It is finished

I want to invite you to meditate for a moment on the Word of the Lord, this penultimate Word that could also have been the last Word that the Lord declared on the cross. There are at least seven expressions that are recorded in the Gospels that the Lord declared while on the cross.

I believe that the Holy Spirit in His wisdom has left us seven expressions of the Lord on the cross, and we know that there are no coincidences in the Word of God, all things in the Word have a reason for being, a purpose. I believe that these words each one of them summarized an aspect of that process that the Lord was living. The Holy Spirit has enlightened His Church throughout history so that many times on Good Friday it gathers up these different expressions of the Lord on the cross and during Holy Week many churches dedicate a sermon on the Seven Words. How many have heard that? ever?.

But don't worry I'm not going to preach on the Seven Words, I'm going to pick one tonight. In verse 30 of John 19, which I think is the only place where this Word is recorded, it says: "When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said: it is finished." Tetelestai, a Greek word, an expression that is found in only one or two places in Scripture in that same passage of John in verse 28. "After this, Jesus knowing that all was finished said so that the Scripture might fulfilled: I am thirsty.

I want us to meditate for a moment on that expression "it is finished" and we are going to see that it has many things there, many resonances. And I want to ask you at the end of the service to be so kind as to come and leave your offerings here, I always forget these things but I don't want to interrupt the flow of the service so I do invite you right now to reserve your offering, amen? and come to the end and leave it here in the House of the Lord, I believe in the integrity of the people of God so, amen, you don't have to be whipping people all the time so that, I know that you are mature people.

Tetelestai, it is completed, everything is finished. It's all over, it's finished. This word tetelestai is believed to have been used, among other things, to mark receipts in ancient bookkeeping. When a debt had been paid, when a bill, as we say, an account had been paid, it was stamped or written, fully paid, fully settled the account. Nothing else is owed, the account is settled, there is no claim against that person because the price has been paid.

There is something that is complete, finality, completion, consummation in this word. For me, this expression of the Lord before he died, before completing His Work, shows that there was a plan. You can't say: it is finished, it is finished unless you don't know, do you? what is over. It is as if there had been a plan, a strategy, a previously established system, a series of things that had to be completed and done, there was an intention that the Lord, the heavenly Father in His sovereignty had established a series of achievements, of achievements, of moments that had to occur in the plan of salvation.

And that the Lord there on His cross as He prepared to take His last breath recounts in His mind every thing He had done, every achievement He had achieved during His ministry and puts a mark of: yes, yes, it was done. , completed, finished. Yes, I did this, I did that, I did what My Father told me in this, I did say what I had to say in this direction, I did establish what the Lord said I had to establish. Yes there was such a confrontation, yes there was such a defeat of such a negative thing. And when everything has been covered, the Lord says: Father, I have completed everything you gave me. I have done everything you told me, everything has been fulfilled, nothing is missing.

The Lord could say: Yes, I have carried out all that the Father had appointed. What things were accomplished at that moment, what things had been accomplished, what achievements had the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished? What parts of the Will of God had the Lord accomplished during His Ministry? Because remember that it was not only His Ministry but also the ministry of Abraham, of Gideon, of Elijah, and of the great prophets of God, the great moments in the Exodus and the great battles that had been established, the writings of the Old Testament all these things, those moments were part of a plan that had begun of course in eternity but that in a historical sense had begun perhaps at the time of Eden.

That plan had been set in motion since the beginning of creation, but above all I believe that plan came into play mostly when Adam and Eve entered the scene and the drama of humanity began, and the fall and sin came, and separation from God, a whole drama begins and at the other end of that drama is the Lord with His arms outstretched delivering His Spirit to the Father, and between these two extremes of the drama there is a whole story and at the end the Lord puts the final point: it is finished.

What things is the Lord reminding himself of at that moment, what things is he pointing out? we can just point to some of them and this is the essence of my meditation. Number one: the promise that God made that the serpent would strike the woman on the heel, on the ankle, but that the woman would step on the head of the serpent through her offspring, the man, Christ Jesus who was born of a woman: Maria. And now the Lord there on the cross by shedding His blood says the Bible in a passage that: on the cross the Lord defeated principalities and powers, and publicly displayed them and annulled the act of decrees that was contrary to us.

That is why the Bible says: who will condemn if God is the one who justifies? because already there on the cross of Calvary the Lord dealt a death blow to the serpent. So the Lord says: it is finished, that is completed, check.

Another thing that I believe is fulfilled through this passage is that God's justice had been satisfied. God had declared centuries ago: the soul that sins will die. The Lord also ends there to fulfill something very important, the justice of God, the greatest offense against the Majesty of God of every man, every woman who in her sin establishes a separation between God and man, cannot have access to the Grace of God cannot enter the perfect Presence of God in eternity and therefore has to remain by God's justice completely separated from the Father for all eternity.

And the Lord says: do you know what Father? I know that You do not want to kill, You want to save Your creation so I am going to pay the price and I, infinitely perfect, infinitely just, infinitely valuable, am going to give My life as a price for that sin and everyone who enters into that sin. act, and believe that what I have done is valid for him or her, and sign that blank check, that person will also receive that justice that I have achieved and will not have to pay the price of their sins. Because that is simply salvation, it is simply you entering into what Christ has already accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Enter His justice and you will receive justice.

When the Lord is up there and says: it is finished, he is saying: is there something else? man no longer has to pay with his death, I have paid it and the Father's justice has been satisfied and now His love and mercy can take precedence.

A third thing that I believe the Lord was thinking there on the cross is that Satan, as I had said, had been defeated on multiple occasions through His Ministry and that he was definitely defeated there on the cross. When the Lord walked on the cross like it was a great fast forward movie He remembered that moment in the desert when there was a frontal confrontation between Satan and Him there before starting His Ministry.

