[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during April 2022]
“It is finished, and doesn’t it look good!” No doubt these were the words that God spoke at the end of the sixth period of creation. He look at all he had made and described the finished work as ‘very good’.
Yet only 9 generations later God voices a different opinion: “It is finished, this relationship with mankind is over; they’re just evil. I regret that I made them”.
Then he saw one man that he could do business with and asked him to build a boat.
After the ark was completed Noah reported to God, “It is finished, the boat is ready and all except the unicorns are onboard” and God responded with “Well done, Noah, you deserve a rest. Take the family for a cruise”.
Moses spent forty days and forty nights without food or water whilst he chiselled out the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments. Finally he said to God, “It is finished”. God said, “Solid work! Don’t drop them this time”.
“It is finished, now I can die in peace.” The well-known words of Simeon as he held the baby Jesus in his arms in the temple. He had been waiting for the arrival of a Messiah for Israel, and now he knew that everything was going to work out in the end.
“It is finished!” These final words of Jesus as he died on the cross are probably the most famous and certainly the most significant use of this expression. Without his death Christmas would lose most of its real meaning. Without his death Easter would be pointless. Without his death there would be no resurrection. Without his death there would be nothing of lasting value in our lives. Without his death we would have no hope of salvation.
“It is finished, it’s all over.” So said Peter to the remaining disciples. Peter, who had sworn allegiance to Jesus and then disowned him was now dismissing him. His three years of walking with Jesus had come to an inglorious end. Then a stranger on the shore invited him to breakfast and Peter realised that his adventure was not finished, it was just beginning.
“It is finished, don’t meddle with it”. The words paraphrased by John in Revelation 22 as he finished recording the vision of the end times. Three times in that chapter Jesus states “I am coming quickly”. We may not understand what ‘quickly’ means but we are now 2,000 years closer to that promise being fulfilled.
Do you have unfinished business with God? Time is running out; you need to put that relationship in order before Jesus gets back.
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © the Author
