Saturday, April 11, 2009

IT IS FINISHED. (Jn.19:30)

"IT IS FINISHED." (Jn.19:30)


The Lord's above pronouncement from the cross at Calvary represents
the DIVINE perspective. Its emphasis is, therefore, NOT on the
Sacrificial Lamb, but on the final outcome of the sacrifice - i.e. the
fulfillment of the Heavenly Father's sovereign will. If paraphrased to
represent the HUMAN perspective, it would read: "I have finished it."

The Lord's emphatic declaration, "It is finished," leaves no room for
skepticism. However, to appreciate what has been finished, and at
what stupendous cost it has been finished, we need spiritual discern-
ment besides a sound understanding of the relevant Scriptural texts.

God's New Covenant with Israel, spelt out in Jer. 31:31-34 and alluded
to in Ezek. 36:24-28, has the following four (04) provisions: (i) Re-
generation: God's law will be ingrained in their minds and written on
their hearts; (ii) Israel's Restoration: Yahweh will be their God and
Israelites will be His people; (iii) The Holy Spirit's Direct Ministry:
They will ALL be individually instructed by the Spirit of God; and (iv)
The Assurance of Full Justification: Their sins will be forgiven and
remembered no more. The shed blood of the Lamb of God on Calvary's
cross guarantees to Israel its New Covenant while assuring forgiveness
of sins to believers comprising the Church, which forms God's New
Israel. In Rom. 11:25-26, St. Paul anticipates a day when all Israel
would accept Jesus as the Messiah and His death on the cross as the
atonement for their sins. "A hardening has come upon part of Israel,
until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be
saved."

The cross is as much a symbol of 'divine justice' as it is of 'divine love'.
Divine justice dictates that the wages of sin is death. The reference
here is NOT to 'physical' death, but to 'spiritual' death. Spiritual death
means 'separation from God'. That is, the indwelling spirit, which is the
"inward being" (Ps. 51) or the "inner man"/woman (Eph. 3:16), becomes
separated from God as the inescapable consequence of sin. This is
attested in Isaiah 59:2. "But your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God." When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden
fruit, they instantly died spiritually. Consequently, they lost their
fellowship with God and their God-centeredness, and became self-
centered, and scrambled for fig leaves to cover their nakedness. What
has been finished at Calvary is the BRIDGING OF MAN'S SEPARATION
FROM GOD in accordance with the rigorous, but just and fair require-
ments of divine justice. The Sinless Christ became our sin on the cross,
and died in our place, not only physically, but also spiritually, to appease
God's wrath against us. The Lord's SUBSTITUTIONARY SPIRITUAL
DEATH on our behalf implies His momentary separation from God the
Father, necessitating the heart-rending cry, "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me." (Mt. 27:46) The strange salutation is profoundly
significant in that it is NOT, 'My Father, My Father', as it should
otherwise be. Suffice it to say that God punished Christ as though He
had committed our sins. On the other hand, when we believe in Christ,
God accepts us as though we were as righteous as Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21)
In Biblical terminology, it is called "reckoned"/imputed righteousness.
(Rom. 4:6)

The Lord Himself affirms in Lk. 22:37, "For what is written about Me has
its fulfillment. " The Lord's clarity of vision as to His epoch-making mission
at Calvary is apparent in Lk.12:50. "I have a baptism to be baptized with;
and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! " It was indeed a
baptism of fire; an acid test of His obedience and faithfulness. Accord-
ingly, the Lord "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and
tears, to Him, Who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard
for His godly fear." (Heb. 5:7) The Lord also thoughtfully prepared His
disciples for the impending tragedy.

The mission at Calvary has four (04) primary purposes: (i) Bearing our
iniquities; (ii) Carrying our sicknesses; (iii) Washing away our sinful-
ness and purchasing with His precious blood the forgiveness of our sins;
and (iv) Dying physically to rise from the dead, and thus to destroy for
ever the power of death.

Isaiah, who lived 700 years before Christ, perceived in his spirit, the
spiritual, mental, emotional and physical agony of the dying Christ on
the rugged cross, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote:
"He (the Father) shall see the fruit of the travail of His (the Son's) soul
and be satisfied; by His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My
Servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and He shall bear their
iniquities." (Is. 53:11) "He shall bear their iniquities," means that He
shall suffer substitutionary spiritual death.

Again, Isaiah saw in his spirit Lord Jesus Christ at the whipping post
being ruthlessly lashed by the Roman soldiers, and Isaiah cried out:
"Upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His
stripes we are healed." (Is. 53:5) The stripes, left on the Lord's back by
the soldiers' strokes with the whip, are a provision for our divine healing.
In other words, the Lord took upon Himself our ailments and diseases
to be nailed to the cross, and gave us in return health and healing with
His stripes. It is NOT coincidental, but prophetic, that David writes in
Psalm 103: "Who forgives all your iniquity," (because of the spilled
blood at Calvary), and "Who heals all your diseases," (with the stripes
on the Lord's back).

The Lord's mission having been triumphantly 'finished', it is up to us, the
believers, to claim and receive Calvary's everlasting victory over Satan,
sin, sickness and death, as our own inheritance during this Holy Lenten
Season.



Prayerfully,


Nakkolackal V. L. Eapen,

St. Gregorios Church, Austin, TX.

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