Death Dies

Read John 19:28-30
 
John 19:30 Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!”

THERE it is! The plan is done. The work completed. Now he can go home. Now Jesus’ throne awaits him in eternity’s glory, befitting the Son of God, obedient in all things to the Father. It is finished.  
    Jesus’ life was all about the Father’s will. Jesus came to this earth because the Father, in his love to save our souls, sent him. This is why the church can confess in the Apostles Creed, “He was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried.”
    Oh, the implications of those five truths! God’s Son became human flesh. That alone is too difficult to fully comprehend. But his body’s suffering, dying and burial is even more difficult to understand. Jesus suffered a life of labor, physical discomfort, poverty, and of grief. He suffered Teachers of the Law negating his teaching. Our Lord suffered the Jews’ denial as he demonstrated physical and spiritual salvation before their eyes! Jesus suffered the doubts, pride and betrayal of his closest disciples. He suffered the lash. Worse of all, he suffered the cross and the grave.
    But in the suffering Savior, God’s redemptive plan was finished. The blood had been shed. His body is broken. The Passover Lamb of God was sacrificed to save the children of Abraham - all the church of Christ to come. Jesus’ great thirst points to his spiritual thirst for our righteousness, to make us holy before God. Our Savior thirsted to quench the fires of spiritual despair, blindness and imprisoned souls. He thirsted to fill us with God’s glory, power and resurrected life. The Living Water longed to give us the drink of eternal life.
    Oh, it is finished. The curse of sin is finished. Death’s sentence is done. In turn, the promise of living the resurrected life has begun for all who come to repent at the cross. Death becomes life. That’s what Jesus’ finished work offers you.
 
Resurrection Truth: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:55-57