It is Finished!

Sermon IV in the Series on the Atonement

by Jonathan Duttweiler

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!... So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit" (John 19:28, 30 NKJV)

So far in this examination of the Atonement of Christ we looked into the grave problems facing God in forgiving sin.Yet, as Gordon Olson points out: "God is willing to forgive man's sin 'freely by His grace,' without any need for personal vindictive satisfaction, when this can be don consistent with all His righteous obligations as Moral Governor."

So God overcomes these problems and accomplishes reconciliation through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as an "atonement" for sin! However, to be successful, an atonement must consist of certain characteristics that will be impressed upon the hearts of human beings. Thus, we must examine the characteristics of the Atonement and see if these are met in the Cross of Christ!

First of all, sin must be shown to be exceedingly unlovely and tragic!

To do this the means of reconciliation must be an event or series of events both gruesome and filled with great awe and grief. Remember, an "atonement" is an act substituted for the penalty which the Law would otherwise require. According to Ezekiel 18:20, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." That is, the sinner shall experience separation from God, the source of all that is good and satisfying, the source of life. This substitution for the penalty of the Law must therefore have the same, or greater, effect as the death of the soul who sins itself!

As Olson points out, lovely and inspiring events cannot be substituted for unlovely and humiliating ones, sin is ugly and tragic and so must it's remedy be!

Thus we see that the suffering and death of Jesus was indeed gruesome and tragic. Although He was the embodiment of love, Jesus told us that the world hates Him! We see this in His treatment by the crowd and authorities:

"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged [him]. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put [it] on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands...And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with [him], away with [him], crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led [him] away." John 19:1-3, 14-16

John tells us that before Jesus was crucified He was "scourged." Church historian Eusebius: puts this in historical perspective when he instructs us that in scourging, the victims "veins were laid bare, and...the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure."

We are also told that He was beaten about the face by the Roman soldiers. And then, of course, is the cross itself, perhaps one of the cruelest methods of capital punishment ever devised. We read that as Jesus hung there on the tree, "darkness fell over the whole land" and Christ displayed an inward agony and suffering that astonished even the hardened roman Centurion:

"So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, 'Truly this Man was the Son of God !'"

And the reaction of the crowd was similar, "And all the multitudes that came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts."

This was no pleasant site, it was ugly, brutal and tragic! As Isaac Watts wrote in his beautiful hymn, "Here's love and grief beyond degree: The Lord of glory dies for man!"

The second necessary characteristic of an atonement

...is that the sufferings cannot be deserved by the one enduring them, that would make them simply ordinary. We may see this clearly in considering when a guilty man is sent to prison. We are not moved by this, we feel little compassion for one who receives that which is his due. However, when the innocent suffer, what the righteous are unjustly accused or punished, then righteous indignation flares within our breasts and we experience a sense of outrage.

The cross of Christ presents to us One of unspeakable majesty and glory suffering undeserved Pain and agony! As Pilate himself declares, "'I find no basis or a charge against Him.'" Gordon Olson writes of this aspect of the Cross, that "The (atonement) represents the dealings of God with man and thus must have divine dignity and moral excellence." And the stirring hymn from Charles Wesley declares,

Oh love divine, what hast thou done!
The incarnate God hath died for me!
The Father's co-eternal Son,
bore all my sins upon the tree!

Third, an atonement must be universal in scope,...

showing no partiality toward any class of man. People will often grasp at any excuse in refusing to repent, declaring "God can't, God won't forgive ME! I am too much of a sinner!" Yet, the bible is clear and the reasoning compelling that God does not offer forgiveness to a "chosen few", to a pre-ordained "elect." It is not on the basis of social standing or moral quality, not based on some secret divine will, rather the offer is to all: "The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

Finally, an atonement must be simple!

That is, the means of reconciliation must be easily understood and applied by people of any intellectual level.

"For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]: but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;" (1 Cor. 1:26 ASV)

While the mysteries of the Gospel offer unending room for exploration, the simple conditions of salvation, repentance, faith and continuing faith, are within the understanding of ALL! As John reminds us, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:" (John 1:12 NKJV)

On the cross Jesus declared "It is finished!" after He knew that "all things had already been accomplished." He had done all that was necessary, all that was possible, to make a way for us to come to God and for God to exercise His great mercy and lovingkindness, in light of public justice, and forgive us. His suffering and death is intended to bring the greatest possible moral force to bear against our pride, our excuses and our hypocrisy.

He did it for each of us, all we must do is come to Him in repentance and faith and we will find the peace and joy of relationship with God.

Can anyone truly perceive the innocent Lamb of God suffering and dying a cruel death and not be broken? Finney wrote years ago, "If the benevolence (love) manifested in the atonement does not subdue the selfishness of sinners, their cause is hopeless!"