What Jesus Meant when he said – It is Finished!

When Jesus said on the cross - “It is finished,” that meant that he had completed everything that the Savior of mankind was meant to do prior to death. It meant that there wasn’t anything left to do. It meant that everything, absolutely everything, and totally everything that the Savior was meant to do prior to death was finished by Jesus. The common thread amongst almost all Anti-Christian groups is that they believe that there is more that needed to be done and that Jesus had not quite completed all the work. Mormons believe that Jesus had more to reveal to save humanity; Moonies believe that Jesus’ work was unfinished and that Jesus had anointed Sun Myung Moon to become the parent of all humanity; Simonites believed that Simon Magus was the continuation of the spirit of Jesus Christ to complete his work; Muslims believe that Jesus did not complete all that was needed to be done but another prophet was needed to finish the work for saving humanity; the Bahai’s believe that Jesus was a messenger and that more messengers were needed to complete the message for saving humanity.

The plan of God (see Acts 2:23-24) according to the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament specify that the Son of God would become incarnate and be born in Bethlehem to a virgin from the line of David. He would perform various miracles including healing the lame, paralytics, lepers, the blind and even return those who were already dead and in the grave to life. He would travel with twelve men that would accompany him in his travels and would eventually witness about him by bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit to entire nations. He would be arrested by the ruling authorities due to their envy   of the miracles that he was able to do through the power of God. He would be tried and found to not be guilty of any crime but would be executed at Passover by being crucified on a wooden pole between two other men. He would die by giving up his spirit of his own accord and his body would receive various piercing wounds to his hands, feet, and rib cage but not one of his bones would be broken. He would be buried in a rock hewn tomb and rise up on the third day and travel alive with his followers for a forty day period. At the end of the forty days, he would be met by angels and depart from his followers on a mountain where olive trees grew.

It is extremely curious that Anti-Christian groups claim that Jesus didn’t quite finish all that the Savior of mankind was meant to do prior to death even though on the cross Jesus said – “it is finished.” To be blunt, the Anti-Christian groups do not know the plan of God in the Old Testament messianic prophecies. So they don’t know that God’s plan for saving humanity was predetermined by God and given to the Old Testament prophets long before the savior was to be born.

The Anti-Christians don’t know where the savior was supposed to be born.

The Anti-Christians don’t know the specific information about the birth of the savior.

The Anti-Christians don’t know what the savior was supposed to do.

The Anti-Christians don’t know how the savior was supposed to die.

The Anti-Christians don’t know that the savior was supposed to rise from the dead on the third day.

The Anti-Christians don’t know that he was supposed to be with his followers for forty days after he rose from the dead.

The Anti-Christians don’t know that he was supposed to depart from his followers and return to heaven after forty days.

The Anti-Christians don’t know that Jesus finished everything that the savior was supposed to do because they can’t see the plan of God written in the Old Testament: 2Corinthians 3:14 “But their minds were hardened; for to this very day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only in Christ is it removed. 15 Even to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

God gave the plan to the Old Testament prophets so that the real savior could be identified and imposters could be recognized. God knew that imposters with counterfeit faiths would arise and attempt to deceive humanity. All counterfeiters have the same thing in common – they don’t have the original plans. They attempt to counterfeit by copying portions of the real item. The genuine article matches the original plan exactly while a counterfeit does not.

For those who believe that Jesus is truly God’s Son and was crucified for their sins - the veil over the old covenant is removed just as the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom when he died. With the veil removed from the Old Testament we can see the predetermined plan of God for the Savior and we know that Jesus finished that plan perfectly.

Matthew 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook. And the rocks were split… 54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that were done, they were terrified, and said, “Truly this was God’s Son!”

J. Clontz – Editor of the Comprehensive New Testament