The Finished Work of Christ
By Loren L. Fenton, D.Min.
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture
would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar
was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the
hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink,
Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave
up his spirit (John
19:28-30 NIV).
Every year as Easter approaches, the
Christian world stops to remember that awful moment at Golgotha where Jesus, the
rabbi from Nazareth, hung suspended between earth and sky, nailed to a Roman
cross. A rough, vulgar crowd swirled below him, cracking coarse jokes and
hurling insults. Directly in front of the cross a tiny knot of his followers
huddled, staring through fear-pained eyes at their teacher's torn and bloodied
body. They watched him gasp, struggling to breathe, and held each other tight
in their own desperate struggle to endure this horrible ordeal.
Everyone knew it would soon be over.
No one could suffer the abuse this man had received and still survive. Whipped,
tortured, a crown of thorns, blood pouring from the wounds on his head, chest,
hands, and feet. Deep wounds of the body, but even deeper of the spirit.
Rejection. Utter aloneness that no man - or any other being in the Universe -
has ever known.
"I thirst!" he cried. Raspy
words escaping parched lips and burning throat.
A soldier grabs a nearby sponge and saturates
it with vinegar. Together, he and others bind the dripping sop to a branch of
hyssop and lift it to Jesus' mouth. One taste. Another gasp for air. One more
wrenching cry.
"It is finished!"
The anguished declaration echoed
across the nearby Judean hillsides and careens down the corridors of time - a
shout of victory from the blistered, bleeding lips of Christ.
It is finished! It is finished! It is finished!
But, what did Jesus mean? What was
finished on that Crucifixion Friday?
To know the answer we must journey
back to Genesis, back to the Garden of Eden. To know the end, we must know the
beginning.
Genesis 1:1 begins unequivocally: In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth (NKJV). Through thirty-one
verses the Creation narrative unfolds and is summarized in chapter two, verse
one: Thus the heavens and the earth, and
all the host of them were finished.
A clue to our quest emerges in
Genesis 2:4 when the author changes the identity of the Creator from
"God" to "Lord
God."
Up to this point through all the days
and events of Creation week, the Hebrew word Elohim is used as the name of God. In Genesis 2:4, however, God's
name changes to YHWH Elohim. Most English versions of the Bible
follow the convention of presenting each occurrence of YHVH as "Lord,"
using all-caps to designate this special Hebrew expression known by all
biblical Hebrew scholars as the "tetragrammaton."
I became curious about the root
Hebrew etymology of YHVH. Much to my surprise
I discovered an underlying word source indicating the concept of finishing a
task! Suddenly, I understood the transition from "God" to "Lord God" in Genesis 1 and 2.
Roughly translated the Hebrew title YHWH Elohim could mean "The God Who
Finishes What He Starts!"
Thus we see that:
1. The summary in chapter 2:1-3 declares
that the work of Creation is finished. The Creator (Elohim) then establishes the seventh-day Sabbath as an eternal
memorial to His finished work.
2. Immediately following this, beginning
in verse 4, the narrative expands to show the more detailed version of Creation
with "the Lord God" (YHVH Elohim) as the active agent.
3. The point of this part of the story,
however, is not the Creation itself. Rather, it provides the introduction - the
backstory - for the impending Fall found in chapter three, and the subsequent beginning of the plan of salvation.
4. YHVH Elohim -
the God Who Finishes What He Starts - is on the move again. He has begun a new
work, a new process, a new journey: Destination Calvary and the road to
redemption for Adam's race.
Christ's last cry from the Cross
declared that the door to eternal life was now permanently open. What God has
opened no man can shut! Whosoever will may come! Any and all may receive the
gift of God's grace and forgiveness.
Welcome home, Pilgrim! Welcome home!