The Lord remembers at that moment that Satan had already been defeated not only at that moment on the cross in a definitive form, the principalities, the principle of evil. The Word also says that the Son of man manifested himself, came to undo the works of the devil.

The Lord defeated Satan in the desert and established a principle that it is possible for us to have victory over temptation, to have victory over sin, to have victory over the deceptions of the devil, to have victory over the flesh and the desire to affirm ourselves to ourselves instead of continuing with the Will of the Father.

And the Lord there in the desert had defeated Satan and then he defeated him when he defeated him in the synagogue with the bent-over woman we talked about a while ago, with the demon-possessed man in the synagogue, with the Gadarene demon-possessed, with that child who was demonized when He descended from the Mount of Resurrection, the Lord defeated Satan again and again, and again, the principle of evil. The Lord remembers that and also says: it is finished, that aspect of My Ministry has also been finished.

Another concept, another principle that the Lord recalls when he says: finished is that the price of death had also been paid and that death had been definitively defeated as it would be after the resurrection. It reminds us of the words of the apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter 15: "Where is your victory, oh death?" He says: "death is swallowed up in victory", "where is your victory grave, where is your sting, oh death? It was not there, the Lord had taken it away.

When the Lord is there, remember that death has also been defeated time and time again, many rounds that the Lord shot with death and defeated it in all of them. And finally on the cross with His death by being resurrected by the Father He can also say: hm, another thing consummated, finished, completed. Death has also been defeated.

And a couple of other things, he says too. I say that when the Lord is up there He recognizes that a new way to the Father has been opened through the blood and death of Jesus.

Another thing that the Lord remembers is that, right? that path that He opens. It says that by this wide path we can confidently come to the Throne of Grace to receive opportune help through the cross of Christ, through the blood of Christ, through the victory of Christ, through His achievements in life and in death. Now there is a new way to approach the Father, it is not through our acts, our sacrifices, our rituals, our justice that we will never achieve, but simply through the Grace that Christ released.

Come to the waters all you thirsty, come and drink without money and without price, mere grace, pure grace along that path, that path that Christ opened through the cross of Calvary. Then the Lord also said something else: it is finished, you can go.

Another thing. In His ministerial career the Lord had established His Church. The Lord establishes His Church, His Church with a capital I, His universal Catholic Church, because that is what is meant by the word Catholic, universal created by different races, different nations. An eternal Church, a Church that He gave His life for and that He comes looking for.

As long as the Church of Christ remains founded on the Word of the Lord, no matter what demons are thrown against it, we will prevail, we will be firm and when this society gets tired of kicking against the Truth of God and having its secular intellectual adolescent dog, the Church it will be there as a refuge for those bodies crushed by sin to enter and find forgiveness and grace in the words and life of Christ Jesus. That is why we cannot sell ourselves, we cannot compromise the Gospel, we cannot start selling the house to the best buyer, to the one who pays any price because we believe that if we do not do so, they will leave the Church empty. We stand firmly on that Christ who established His Church for all eternity, a Church that will prevail forever and ever.

The Lord already knows. I kept My Word, I fulfilled My purpose, I fulfilled My task, I established My Church, I left twelve men, I left a group of women, I left some truths that I declared, I left some teachings that now others will take, My statements will be written, there will be a whole documentation of My truths and My followers through the centuries will live by those truths that I established and now the glorious and eternal corporation that is the Church because Its founder left it. He gave up His values, He gave up His vision, He gave up His governing principles, and now He continues.

So that is why the Lord says: it is finished. Everything was already finished, there was nothing left to do. When the Lord is on the cross, he is remembering thousands of moments, moments that were not even written in the Bible, they are there in history. One day we will see them, we will see the complete video, we will have thousands of years to see all the videos that have never been seen of all the moments, all the things that the Lord accomplished, completed, accomplished.

There is nothing that can be added to it, that is the last thing that I see here that I can say, the seventh thing. It is that when Christ says: it is finished, he is saying to us: do not try to improve My plan. Do you know that people try at this time to improve God's plan? we want to be more just than God, more merciful than God, more good than God, more accepting than God, more gentle than God, we want to remove a number of things and put in because we believe that it cannot be so.

What we are supposed to do is simply accept and enter into God's plan. That is why the apostle Paul says: if any angel from heaven tries to add something to this Word, be cursed, be anathema because God's plan is perfect and it is an atrocity to want to improve God's plan. What you and I have to do is enter into the plan, accept it, receive it, live in it, reflect it with our life, our behavior and affirm it with our being.

Allow God, brothers, that at the end of our life we too can confidently say: it is finished. We have to live our life each day here on Earth with that goal in mind. When the moment of my death arrives, of my agony, whether in a hospital bed alone or with the pain of a very difficult disease, or with my thoughts a little confused by old age, or my body decrepit by illness remembering the pains, the tribulations, betrayals, difficulties, past failures like Christ should have also remembered all those things but also be able to say: it is finished.

Lord I have done what You commanded me. I have done my part, I have fought the good fight, I have run the race of faith and now only the crown of glory awaits me, victory. God willing that we live our lives in that way behind the prize. That we have finished what God established for us.

May the Lord bless us tonight. God bless you tonight. Father we enter into Your perfect plan. We thank you for what You have done, Lord Jesus, for not leaving a single detail, a single comma, a single point, a single pause unrealized from Your beautiful plan. We thank you that we can also have that victory Father. Meanwhile we rejoice in the victory that Christ achieved for us on the cross in His Name, in His name, amen and amen. God bless you my brothers.