What did Jesus Christ mean when he cried on the cross
“It is finished”?

‘It is finished’ was the cry of our Lord Jesus Christ just before he dismissed His spirit, and gave up his life, dying on the cross at Calvary. The question is what did Jesus Christ mean by those words, ‘It is finished’ in John chapter 19 verse 30? Did Jesus mean that His life on earth was finished, or his suffering was finished? Although both are true this is not what our Lord Jesus Christ meant by those words. Our Lord was telling us that he had finished the work, that God the Father had given Him to do. He was saying that on the cross He, the Lord Jesus Christ, had paid in full the debt owed to God for sin, and that there was nothing left that needed to be done to satisfy God, if we are to have our sins forgiven. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 12 makes this clear when it say’s ‘But this man (Christ Jesus), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God’. This means that never again does a sacrifice need to be offered for sins. God was and is satisfied with what Christ Jesus did on Calvary. This means that men, women, boys and girls, do not have to do any work or good deeds of their own in order to have their sins forgiven or to go the heaven. YOU DO NOT need to say prayers, go to church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, or any other place of worship, or do any other type of work to atone (or make amends) for your sins, as Christ on the cross paid that atoning price when He shed His own precious blood and died. ‘It is finished’ means just that, it is finished, and a finished work needs no further effort or work. If you say, ‘but I must do this or that for your sins to be forgiven,’ then you are saying it wasn’t finished, and are calling God a liar. You are saying that God’s word cannot be trusted, and that YOU or another mere man knows better than God.

Some 700+ years before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that Jesus Christ would suffer and die for the sins of the world in Isaiah Chapter 53 verse 5; ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’. Verse 10 of the same chapter of Isaiah says, ‘Yet it pleased the Lord (God) to bruise him (Jesus); he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin’. In other words, the bible in the Old Testament was prophesying and confirming that Jesus Christ would be offered for your sins and mine. The first it was prophesied that Christ would die for your sins and mine was back just after the creation of the world, and just after Adam sinned by disobeying God by eating of that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 when it says, ‘it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’. In other words, we were being told that Christ would deliver a deadly blow to Satan when he died on the cross, and rose again three days later, conquering death in his resurrection (bruising his head); and Satan would bruise Christ’s heel on the cross, signifying HOW Christ would die. Satan thought he was defeating Christ when he had him crucified on the cross, but instead the victory was God’s. This prophecy was prophesied some 4000 years before Christ died. Further details of prophesying in relation to how the Son of God would die, by crucifixion, even before crucifixion was invented by the Romans, can be found in Psalm chapter 22 verse 16 when it says, ‘they pierced my hands and feet’, which was written around 1000BC. Again, further details about the prophecy of what would happen at the cross can be read in Psalm chapter 22. This chapter in the Old Testament gives such vivid details of the events that would take place at the cross, all of which came true. If God did not know what would happen to His Son at Calvary’s cross, how could such a detailed prophecy be made, and all come true.

So, when the Lord Jesus Christ cried, ‘It is finished’ and died on the cross, paying the debt for the sins of the world; does that mean everyone will go to heaven when they die? The answer to that question is NO! In John chapter 3 a man who was one of the religious leaders, a Pharisee, called Nicodemus came to Jesus by night searching for truth. The Lord Jesus Christ told him how he could have his sins forgiven and have everlasting life with God. Jesus said to Nicodemus in verses 14 & 15, ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (signifying how He would die). That whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.’ We are told by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that all we must do to have our sins forgiven and live in heaven for ever, is to simply believe that what Jesus did at the cross is enough.

The following 3 verses of John chapter 3, verses 16-18, gives us further enlightenment about how we can have our sins forgiven from the very lips of Jesus Christ himself; ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’ The truth of God’s word makes it very clear, that it is FAITH in the ‘finished’ work of Christ on the cross, which is sufficient to pay the debt of our sins, and not our own work or good deeds. It goes on further to tell us that if you don’t believe or put your faith in the ‘finished’ work of Christ on the cross, that you are ‘condemned already.’ This means you do not have to wait until you die to know where you will spend eternity, as those who reject God’s Son will be lost for ever and spend eternity in Hell separated from God.

By rejecting what Christ cried on the cross, ‘It is finished,’ or saying it’s not enough I must do something myself, you are condemning yourself to an eternity without God. God will never force himself upon you. You must believe and rest on Christ alone, on the finished work of Christ on the cross alone, and nothing else. You must make that decision to accept the Jesus Christ yourself. Why not accept Christ NOW and have your sins forgiven? Why would you delay? God has told us in his word, and God cannot lie, that you CAN know that your sins are forgiven before you die. This is not presumptuous as it was God who said it, not a man. Therefore, it’s not presumptuous, it’s taking God at His word.

If you want your sins forgiven and a place in heaven for all eternity, you must to pray to God and ask Him to forgive you. Your words are not important, it’s what’s in your heart that matters, and God knows your heart. Simply acknowledge to God that you are a sinner, and can do nothing yourself to earn a place in heaven. Ask God to forgive you of your sin, telling him that you believe the finished work at Calvary is enough to pay the debt of your sins, and simply place your trust and life in His hands. God wants to forgive you of your sin NOW, which is why he sent his ONLY SON to die instead of you, showing how much he loves you and cares about where you spend eternity.