HOW carefully we treasure up the last words of our beloved ones We write them in our Bibles or diaries, we show them to our relatives and friends, and have them sacredly handed down from one generation to another.
"IT IS FINISHED" were the last words uttered by the blessed Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross, amidst the scoffs and jeers of the religious and the godless ones, when He was suffering untold agonies, and when a holy God made His soul an offering for sin (John 19:30). JOH 19:30 Oh, how God prizes these last three words of His beloved Son, uttered, as they were, just as He was accomplishing the wondrous work which was to bring everlasting glory to God, and everlasting blessing to poor sinners!
“IT IS FINISHED." Who was He who uttered them? JESUS, the Holy One of God, when all the waves and billows of God's wrath had rolled over His blessed head, and after having cried that terrible cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Psa. 22:1). PSA 22:1 Yes, it was Jesus, the only begotten and well-beloved Son of God, who said, "IT IS FINISHED." To God He said it, and for you and for me, dear reader, He said it. Let us look at these three words separately for a few moments.
“IT is finished," the work God gave Him to do for His own glory and our salvation.
In what did this work consist? The wrath of God against sin must be endured, death tasted, judgment exhausted, sins forever put away, and Satan's power broken; and, blessed be God, "IT" is all done; so that Jesus could say, " I HAVE glorified Thee on the earth: I HAVE finished the work which Thou gavest me to do "(John 17:4). JOH 17:4
“It IS finished." Mark you well; not, IT is being done; not, IT has to be done; but “IT is" done: clone as God required it should be done; as Christ alone could do it; and done as you and I needed it should be.
“It is FINISHED"; nothing left for God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, or the sinner to add; finished outside of us, but for us. More than eighteen hundred years ago Jesus "finished" the work on the cross, on the ground of which God now gives FREELY to every believing, repentant sinner a present, perfect, and permanent pardon.
Think again WHO it was who said “IT IS FINISHED"; of the circumstances under which the words were uttered; of the blessed GOD into whose ears they were uttered; and of the poor, hell-deserving, death-deserving, and judgment-deserving sinners for whom they were uttered, and say, Will you not trust your immortal soul's everlasting salvation to Jesus and His "finished" work?
Perhaps you think, as thousands do, that you have to no something for pardon, and often your agonizing question is, “What must I DO to be saved?” We answer (as by faith we hear Jesus say, "It is finished")—
“Nothing either great or small,
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.”
Works flow from salvation like a stream from a fountain, but you must have the fountain first, and " Until to JESUS' work you cling
By a simple faith,
Doing is a deadly thing,
Doing ends in death.”
The Spirit of God may pass your soul through deep exercises, like those the prodigal passed through on his way to the father's house; but you have no more to DO for salvation than the prodigal had to DO for the best robe, ring, shoes, and fatted calf. He confessed he had sinned, and was unworthy (and you can say nothing less); a father's loving heart provided all the rest, and the prodigal son became the happy recipient of that father's bounty, The father gave, the son 'received, and the house was filled with heavenly mirth. (Luke 15) LUK 15
God has received Christ up into glory as a proof that He is perfectly satisfied with the work that He did once for all on the cross, and now it remains for you to receive Him by a simple faith, as a proof that you are satisfied that "IT IS FINISHED.”
I wish now to dwell for a few moments on the subject of PEACE.
That which is commonly taught and believed in Christendom is that WE are to make our peace with God; but how could an unholy, unrighteous, and unjust sinner make peace with a holy, righteous, and just God?
As well expect an infant to leave its mother's bosom, and stop the express train as it rushes down the main line. Be assured of this, poor sinner, that nothing you have done, are doing, or ever will be able to do, could make your peace with God.
Man's heart by nature is at enmity with God; and Christ died not to reconcile God to man, as is so commonly taught, but to reconcile us to God (see 2 Cor. 5:18-20; 2CO 5:18-20 Col. 1: 20, 22 COL 1:20-22) and until you know and believe this, you will never be at peace with God.
But I think I hear you say, “If I am unable to make my peace with God, and yet must be at peace with Him, to be perfectly happy here and hereafter, how is it to be accomplished?”
Christ has made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20). COL 1:20 Yes, Christ has made it by His blood, has made it with God, and has made it for you; and having done so said, “IT IS FINISHED.”
And now having slain all our enemies on the cross, God raised Him from the dead, and sent Him to proclaim peace to us; and the first three words He uttered after His resurrection to His assembled disciples were, "PEACE UNTO YOU" (John 20:19, 21, 26).
Now, the reason so many dear souls have not settled peace with God is because they stop at the cross, and do not go on to the resurrection. But Christ is no longer a dead Christ hanging on the tree. The angelic instruction and invitation is, " Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: HE IS RISEN; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him "' (Mark 16:6). MAR 16:6
“The God of peace... brought again, from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20). HEB 13:20
Do not confound the work of Christ for you with the work of the Holy Ghost in you: God does not preach peace by the Holy Ghost, but by CHRIST: “Preaching peace by Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:36; ACT 10:36 Eph. 2:17 EPH 2:17). But further, not only did He make peace on the cross, and announced it in resurrection, but “HE Is. OUR PEACE (Eph. 2:14). EPH 2:14 Not feelings, experiences, realizations, progress, or service, but Himself in heaven, who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever," is our peace.
We have thus seen that Christ crucified made peace with God for us; that Christ risen preaches peace to us; and that Christ glorified is our peace, and the moment we believe in God who gave, raised, and glorified Christ, we have present, perfect, and permanent peace with God.
H. M. H.