Jesus Died For The World

When Jesus utters these three words, "It is finished," darkness covered the whole earth for three hours. There was a historian in Egypt at the time who wrote this, "In this awful mid-day that has become midnight, either God is suffering or somebody He loves is suffering." That was a pagan testimony. The whole world shook under the impact. He is not bearing millions or trillions or quadrillions, He is bearing the total sum of human sin; not only committed sin but depravity as a whole. Before Christ Jesus came, ten million oxen had been slain, thousands of sheep and sacrifices had been made, new moons and Sabbaths, people have done all kinds of things, and Jesus ties it all up in one redemptive act: Christ the Heavenly Lamb. Hebrews 12:2 proclaims, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." The Greek word for "finish" here is "teleo," which also means "paid in full." It means the debt is canceled.

When a person had a debt in Bible times and paid it in full, they would write "teleo" across the debt. Christ did just that when He declared, "It is finished." He completed His plan for saving us. He paid the debt and not just part of the debt, He didn't make a down payment that we should pay the rest, He paid it in full. He said it is canceled, paid in full. That's good news! This is redemption complete. You can't add to it, you can't subtract from it. It doesn't need something the priest says added to it. Jesus made a perfect redemption for men; His blood was shed. It's more than all the blood of beasts because again, from the KJV it says in Hebrews 9:13-14, "If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works."

Jesus not only paid the total sum of human sin, He nailed it to the tree; that's what He did! Jesus did not say, "I am finished." In essence He said, "It is finished" and as a result it is forever done. It stands finished! A done deal! The idea is that of perfection, accomplishment, relief, satisfaction, and victory. All the accumulated sin, and guilt, of all men, of all time, guilt of all time, including the combined hells of all who have offended God, was paid in full by His death. The death of Jesus Christ completed the redemptive work. The Lamb of God has made His great sacrifice for the world; it is this that is now done. Our great Substitute paid the great ransom, paid it to the uttermost cent. It is finished indeed! There is nothing that can be added to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our atonement was completed in the moment of Christ's death for our sins. All of the righteous demands of the law of God against our sins were paid in full and satisfied in His sacrifice for sin.

The punishment of our sins and the satisfaction of the righteousness of God meant that God was now free to offer the believing sinner His own perfect righteous standing before God based upon grace alone (2 Corinthians 5:21). You see, the past, the present, the future, all were at the cross. If you lay a cross on the floor it points North, South, East and West. If you stand the cross up it embraces - as Wesley says, "The arms of love that compass me do all mankind embrace." If you stand it up it points to a topless heaven and to a bottomless hell and the arms are outstretched to save. The power of Satan has been broken and the next thing is not only "It is finished," but "He is Risen" which will be superseded with "I will come again." Oh yeah, our Lord and Savior will come again. To a world that is groping in darkness we ought to proclaim with a trumpet voice, "IT IS FINISHED!"

See, you can't buy salvation, you can't crawl on your knees through the holy city, you can't go on a pilgrimage, you can't offer your righteousness, there is NOTHING you can do, but bow in humility and confess and accept it. Yes, that's all to do! There will be people in hell today and people in hell a billion years from now. No messenger will come from another world and say, "It is finished. Your judgment is passed, you have no more suffering for your sin, and the wrath of God doesn't abide in you anymore." No! If we are going to escape that eternal judgment, if we are going to enter that eternal rest, it must happen now. Isn't it amazing that people withhold their petty little lives from Him, that they love their sin enough to get the anger and wrath of God? Rather than repent, and believe, and be saved? God knew that certainly, Satan would try to deceive people and make them not believe in the Gospel. As a result, He made every account available to us by inspiring men to write them down for us. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." (2 Timothy 3:16).

Jesus did so many things that if they were written, the world wouldn't be able to contain them so Bible says, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). The result of asking for the forgiveness of our sins and receiving Jesus into our lives is that our sins are not counted against us anymore. Just as David said, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2). When you receive Christ, nothing changes in your physical body; it's your Spirit that experiences a change.

