It Is Finished

The cross is central to our lives. The resurrection, however, is seemingly secondary—at least it was for me. When I became a Christian being “cross-centered” was all the buzz. Resurrection-centered just doesn’t have the same alliterated ring to it. My “biblical” reason for sidelining the resurrection was this: Jesus said, “It is finished” (Jn.19:30). Therefore I reasoned that the  resurrection must be an add-on of sorts. I wonder if you’ve drawn a similar conclusion? In order for the resurrection to assume its centrality alongside the cross, we first need to understand why John wrote and Jesus said, “It is finished.”

John opens his gospel with the phrase—“In the beginning”—alluding to the first words of the Bible and the beginning of the creation week. Between this opening line and the crucifixion, the Gospel of John is chock-full of creation imaginary. With our ears tuned to the creation-key in which John writes, we can localize the sound of Jesus' declaration, “It is finished,” back to Genesis where Moses wrote: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done(Gen. 2:1-2).

“It is finished,” like dramatic music, alerts us to the coming climax of John’s Gospel, namely the resurrection. He begins his account of the resurrection with these words: “Now on the firstday of the week.” John is telling us Sunday—the first day of the week—is resurrection day. It is the beginning of the New Creation. As we gather as a church each Sunday, we not only look back to the cross and resurrection; we look forward to our final resurrection when the New Creation that Christ commenced through His resurrection will be completed by His second coming. Far from diverting our attention away from the resurrection, "It is finished" serves as a signpost to its significance.

Tomorrow’s Sunday!