And then the cup disappeared. For 400 years God was silent. In the silence, the people of God waited. They waited for judgement. They waited for Eve’s promised son. But the heavens were silent. The cup disappeared from memory.

Until one Thursday night, when a humble Rabbi took off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist and served dinner to his friends. After dinner this same Rabbi took his disciples to another garden to watch and pray. While they slept he went off by himself, because the moment of decision had come. The Promised Son of Eve got down on his knees and wrestled over the cup. The cup of staggering had reappeared. The Father asked his Son the question that all of Scripture had been pushing toward: “My Son, my beloved boy, will you drink the cup the children deserve? Will you drink the cup of judgment so they don’t have to?”. Jesus was given a choice that night. He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) Praise God for the “nevertheless” that saved us as all.


Jesus was determined to drink the cup the Father had handed to him. In one garden, our father Adam failed us. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Promised Son of Eve rose and took his place “for the final battle, resolved, determined, submissive and yielding to his Heavenly Father’s will.” (Feguson & Thomas, Ichthus) For our Brother Jesus will never fail his own. He stepped out of the Garden resolved to win the battle by drinking the cup of staggering to its dregs.

This is what Jesus is referring to in his final cry, “It is finished.” The cup of justice has been poured out. The debt we owe to God has been paid in full. Redemption is accomplished. Salvation is won. That old enemy that has been nipping at our heels since our first parents left the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago, has been defeated. As Jesus drank the cup, he crushed the head of Satan. The battle was won.

I know it doesn’t always feel that the battle is won. I know you feel tired from fighting sin, death and despair. I know the days feel long and the road back home seems to stretch out for eternity. I know what it feels like to have a willing spirit, but a severely weakened flesh. I too feel the desire to just lay down and give up, because it sometimes feels so hard and the load is too heavy.

But then I hear him cry from the cross. I lift my eyes to see him bruised and bloody, hanging there looking like a victim. But these are not the words of a victim coming out of his mouth. It is the cry of a victor. The Son of Eve kept his promise to us. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross and defeated our foe. His cry reverberates across time and space, healing every wounded heart, strengthening every weary soul, restoring life to what is dead. His cry is the fulfillment of a promise God made thousands of years ago, that he would not leave us like this. He would not abandon us to our own consequences.

He will fight for us. He will win.

These words of hope instill courage in my faint heart. They give me a reason to keep going even when I don’t want to. They pick me up and put me back on the road that the Father calls me to walk in obedience because they strengthen my faith. On the cross, my Savior locks eyes with me. He proclaims a verdict over my life that no one can take from me. He keeps his promises to me. All of them are yes and amen.

It is finished.