When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. - John 19:30
Whenever I hear talk of good works leading to salvation I cannot help but recall the final words of Jesus on the cross. When He said, “It is finished,” He was referring to all the work that He had come to do in the name of God. He was talking about fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies about Himself. He was talking about conquering sin and death itself! “For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” - Romans 5:17-19.
Why do thoughts of good works bring me recollections of Jesus’ last words? Because with those words, ‘It is finished,’ or‘ consummatum est,’ in Latin, Christ revealed to us that, as Calvin states, “All of salvation is contained in Him.” The Genevan reformer went on to say that all other sacrifices are now moot, all that was necessary to be done has been done through Christ, and His death upon the cross gives the Christian ‘peace and tranquility of conscience. In other words; nothing else needs to be done to affect our eternal salvation except for us to put all our uncompromising faith in Christ. “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” - Galatians 2:16.
It is finished! We need to add nothing to the sacrificial and atoning death of Christ Jesus. Nothing. No weekly tithing, no good works, no draconian fasts or personal sacrifices, and no bizarre syncretic rituals, nothing. Jesus has done it all and it is finished. Now are tithing and good works sinful in this respect? No, they are marks of a Christian’s faith, the fruit of true saving faith, but not the cause of that faith. “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” - James 2:18.
In a real sense, Christ’s death upon the cross is the greatest gift God has ever bestowed upon us. It is the primary reason Jesus came into the world as a man; to save mankind from its sins. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:21.
Scripture is constantly referring to sin as death. Mortality was not part of God’s original plan for mankind in the sense that had Adam and Eve not sinned in the Garden of Eden, they would have lived forever. The original Covenant of Works was not something that mankind was able to adhere to. Adam failed and in so doing cursed his progeny for all time. Works righteousness has never been a human strength, so someone had to fulfill God’s plan for obedience to His decrees. It was Jesus Who did so. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” - Philippians 2:8. Christ did it, for all of us and because He did we now have our salvation assured through Him and not through any good works of our own.
It is the human inability to wrap our heads around this theological doctrine that frustrates us. We feel that somehow we must be able to affect our eternal salvation. We cannot. There seems as though there is something we must be able to do. There isn’t. Only Jesus could do it upon completing His task on earth and fulfilling all the prophecies concerning Him. We must learn to trust the word of God Himself; when He says “it is finished,” it is truly finished. Celebrate it! Through Jesus Christ alone - it is finished.
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