AN architect contracts to build a house; he performs his work, fulfills his contract, builds and completes. It is finished. A shipbuilder builds a ship; the keel is laid, the ribs, lining, and outside planks are put into their respective places, the deck is put on, the masts are stepped, the rigging is set up and rattled down; she is ready for sea. His work is finished. How easy to understand the words, "It is finished," in relation to the building of a house or a ship.
Now, let me draw my reader's attention to the words, "It is finished," in relation to something else. We shall find them in John 19 verse 30, “When Jesus had therefore received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
Nothing can be more precious to poor, needy sinful man than these three words, “It is finished.” May my reader bow to their wondrous meaning, and know in his soul their infinite preciousness. Let him remember that they were the last words of the expiring Savior. He said,"It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." Surely there is a meaning in these words full of blessing for the sinner. Why was the blessed Son of God upon the cross at all? Why did He give expression to such words ere He gave up the ghost? Sin had placed between God and man an immeasurable distance. God was holy, man was unholy, sinful, and undone: Reader, think of this. God must ever be opposed to sin; "He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity." You have sinned; there is then a distance between you and God. Your conscience tells you that you are guilty and condemned, that you cannot meet God in peace; yea you cannot even now think of Him with any degree of joy. This is terrible, is it not? How dreadful is sin, how terrible are its consequences! Not only separation from God here, but separation from God forever, for those who die unforgiven.
But what can be done to bring the sinner to God? what can be done to satisfy God's justice and set forth the love and the mercy of God to the sinner? Ah, this is a momentous question, a question of eternal importance.
Dear reader, I beseech you to think of it. To die with it unsolved, with the answer unknown, is to be damned for your sins to all eternity. Awful thought! Awful, because so true!
The more we examine into man's state before God, as described in the Word, the more we see that man is utterly incapable of working himself into God's favor. As well might he try to step from this globe to the nearest fixed star, a distance of twenty billions of miles, as attempt to bring himself to God by aught he can perform.
In Psa. 14 we get God looking down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. His conclusion is: "They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Solemn conclusion, the result of His unerring investigation. The ruin is universal. The whole human family is pronounced guilty by God Himself. God now steps into the scene. He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to die. If God hates the sinner’s sin, He loves the sinner. The blessed Son of God comes down here, and, upon the cross, spans the distance between God and the sinner. He, as it were, constructs a bridge across the yawning chasm sin has made, so that the sinner may reach God in peace. "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:5,65For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:5‑6)).
Oh, my reader, look at the cross, and consider the sight that meets your gaze there. The Son of God expiring! Amazing thought! And why? Divine justice could not be satisfied with less. Its claims were infinite, and an infinite sacrifice must be offered up. Blessed be God, this was offered by Jesus, His dear Son, upon the accursed tree. The "Just One" stood in the place of the unjust to bear the sins, to receive, in His own person, the judgment, to finish atonement, and to bring the sinner who believes to God. Was there a work to perform which was infinitely beyond the sinner's power? Jesus, upon the cross, finished that work. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, He glorified God about it, He, by the efficacy of His own sacrifice, accomplished redemption; and, ere He gave up the ghost, He uttered those memorable and ever blessed words, "It is finished.”
Do we need further witness that all is finished which forms the everlasting and imperishable basis upon which the salvation of the sinner rests? God has raised His Son from the dead, and given Him glory. Here is evidence of the indisputable truth of Christ's words, "It is finished"; and not only proof of the verity of His words, but also of God's appreciation of what He has done upon the Cross.
But what is all this to the sinner? It meets his case and need perfectly. "It is finished," is a downy bed, upon which he, by faith, can recline his weary, sin-sick soul. Through believing in Jesus he is, by virtue of that finished work, brought to God, and saved. Blessed fact!
Yes, my reader, it is Jesus who has finished the work: you are called on simply to repose upon Him by faith. "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." God's justice stands upon this finished work, sheathes its sword, and shelters every sinner who avails himself of Jesus—who believes in Jesus. Oh, my reader, think on this. God calls upon you to behold what He, in love, has done for you. He says, "The work is all finished, come, come and be saved." Can you resist His love, His invitation? Beware of trifling with it, for He says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." To rest upon this finished work of Christ is to be saved now, and forever. To die in your sins is to be engulfed in unutterable and everlasting woe. Oh! then, I beseech you, flee to Jesus and escape the woe. E. A.