The apostle John records Jesus’ last moments of life on the cross in John 19:28-30.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Christians who read this passage should take note of the fact that when Jesus died, He did not passively slump into lifelessness with His chin falling upon His chest like anyone else who dies. Scripture clearly teaches us that Jesus, of His own volition, “bowed his head” while still alive and then voluntarily gave His life as Scripture states, “he…gave up his spirit.”
CONTEXT
When Jesus arrived at Golgotha, His place of crucifixion, the soldiers mocked Him (Luke 23:36) and offered Him a glass of sour wine to drink but after tasting it He refused the wine (Matt. 27:34; Mark 15:23). In those days, it was common for the condemned person to be offered common wine with a portion of gall or one of several bitter herbs or myrrh which may have been given to dull the senses and act as a painkiller. But Jesus did not want to consume anything that would dull his senses and interfere with His suffering under God’s wrath.
Some translations identify this drink offered to Jesus as “vinegar,” but this word is better translated as “wine.” This act of offering sour wine was prophesied in the Old Testament (Ps. 69:21). This wine, which contained bitter herbs, was nearly undrinkable because of its bitter taste. Nevertheless, some say, it was given as a sort of painkiller prior to execution in spite of the taste.
John Calvin writes that this “vinegar” or sour wine was given to hasten death.
I agree with those who think (and, indeed, the custom is proved by histories) that it was a kind of beverage usually administered for the purpose of accelerating the death of wretched malefactors, when they had undergone sufficient torture.[1]
Regardless of one’s understanding of the purpose of giving this beverage to the condemned, it was a custom of the time. We know from Scripture that this drink was initially offered to Jesus at His crucifixion, and He refused to partake of it at that time.
John writes that after suffering on the cross for some time and near the end of His life, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Apparently, in response to this statement, one of the bystanders offered Jesus, from a jar of sour wine nearby, “a sponge full of the sour wine” (Matt. 27:48). After receiving the sour wine, Jesus stated, “It is finished. Luke adds that after this statement, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).
IT IS FINISHED
Readers of Scripture might ask what Jesus meant by His statement immediately before He died. What was finished? Did He mean His life? But His life had not yet ended. Did He mean all the events surrounding His first advent? But His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coronation as King of the Kingdom were yet in the future. So, what was Jesus talking about when He proclaimed, “It is finished.” The apostle John tells us that Jesus knew “that all was now finished” (v. 28). But what is the “all” that was finished?
John began chapter 17 of his gospel with the High Priestly Prayer, which Jesus prayed to the Father just before His betrayal by Judas Iscariot in the Garden of Gethsemane located on the northwestern slope of the Mount of Olives. Jesus told of the Father giving Him authority over all humanity to give eternal life to all the Father’s elect (v. 2). He asked for the Father to glorify Him (v. 1) since the Son had “accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (v. 4).
The English term “It is finished” is translated from the Greek word that means to complete, conclude, or discharge a debt. It means to pay a debt in full. Jesus was not referring to the payment of a debt He owed to the Father. Jesus stated that He would now pay the sin debt owed by each of the elect individuals that the Father had given to Jesus in eternity before creation. Jesus would fulfill their sin debt by giving His own life on the cross as the redemption of all sinners’ sin debt. This was the Son’s act of redemption of sin for all believers in Christ.
“It is finished” refers to the work Jesus completed for the Father (v. 4). Jesus referred to the work He performed. Though His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coronation as King of the Kingdom in heaven were still left to be done, these events required His participation by design. And they were sure to occur as foreordained by God. Thus, Jesus could accurately state that His work as the Christ was completed and certain.
Another facet of Christ’s finished work is the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies. The reality of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the living Word replaced all types and foreshadowings that pointed to the Messiah. The New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant, and the ceremonial law and sacrificial rites are done away with and finished (Heb. 9:23-28). As Daniel wrote, Jesus came “to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet” (Dan. 9:24).
That was not all that was finished. The dominance of sin was defeated (Heb. 9:26). Jesus’ life on earth was finished. His work of redemption was complete. And Jesus would return once in the future at the end of the age to save all those who believed in Him. Death was defeated, and Christ has the power over death (Rev. 1:18). His resurrection proves that.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Christ’s most important work of redeeming the Father’s chosen ones from the condemnation of sin was finished. It was finished 1) when He earned His merited righteousness by living a perfect, sinless life, which became the ground for God’s justification of believers whose salvation will be consummated when Christ “will appear a second time…to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28); and 2) when He paid the redemptive price by His death on the cross which was imminent when He said, “It is finished.”
The works of Christ necessary for believers’ salvation to eternal life with God in heaven were completed, and the future aspects of God’s plan of salvation, which would be the consummation of all the promises of the gospel message, were already foreordained and set in motion. Indeed, Christ’s work in God’s plan of redemption was finished as He spoke these words.
[1] John Calvin, John Calvin’s Complete Commentaries: The Gospel of John, Trans. William Pringle, Kindle (1847-1850).
