JOHN 19:30, 20:19, 21:22.
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” (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)) were the last words uttered by the blessed Lord 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. Oh, how God prizes these three last 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?” (Ps. 22:1.) Yes, it was Jesus, the only 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 moment.
“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 must be endured against sin, 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 17:44I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. (John 17:4).)
“It is finished.” Mark you well; not it is being done; not it has to be done; but “it is” done: done 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 “it is finished” work? Perhaps you think, as thousands do, that you have to do 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.
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.”
Peace.
That which is commonly taught and believed 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. 5:18-2018And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18‑20); Col. 1:20, 2220And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:22)), 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. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 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, 2619Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (John 20:19)
21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. (John 20:21)
26And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. (John 20:26).) 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 16:66And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: 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).)
Not feelings, experiences, realizations, progress, or service, but Himself in heaven, who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” is our peace.
We have now 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.
Pardon
Being pardoned, and having peace with God, I now need a pattern to walk by as I go through this world on my way to glory; and the same blessed person through whom I have pardon and peace becomes my pattern. “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.” (1 Peter 2:2121For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (1 Peter 2:21).) “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” (1 John 2:66He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6).) We become exactly like what we are occupied with; if we are occupied with the world, we become worldly; if with ourselves, selfish; but if with Christ, Christ-like.
When I went to school I had a copy set me to write. Being desirous of pleasing, I endeavored to copy the headline exactly. On looking at it, my schoolmaster praised me for the first line, but found fault with the lines which followed, as being each one more unlike the headline. I assured him that I had done my best, when he kindly pointed out the secret of my failure; my first line was well written, because I had kept my eye steadfastly on the headline, which I failed to do in writing the second and following lines, and thus my copy grew worse and worse. Since I have been converted I have profited by my school lesson, and have endeavored to keep my eye on the headline—Christ.
“Oh, fix our earnest gaze,
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That with Thy beauty occupied
We elsewhere none may see.”
Prospect.
The beloved children of God have no future but the glory. What a blessed prospect!
Beloved fellow-laborers, the time for both proclaiming and writing the salvation of God is nearly at an end, so be not weary in well-doing, but the rather be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Beloved fellow-child of God, are you praying for the salvation of sinners, and are you seeking to bring such to the Savior of sinners? It is the blessed privilege of each child of God to seek to bring one fellow-voyager to eternity to the feet of Jesus; and if we each desired and sought to be used by God to the salvation of one precious soul, what a work would be done for God and His Christ by us in this world.
As I think upon the thousands upon thousands of children that this sad and wicked world contains, how intensely I long for their salvation now in their early days, as I believe that the coming of the Lord is so near that I feel there is not time left for them to grow up to manhood and womanhood before the Lord’s second coming will take place. Who of us will go and tell them that Jesus died and shed His precious blood, to wash them from all their sins, to make them whiter than snow, to make them lambs of His flock, and to fit them to be forever with Himself in glory? Oh, the time is short for working for the best of Masters! If we would do anything for Him in this world, it must be now or never; for His word is, “SURELY I COME quickly;” and He is saying to us individually, “Occupy” not till death, or till the world is converted, but—“till I come.”
“A little while for winning souls to Jesus,
Ere we behold His beauty face to face;
A little while for healing soul-diseases
By telling others of a Saviour’s grace.”
Now this second scripture is the picture of the child of God in this dispensation, waiting not for death, nor for the world’s improvement, but for the Lord’s return.
The dear young converts at Thessalonica were converted “to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thess. 1:9, 109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10).) And the Lord Himself told His disciples that they were to be “like unto men that wait for their lord.” (Luke 12:3636And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. (Luke 12:36).)
There is the greatest difference possible between waiting for an event to take place and waiting for Person to come and take us away to His Father’s house. The first has little or no effect upon us; the last touches every point of the compass.
Which are you looking for, my beloved saved reader? Do you get up in the morning and expect Him to come ere night wraps this world again in darkness? Do you retire at night and expect Him, “the bright and morning star,” to come ere the light of another day shall flood your chamber with its rays? As you rise in the morning, or retire at night, listen to your Savior and Lord saying, as it were, “Wait for Me till I come.”
In the third scripture (1 Cor. 11:23-2623For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:23‑26)) He asks all His own blood-bought and blood-washed ones to remember Himself “till He come.”
Do we not seize every opportunity of showing our dearly-loved ones that, though we may be absent thousands of miles from them, still they are remembered by us? Oh, think of His love to us? Was there ever love like His? His enemies said, “Never man spike like this Man.” But we who are by grace His friends can say, “Never man loved like this Man.”
He has left His name as a rallying center for all His loyal hearted ones to surround (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)); and by His Spirit, who is down here, He would fain gather all the members of His body to His earth rejected name, to respond to His loving request, “Remember Me till I come.”
But as the word of God and every divine principle are being called in question today, once more the words sound loud and clear upon the ear that desires to hear, “But that which ye have already HOLD FAST TILL I COME.” (Rev. 2:2525But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. (Revelation 2:25).) Refuse persistently all the modern notions of the day that are called “developments,” and stick to the “good word of God,” remembering that it is in its sacred pages, “He that is of God heareth God’s words.” (John 8:4747He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (John 8:47).)
“Eternal glories gleam afar
To nerve my faint endeavor;
So now to work, to watch, to wait,
And then to REST Forever.”
if the sure and certain prospect of the child is glory with Christ forever, what is your prospect, poor unsaved reader of these pages? If saved, it is because you have not known and trusted the person and work of the Lord Jesus and consequently you cannot, in your unsaved state, work and wait for Him. You cannot Him; for you neither know nor love Him. Neither can you hold fast His word; for a place in your heart.
Let go your sins, yourself, the world, and all that is keeping you from the Savior, and just to His arms, and then your prospect, instead the lake of fire forever, will be glory with ever.
Now, which is it to be? It must be one or the There is no time to lose. Make haste, and come to Jesus; make haste, and have faith in His blood; make haste, and believe in Him who shed He Himself will be everything to your time and eternity.
If you do not wish to be left when Jesus comes His own; if you do not wish to spend an eternity in the lake of fire, and to be forgotten for delay not another moment, but come to Jesus. He will gladly welcome you into His outstretched arms of love and mercy, and then you the holy and blessed privilege of working for, waiting for, and remembering Him, and holding fast for Him till He come, God grant that all who read these pages may have glory with Christ, and not the lake of fire forever, for their eternal prospect.
And now I affectionately urge you, if you have accepted Christ as your pardon, peace, and pattern, to accept Him also as your near, sure, and constant prospect.