At the cross, just before committing His spirit to the Father, Jesus cried out, “Tetelestai.” That word can be rightly translated to mean “completed, accomplished, perfect, or finished.” I think it’s common usage should be the word “perfect,” but the phrase “It is finished” would also be very accurate. Most of our English Bibles translate Tetelestai with “It is finished” because they believe that Jesus is primarily talking about the fact that our sin debt has been fully paid in the death of Christ. That is gloriously true, but the phrase translated “It is finished” means much more than that.
Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was the “Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.” The death, resurrection/ascension of Jesus was God’s predetermined plan for the Fall of mankind before Adam and Eve ever fell. In anticipation of the Fall of the Adamic race, the Lord’s solution was always death and resurrection. The fallen race of Adam would have to die so that a new humanity could be raised up in Christ. God’s incredible solution to the Fall was that He would become one of us, clothing Himself in our fallen humanity, and clothed in our humanity Jesus would be tempted in every way like unto us, and carry us in all of our brokenness and sin, becoming sin on our behalf at the Cross. In His person the guilty, sinful, fallen false self, would be crucified, putting an end to the Adamic era. In His resurrection He raised up, as the second Adam, and a whole new humanity in union with the risen/ascended Christ. In doing so Jesus put an end to the reign of sin in our lives. He put an end to our enmity with God and we now have His relationship with the father and the Holy Spirit. He bruised the serpent’s head, setting us free from Satan’s dominion. All of our sins past present and future were forever forgiven (the word “forgive” literally means “to put away”).
When Jesus cried out “It is finished” He was saying “sins power over you has been forever broken – it is finished.” He was saying “your guilt and condemnation – it is finished.” He was saying, “the enemy’s authority in your life is forever – finished.” He was saying that your enmity with God – is finished and you have my face-to-face intimacy with the Father, and my anointing with the Holy Spirit.” He was saying, “you’re brokenness, your misery, your sadness, your loneliness etc.– it is finished.”
The gospel really is this big and this magnificent. It really is this magical, mystical, and wonderful. It takes a little child, or at least someone with childlike faith to believe something this big.” As CS Lewis wrote in The last battle, “It is bigger on the inside, than it is on the outside.”
