On Good Friday, the Church solemnly celebrates the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Churches around the world set aside time to worship, reflect upon Christ’s words on the cross, and remember that Jesus gave his body and blood as a Paschal sacrifice for our Sin. We come to Good Friday, and realize that Jesus closed the book on Paschal sacrifices when he declared – “It is finished”. Yet, the question we should ask is: What is finished? What is the “it” that is finished?”
Jesus was not declaring his death,
as if he were saying, “I am finished”.
We know from the Gospels that Jesus "gave up his life", it was not taken from him. We also know that Jesus was doing the Father’s work – his
focus was not on himself, but on the Father’s purpose for His life to be
fulfilled.
“For I have come down from
heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).
Among one of the most amazing
statements any person could try to make was in Jesus’ prayer on the night of
his arrest. The Gospel of John records
Jesus’ amazing words:
“I glorified you on earth, having
accomplished the work that you gave me to do. John 17:4
If there could be a more
purposeful, intentional God life we would not see anything greater than the
words, “I accomplished the work you gave me to do”. When Jesus said, “It is finished”, I
believe he was pointing to this – “the work you gave me to do”.
Christ’s death brought about an
“atonement” for Sin. There were many
acts of atonement in the yearly sacrifices at Yom Kippur, but none of them were
permanent. The writer of Hebrews makes
that point.
“But when Christ appeared as a
high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and
more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood
of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal
redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled
persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works
to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:11-14).
That which was foreshadowed in the
yearly offerings, Christ Jesus offered himself to fulfill those sacrifices, and
now He is the finished, or final work of God to redeem a lost people. He adds:
“For Christ has entered, not into
holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it
to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every
year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly
since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all
at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews
9:24-26).
The yearly Old Covenant sacrifices
made an annual admission – “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of
sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4).
Yet, now we come back to the
fundamentals of Christ’s death. He did
it for the Love of His Father.
“Consequently, when Christ came
into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a
body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you
have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of
me in the scroll of the book’” (Hebrews 10:5-7).
This is what the Apostle Paul
reminds us too. “Therefore, since we
have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2
At the Cross, God demonstrated to
us his love. He sent His Son to open the
way to reconciliation and renewal of our standing – no longer a Sinful being,
but one redeemed by the love of God in His Son’s death. Paul says this is why
we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
In Christ’s death, we see hope.
Hope that is not temporal, or situational, as in “I hope my team
wins”. That kind of hope is uncertain, merely
a wish for an outcome we prefer. Jesus’
death made way for a certainty of Hope, a hope based on a once-and-for
sacrifice that produces a once-and-for-all outcome.
This hope is not based on our
wishes but on God’s authority and power.
Paul went on to say: “…hope does not put us to shame, because God’s
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us” (Romans 5:5).
The cross brings us full
circle. God so loved the world, he sent
his Son…and faith in Christ’s death opens the doorway to a certain hope. Christ said “It is finished”, and so all that
we need to do is what the writer of Hebrews said – “draw near to God through
Christ in faith”
“…he holds his priesthood
permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to
the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to
make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such
a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted
above the heavens” (Hebrews 7:24-26).
Peace
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