Unfinished Work Finally Finished
4/28/25 Bible Thought (John 19)
Early on in John’s Gospel we find an amazing statement that Jesus makes in conversation with Nicodemus:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
Now, what exactly this meant awaited us in John 19. In today’s chapter, John recounts the Father’s “giving” of the Son.
After the Jews begged for the release of Barabbas, Jesus is beaten and delivered to be crucified. On the surface, everything seemed to be going awry. This wasn’t what the disciples had signed up for when they accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. None of them were prepared for the Messiah’s crucifixion, but it was all according to the “definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (see Acts 2:23). Ultimately, in the words of Jesus, this was the cup that the Father had given (Jn. 18:11).
Jesus came into the world not just to teach people how to love God and neighbor, but He came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29). He came down to live a sinless life, to be that Lamb without blemish that would die on behalf of the people. This was the whole reason for which He came, and in John 19 He completes His mission with a great cry, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30).
As John records this, he uses the Greek perfect tense, which conveys, “a completed action in the past that has continuing results.”[1] More specifically, in this case it brings about a “resulting state.”[2]
As such, the work was finished, and it stands finished. The past sacrifice of Jesus has present-tense implications for all time. He accomplished our salvation, being the once and for all perfect sacrifice for sins (see Heb. 10:1-18). Year after year, lamb after lamb, bull after bull—sacrifices were offered for years that weren’t able to finish the job. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4).
But when Christ came, He finished the job.
Never again would a lamb have to die in place of a man. Never again would one have to spill blood over sin. The precious blood of Christ was and is sufficient for all sins of all people for all time. There isn’t a sin too grave that it requires a fresh sacrifice and there isn’t a sinner too broken to be made new.
When Christ breathed His last, the breath of new life was offered to all who would put their trust in Him. Now, we can rest in the finished work of Christ.
Our salvation doesn’t rest in us—at all. As Paul the apostle once penned,
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21).
If we could’ve made it on our own, then Christ wouldn’t have had to die. But we couldn’t. None of us were sufficiently righteous and so the truly righteous One became the perfect sacrifice on behalf of our sin.
As such, my salvation hinges not upon me, but upon Christ.
My salvation was finished when His work was finished. My salvation and my assurance don’t rest in anything I bring to the table, but only in the finished work of Christ, who gave Himself for me on Golgotha’s hill so that I might be forgiven of all the wrong I’ve ever done.
That is good news that will never get old.
It. Is. Finished.
[1] Andreas J. Köstenberger, Benjamin L. Merkle, and Robert L. Plummer, Going Deeper with New Testament Greek: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2016), 297.
[2] Ibid., 299.