From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. (Matthew 27:45)
An 1849 Currier & Ives lithograph
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)
The Crucifixion Simon Vouet (1622)
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, He s calling Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, Now leave him alone. Let s see if Elijah comes to save him. (Matthew 27:47-49)
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. (John 19:28)
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus lips. (John 19:29)
When he had received the drink (John 19:30a) With a loud cry (Mark 15:37a) Jesus said, It is finished. (John 19:30b)
Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. (Luke 23:46a)
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30)
Christ on the Cross Carl Heinrich Bloch
What has Jesus finished, accomplished, completed, brought to an end, and paid in full?
The serpent s head has been decisively crushed.
The Lord God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15)
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (I John 4:4)
Jesus completed His earthly mission (without a single misstep!).
I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. (Luke 4:43)
I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. (John 17:4)
Holiness in human flesh has been achieved!
My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34)
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Jesus is the complete Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. (John 17:6, 8)
Every applicable Old Testament prophesy about the Messiah has been fulfilled in Jesus!
The penalty of sin has been
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:21)
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all your sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)
The Law has been fulfilled!
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-18, 20)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
What a spring of comfort flows from (the finished work of Christ) to the true Believer amid his innumerable failures, flaws, and imperfections. What service do you perform, what duty do you discharge of which you can say, It is finished? Alas, not one! Your service is imperfect, your obedience is incomplete, your love is fluctuating, yes, upon it all are the visible marks of human defilement and defect.
But here is the work which God most delights in, finished. You are complete in Him. Turn, then, your eyes of faith out of yourself, and off of all your own doings, and deal more immediately, closely, and obediently with the finished work of Immanuel. Come away from your fickle love, from your weak faith, from your little fruitfulness, from your uneven walk, from all your shortcomings
and imperfections, and let your eyes of faith repose where God s eyes of love repose on the finished work of Jesus. God beholds you only in Christ it is not upon you He looks, but on His Beloved Son, and upon you in Him, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. (Charles Spurgeon)