It Is Finished

“It is finished” are some of the most important words that were ever spoken here on earth. Then the veil was rent in two, and the new and living way was consecrated right up to the Father’s throne. Jesus had become a forerunner for His disciples; now He had made it fully possible to follow Him completely. He began His life’s course by saying, “Behold, I have come . . . to do Your will, O God.” All God’s will had been accomplished when He was on the cross. He took away the first, the sacrifices of animals, and established the second, which was to present His body in obedience to do all God’s will. Heb. 10:7-9. The entire will of the flesh had been broken down because He always said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30.

We can become one, even perfectly one, by this one will—the will of the Father and the Son. John 17. The middle wall of division was broken down by the word “finished,” and now both Jews and Greeks, even all nations, can be one in peace and blessing, “that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God . . . .” Read Eph. 4:14-19.

“It is finished” was the termination for Jesus of the way of the cross and the way of sufferings, but also of the way of glory here on earth. Now He says, “Follow Me!” And Paul says, “Follow me just as I follow Christ.”

When people in the religious world speak about the “finished work,” they usually mean only His atoning death on Calvary and not the way He opened so that we can follow Him. Now we have a High Priest who can have compassion with our weaknesses; one who has been tried in all things like as we are, yet without sin. Heb. 4:15. The author of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings, and now He leads many children to glory on the same way. On this way He is not ashamed to call us brethren and share His inheritance with us. Heb. 2:10-11; Rom. 8:17.