Christ's righteous nature is imparted into your Spirit and you automatically become the righteousness of God. What a liberating gift! How wonderful to know that God has removed our sin and guilt, that every day we can go to bed knowing that all our sins have been forgiven. Surely this should inspire us to a fuller and more confident, joyful and faith-filled life. Our aim is to come to the full knowledge of Christ, "unto a perfect man (a finished man; the same word as in "It is finished"), unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-13). It is finished, it is completed, it is fulfilled, it is accomplished, and the job is done! Listen to what I have to tell you now: "I have accomplished what God has given me to do. Not me, but Christ who lives in me. God's plan and purpose for my life have been accomplished. God has used the minutes, hours, days, months and years that have been entrusted to me and God's will and purpose have been done in my life." AMEN!!!

This is not bragging or comparing oneself to another or a symptom of pride, it is just a fact of life. This is who Christ Jesus has made me and that's the way God wants us to feel about ourselves as we come to the end of our lives, whether that is young or old in years. This is so that we can say like the Apostle Paul said about his life, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7, NIV). God wants us to feel that way about our lives as well, God wants you and me to have the same feelings about ourselves. No matter how imperfect, no matter how sinful, no matter how many shortcomings we have, Jesus died to accomplish forgiveness for us. We should hope to God to tell us this: "Well done, good and faithful servant; it is finished. My will has been accomplished through your life. You have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith. Henceforth, shall a crown of glory be laid up for you in heaven." AMEN!!!

The work that Christ ended when He cried "It is finished" was the execution of the whole will of God, for the work that He finished was God's will: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of... my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:32,34). The will of God is that we might be sanctified, counted as righteous, and ultimately given salvation (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 2 Peter 3:9; Hebrews 10:10). "I came down from heaven...to do...the will of him that sent me... and this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life" (John 6:38-40, KJV). God's will is that we should "see," that is, understand the righteousness of Christ, and believe that this will be imputed to us, and thereby we can be saved. To have an appreciation of the righteousness of Christ is therefore something absolutely essential for us to develop.

To achieve that fullness of righteousness and salvation for us meant more to the Lord Jesus than physical food. The more we appreciate this, the more we will be able to enter into His sense of relief. His meat and drink was to do the Father's work and will, which was to save us through imputing His righteousness to us. His attitude, both at the start of His ministry and in His approach to His death, was "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God...by the which will we are sanctified (counted righteous) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 10:9-10). In His final physical agony, the mind of our Lord was full of thoughts of our salvation. Such was the extent of His devotion to us. It has taken us hundreds of English words to just begin to enter into the intensity of spiritual thinking which was going on in the mind of our Lord.

And yet He asks us to share His cross, to run our whole life with endurance even as He endured on the cross (Hebrews 12:1,2), to personally enter into His sufferings; to be likewise filled with an overpowering concern for the salvation of others and the reflection of God's character in our own. This is why I am sharing this with you - the Gospel, which is Good News! "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). Because Jesus took our sins, God saw Him as a sinner and turned His face from Him, just as He did to sinners in the world. In short, Jesus took away our sins and God judged Him in our stead. Through the death of Jesus, God showed us the way to fellowship with Him, and now He wants us to receive the divine life which He made available so that He can reveal Himself in us, and through us.

Today, you can receive the life of God into your spirit and become a brand new creature in Christ, so that God's beauty and power can be seen in you. All you have to do is say this prayer and mean it with the whole of your heart and God will hear you. Have you confessed to God that you are a sinner and that you deserve eternal condemnation? Have you believed in the death of Jesus and what He accomplished for you in that death has satisfied the righteous requirements of God to save you for all eternity? It is not what we bring in our hands; it is what Christ has done in His hands that save us. The only thing left for you to do is believe on Christ. The finished work of Christ is absolutely sufficient to save you and keep you saved. If you have not accepted Jesus and made Him the Lord and Saviour of your life, I will be glad to lead you to Him today!

Before you receive Jesus into your life, just believe and accept that He bore your our sins in His body, that He took the curse and the wrath of God upon Him in our stead, that He took our sins and His heart was broken that ours might be healed and He was an outcast that we might be brought in.

SAY THIS CONFESSION:

O Lord God, I believe in Jesus Christ, your Son who died for me and was raised from the dead for my justification. Your Word says in Romans 10 verse 9 & 10 "...that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Therefore I confess Jesus Christ as Lord of my life from this day forth. I receive remission of sins for my soul and I receive eternal life into my spirit. I am saved! I am born-again! Thank you for making me your child.

If you just said this short prayer, congratulations!!! You're now a child of God. You can contact me to help you grow spiritually. I would also recommend that you find a Holy Ghost-filled Bible believing church near you and become a part today! Your life will never be the same!

God bless you!