Jesus Died For The World

"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, "It is finished": and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). From this statement was the purchase of man's redemption and my sufferings ended. These are the greatest words ever uttered by the Greatest Man that ever lived. In these three words I see the consummation of all the Old Testament truth and the germination of all New Testament truth. In John's gospel Jesus is described as the Lamb of God, as the Good Shepherd, as the one who overthrows the evil ruler of this world and as the life-giver; Praise God! The apostle John saw what was happening at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was an eyewitness to Jesus' death. A few moments before His death Jesus declared, "It is finished!" The entire redemptive work of Jesus Christ was finished.

The Son gave His report to the Father in a loud voice so all mankind could hear it, and then He went home to the Father having completed the Father's will. Jesus at the end of his life knew that all was completed. "It is finished," He cried out as he died. No wonder He said, "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die" (John 12:31-33). Sin was taken away, life to the full was available, the world's evil ruler was removed and people were drawn to Jesus. Amazingly, all these were made available when He died and resurrected; Hallelujah! All he came to do is the simple answer. "My food," said Jesus "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 4:34). Later as he prayed to His Father He said, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4).

"I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do," ultimately finished when Christ cried "It is finished" (John 17:4; 19:30), alludes to several Old Testament passages. Daniel 9:24 had prophesied that Messiah's sacrifice would "finish transgression... make an end of sins... make reconciliation for iniquity... bring in everlasting righteousness... and to anoint the Most Holy," as if a new sanctuary were being inaugurated. Just ponder over this: "It is finished!"I don't believe that ever in history, anywhere, at any time, by anybody, were three words more pregnant, significant and with meaning than these three words given by one Man at the end of His life - It is finished! It seems to me that all the prophecies, all the law and all the prophets terminate in this saying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took our sins on Himself; He took responsibility for our guilt and He died in our place so that we could go free so that our sins would not be counted against us.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus is love and no wonder He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). This was a gracious act of God, who put Jesus forward as our substitute. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Ever since the fall of the first man, Adam, life has been what humans want but where can it be found? Are we born with it? Or is there more to life than that? Jesus knew that real life consisted in knowing God. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3). The death of Jesus allowed us into relationship with God again; it gave us the right to relate to God as pardoned sinners.

Remember, without pardon we cannot know God or be friends with him for God is Holy! Jesus' death removed the obstacles that stood between God and us, that is, our sin and guilt. It cleared the way for God to relate to us as reconciled children. Now we can experience the abundant, flourishing, powerful, exhilarating life that God pours into us every day. Hallelujah! Everywhere people have lived, evil has corrupted their lives and messed up the wonderful and beautiful things they do but the Bible is clear that it is the result of the entry of evil into the world. Evil occurs through the presence of Satan and then through submission of humans to his deceits. Satan tries to deceive us and lure us away from what is right, and then he loves to offer us futile ways of getting right with God. In the end his goal is to accuse humans of sinning to get God to agree that the sinners deserve eternal death.

Jesus removed the grounds of Satan's accusations; he has nothing now to point at in us. Because of Jesus' death we can be forgiven and counted by God as innocent. Even by tempting us to sin he cannot remove us from the people whom God regards as holy and righteous. Let me tell you, his power is broken! Now we can live under a godly ruler who helps us live in company with God. Jesus' rule offers hope to the world, rescue from evil is certain and His rule offers the hope for us to live God's way. Happy are those who are in Christ, who have made Him the Lord over their lives. This is why we can't stop preaching the Gospel, Good News. IT IS FINISHED! I tell you, these three words terrified hell. What a solid and bold declaration from the Master! I am sure all hell shook; there is nothing to equal it anywhere. Jesus' last words, It is finished, express triumph rather than defeat. Jesus bowed his head and gave up His spirit knowing that the strife was now over and the battle was won.

Even on the cross Jesus knew the joy of victory. What the Father sent him into the world to do has now been accomplished. Christ offered himself without blemish to God and he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9-24-26). We become righteous when we come to believe in Jesus and confess His lordship over our lives. It's never by our works! Paul the Apostle exclaimed, "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). He could glory, but not of himself, but in the cross of Jesus! At the heart of the death of Jesus Christ is our atonement. The payment was paid in full. God declared, "It is finished!" You and I can never make satisfaction for our sins, no matter how religious we may think we are. You and I can never contribute to our salvation in the least degree. "It is finished!" We cannot add in the least or the greatest thing to His finished work.

You cannot atone for your sins committed before or after baptism. You cannot atone for your "temporal" sins. Your baptism will not save you. Only God can forgive sins. Only the death of the perfect Lamb of God can cover your trespasses against God. The moment you add one thing to the finished work of Christ you destroy it. To require the sinner to contribute to his own salvation in some measure only contributes to his eternal damnation. The satisfaction of Christ is the only satisfaction for sin. The perfect sacrifice of Christ is so perfect and final that it leaves no possible liability for any sin of the believer. "It is finished!" declared Jesus Christ. Finished! Done! Complete! Just imagine, "A few drops of blood renewed the whole world!" Listen, Christianity is not a comparative religion; it's a SUPERLATIVE life that is superior to all other religions! This one saying of Jesus Christ explodes every other religion on God's earth! They are all fakes. They are all useless.

