“It” can literally refer to anything and everything. Was the “It” being referenced the sacrifice the Saviour was making at the moment? Was “It” the life that He had lived so far on earth? Was it the Torah and the Prophets and all the so-called “Old” Covenant?
And what of “Finished”? Did Messiah mean “finished” like in “finish line”? Did He mean that the race has been run and it’s over now? Or did He mean “finished” in the sense of the author putting down his pen on the last page? His work done for others to use?
Did “finished” mean it’s all over and set aside or that His part is all over and now ours begins?
Does finished mean “completed now put it away” or “completed now you have it all to keep and use?”
These are pivotal distinctions we must decide.
Our pastors have been quick to emphasize this phrase, “It is finished,” but so very slow to focus on it.
They are quick to tell us the “it” in question is either the sacrifice of the Savior or the entirety of the “Old” Testament. And that “finished”means “it’s done and don’t worry about it.”
Don’t learn it.
Don’t think about it.
And most definitely don’t do it or you’re denying the finished work of “Christ” on the Cross.
What folly to ignore such an important part of the Passion narrative, the pivotal moment before our Savior passed away on Calvary, and His last words to us before standing up alive again.
Oh, we know them…and we quote them, but do we know what they mean?
The “It” in question does infact refer to His sacrifice, sure. But oh so much more. These were actually the words of the High Priest spoken every year when the last lamb was sacrificed.
The church is quick to pick up on that detail and declare that Yahshua (Whom they rename ‘Jesus’) was the last sacrifice and now we need no more. For the vast majority of Christianity, their idea is that “Jesus” sacrificed Himself to end all sacrifice…and with it, to render null and void everything left of Matthew in the Bible.
They are right that the “It” in question is the sacrifice of the Passover, but they are wrong that we should interpret “finished” to mean over and done, nothing to see or know or think about here.
“It” is both the ultimate sacrifice of Messiah, and everything left of Matthew, the first 2/3 of the Book we were taught to ignore. But “finished” is the completion not cancelation. It is the carpenter banging in the last nail on the house for us to live in. It is the author publishing the last book in a series we’ve been reading and loving but had no ending. It’s the end of the birth and the beginning of life.
Indeed, “It” is “finished”. But “It” is not over closed and thrown away. It is now completed which never yet had been. Now we have it all. Now we know what it was all leading to. Now we know what it was all for.
Why would we throw out a thing as some as we find out what it’s purpose is? No. On the contrary, now that we know what it is for and how to use it, now that we have it all, where we did not before, now we embrace it and establish it and use it. We read the story the author wrote. We dwell in the house the carpenter built. We live the life we were reborn into.
All the heavy lifting has been done by Messiah. We didn’t have to write the book. But we get to read it. We didn’t have to build the house but we get to make it our home. We didn’t have to form ourselves in the womb or labor to bring ourselves into the world. That was all done for us. And now we get to live. It is finished.
So now that your Savior gave you the whole story, built the house for you and birthed you into newness of life by His shed blood and the power of the Holy Spirit, what are you going to do about it? Put the book on the shelf unread? Leave the house abandoned to rot and fall down? Are you going to live the new life you were born again into? Or are you going to scorn the Sacrifice of the Savior that gave you the story and the home and the life you now have available to you like never before?
Get that lie out of your mind that Messiah died to destroy the Torah and the Prophets and usher in a new age of cheap grace and fluffy love. He died to pay for your breaking of the Torah and the Prophets, which power the Torah and the Prophets could not themselves provide.
In light of this knowledge that all the hard stuff is done for you already and that everything left of Matthew still has meaning and more value now than ever, flip your pages in that direction and get reading again…but this time knowing it’s not talking to someone else somewhere else about something else that doesn’t involve you. Get reading again knowing that all that “Old” Covenant stuff (which Messiah strengthened and remade “New” was written to you and for you and finished by Messiah so that you could know what it is all about and how to live it out.
Question Everything
