It Is Finished

The Truth

Three words, spoken from a cross, and they are not a cry of defeat. In the original language this is a single word, and it was used in that era to mark a debt as fully paid. Jesus did not say I am finished, worn down and giving up. He said it is finished, a completed transaction, closed and settled.

This changes what your effort is actually for. If the debt were still open, still accumulating, then everything you do to try to be good enough would be a desperate attempt to close a gap that keeps widening. But if it is finished, your effort is no longer trying to earn what was already paid. It is a response to a gift already given.

Most quiet, exhausting religion runs on the assumption that the account is still open, that you are still working toward enough. It is finished contradicts that assumption directly. Not almost finished, pending your continued good behavior. Finished. The hardest, most important work was completed by him, not by you, and not left half-done for you to complete.

Rest in that word today. Whatever you have been trying to finish on your own, in your own strength, stop. He already said it. It is finished.