It is finished

Of course this week we celebrated Easter, and remembered the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the pinnacle of the Christian faith. I have been meditating on various aspects of the events that happened, and I was thinking about the phrase "It is finished!"



John 19:30 (KJV)
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

I was thinking about 'what' was finished at that point. I did a bit of research and found that the it was a common phrase used at the time of writing and it meant different things in different professions

In accounting terms the phrase referred to the payment of a debt, meaning that nothing more was outstanding, the entire debt had been completely paid.

In military terms, the phrase meant that a battle was completely won. The fighting was over, and the victory complete.

In a judicial sense, it meant a sentence had been completed.

These are incredible in terms of our salvation.. our debt to God has been completely paid, the battle is completely won and any sentence which was against us has been fully spent.

But...what makes this exclamation truly unique, is the Greek tense that Jesus used.  Jesus spoke those words in the 'perfect' tense, which is very rare in the New Testament and has no equivalent in English.
The perfect tense is a combination of two Greek tenses: the present tense, and the aorist tense. The aorist tense is used for something that happens at a specific point in time, but,  the present tense is linear: meaning something that continues on into the future and has ongoing results/implications.

The Greeks use the present tense to express this kind of continued action and  the aorist tense to show simple completed action.  Aorist is like a snapshot while the present tense is more like a video. 

So when Jesus said “It is finished” what he is actually saying is “It is finished and will continue to be finished".  This is so powerful!  

Firstly, in that exact moment on the cross, it was finished! Under the aorist tense, it was saying that every part of the law was fulfilled, and our redemption/salvation was complete. Jesus sufferings were over and every sin paid for. DONE!  That's amazing in itself, BUT...

That's not all! The second element of Jesus' statement (the present tense part) is just as exciting and powerful: the present tense adds the idea that “it will continue to be finished” indicating the ongoing nature of our salvation!! 

This combination is what gives us assurance of our salvation and peace with God, because our salvation and all that Jesus did is ours, AND will NEVER not be finished any more!  Just think about that...
Never again should we fell that we are enemies of God. 

Never again do we need to question whether sin is an issue between us and God.  

Never again should we worry about whether sickness is God's will for us. 

Never again, because not only was it finished in that moment on the cross, but now, it will always be finished!  Wow! Isn't that incredible?  If that's not a 'selah' moment, I don't know what is!

Happy Easter!