You see, there at that moment when Jesus said: "It is finished," Mercy and Truth met together, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other... and hell went into panic. How do I know? Because the earth was shattered, the whole earth rocked on its axis. The earth trembled under the impact of the sin that He bore for us. Heaven trembled. That event was so sacred that, as it were, God took His coat off and hung it over the sun and there was darkness for three hours. Who could ever do this? Jesus Christ, in the mystery of God's divine grace, was, as Wesley says, "God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man," in the incarnation. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, yet He clothed Himself in flesh and blood and crept into a woman's womb for our sake. What manner of love! By beholding the finished perfection of the Lord Jesus, the spirit of Christ will dwell in us, and the love of God will be deeply in our hearts.

There is almost a mystical power in reflecting upon the example of the Lord Jesus on the cross. By beholding His glory, His matchless display of God's righteousness at the end, we will start to reflect that glory in our very beings. "We all, with open (unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory (moral attributes, the peerless character) of the Lord (Jesus), are changed (metamorphosed) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit (mind and influence) of the Lord (Jesus)" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Apostle Paul declared, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). I love this! Have you experienced that deep sense of peace with God? Do you know all your sins are forgiven? No condemnation! We have already been judged for our sins at the cross and Christ died for us. We were condemned. We were declared guilty and Jesus drank every drop of our condemnation and died for us.

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The believing sinner has "Now been justified by His blood" (Romans 5:9). "We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him" (Romans 5:9b). The reason for this great assurance of salvation is the redemptive shedding of His blood, done once for all, is finished and stands finished forever (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 16; Romans 6:10). "It is finished!" shouts Jesus our Savior. The day Jesus Christ died was the most momentous moment in history. Hell had feared this moment for centuries, for millenniums! From the New International Version, Matthew 4:8-9 reads, "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

Why do you think the devil tried to make Jesus take a short cut to conquer the world? You know why Jesus pushes devils around? Because He is the Prince of devils, they have to obey Him. Here is the holiest, purest, most spotless man that ever lived but what did the world do to Him? They blistered, blasted and bruised Him. One century church father said, "Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a cross, the sun made dark and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its creator. The temple veil rent, blood and water flowing from his side: the one as from a man, the other as from what was above man; the earth shaken, the rocks shattered because of the rock; the dead risen to bear witness to the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the sepulcher and after the sepulcher, who can fittingly recount them? Yet no one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation.

A few drops of blood renew the whole world, and do for all men what the rennet does for the milk: joining us and binding us together." In the Old Testament, the priest went into the holy place with gorgeous diamonds and priceless stones on his breast once a year for one nation - and could be dead and replaced before next year. Here is a man staggering up this road, who is going to consummate sin and grief, not of one nation, but of THE WHOLE WORLD! He isn't going to go every year - He is going once into the holy place. He isn't burdened under a cross of wood - He is carrying the sin of the world which Samson, with all his strength, could not carry. He is solving a problem that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not solve. You take the perfection of every one of those characters in the Old Testament and He is the ultimate in perfection.

He has the patience of Job, He has the self-reliance of Nehemiah, He has the statesmanship of Moses, He has the courage of Joshua and He has the broken heart of Jeremiah. All rolled into one personality, He is all in one, PERFECT! I say He is the perfection of the law; He is the perfection of prophets. Take the most beautiful characters in the world and mold them all into one and HE IS EXACTLY THAT! And instead of angels hanging over Him and coming down and slaying people and saying, "bow down you rebels, this is the son of God," people kicked Him, and reviled Him, and they spat on Him, they mocked him. This is how God loves us, even when we were sinners (Romans 5:8). Abbot Rupert of Deutz, wrote in the early 12th century: "The cross of Christ is the door to heaven, the key to paradise, the downfall of the devil, the uplifting of mankind, the consolation of our imprisonment, the prize for our freedom."

The Cross of Christ is the safeguard of our faith, the assurance of our hope, and the throne of love. It is also the sign of God's mercy and the proof of forgiveness. By His cross Jesus has redeemed our sin and atoned for our punishment. The way to peace, joy, and righteousness in the kingdom of God and the way to victory over sin, despairs and death is through the cross of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:10 says, "For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan. He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ." I don't care how many men one has stabbed to death, I don't care how many years one's been in adultery, I don't care how drunk the nations are with their iniquity today, I don't care what politicians are, I don't care how intoxicated men are with iniquity! They might have done all sorts of wrongs but listen, God has allowed us to know that we are initiated, we are the believers!

We know Him, and He has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it's this: "He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ." The only thing is that these people must come to believe in the Lord Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and personal savior. You see, there's nothing like sin in the world today because Jesus has already blotted them out! Men have to just surrender and accept that which the Lord has done because they can never be righteous by their works! "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).