Daily life with Jesus by Grahame Howard: It is Finished

"So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished.' And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit.' John 19:30. (Please read John 18:19-19:30)

Jesus had to stand before the high priest and be questioned. At one stage, one of the officers, slapped Him across the face, falsely accusing Him of being rude. (18:22)

Pilate was at a loss. As he questioned Jesus, He told the crowd, three times, that he found no fault in Him (18:38, 19:4, and 19:6). He would have set Him free but the crowd were going crazy shouting, 'Crucify Him, Crucify Him.' At one stage, he was frightened that Caesar would find out about all of this scandal of a false king in the land, and to save his position and possibly his life, he agreed and Jesus was led away to be scourged.

To be scourged was to to be whipped or beaten with rods many, many times. The whip, which was used on Jesus, would have had several leather strands which were inlaid with pieces of bone and sharp, jagged metal, and as this was applied to the body, would wrap around the torso and then was savagely dragged back, ripping open the skin. After many of these blows, the flesh was just a mass of deep open wounds, bleeding profusely. Jesus suffered this for us.

Next a crown of thorns was woven and forced on His head. The thorns in this region were very long and sharp and as they were forced on to Jesus' head, would have ripped into His skull, the pain being terrible. A purple gown was placed on Jesus. The significance of this was that, purple cloth used expensive dyes and was often worn by kings. The soldiers mocked Him, spat on Him and beat Him, all the time humiliating Him with their taunts.

Jesus then had to carry His own cross on His back, to the place of His execution. Imagine the pain on His back. Just a splinter to us can be painful and stop us from doing some things. The nails that were used for the crucifixion were around eight to nine inches long and securely fastened a person to this cross, the pain of the nails going through Jesus' body is unthinkable. There was also a horn placed between His thighs, the purpose being to prevent the body slipping down with the weight and ripping the whole of the arms and legs.

Jesus endured this agony for each one of us. Words fail how painful and humiliating the execution would have been. He was God's Son and could have called a legion of angels to set Him free; but He didn't. You and I, together with the whole human race, were too precious. His dying meant He had taken our sin on Himself - He had paid the price for us, so that we, on confession of Him and asking Him to forgive us and be our Lord and Saviour, may be forgiven and have eternal life.

The very last words that Jesus spoke were, 'It is finished.' (19.30). He had achieved His goal. He had overcome sin. He had shown the devil who is boss. He had taken back what Adam had lost in the Garden of Eden. He had declared that through His death on the cross, we could approach the Throne of God with confidence, as our Father. As we asked Jesus to forgive us and be our Saviour we could walk with Him eternally.

Just an extra thought. If Jesus said, 'It is finished.' If He died for our sins and by His stripes we have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24,) then surely, as we pray about the Coronavirus Pandemic, we can declare:

'Jesus, You said "It is finished," our sins and sicknesses have been healed. Therefore, we declare in Jesus' Name that the Coronavirus is finished too. Amen!'

Give Jesus a shout and Praise Him. Ask Jesus into your life today, if you haven't already. HE DIED FOR YOU!

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard