I learned a new word this Easter. Being hospitalized the week before Easter gave me a lot of time to think! The new word? A Greek word, tetelestai, meaning “It is finished.” John, the only disciple present at the cross when Jesus spoke this word, is the only one to record it in the Bible. He was there. He heard Jesus cry out this triumphant statement before He drew His last breath.

It was a triumphant cry, not a cry of defeat. But, as Michael Youssef, internationally respected Bible teacher of 50 years, declared in a pre-Easter television sermon, many considered that cry an admission of defeat on Jesus’ part. The Pharisees, who demanded Jesus die because He had blasphemed God by claiming to be His Son, were certain that they had “finished” this sacrilege. The devil must have been smiling to himself knowing God’s attempt to save the world was a failure, finished. Even the disciples, heartsick and crushed, thought that this Jesus whom they’d followed for three years, loved and trusted and believed in, was, after all, finished.

Michael Youssef made note of occasions in Jesus’ walk on earth when “His time had not come,” when IT wasn’t finished yet. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God at the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. Religious leaders were irate and would have pushed Him off a cliff but Jesus simply walked away. At a wedding Mary told her son the wine had run out and He told her His time had not yet come (but He made wine anyway!). Jesus’ half-brothers, who did not yet believe He was the Son of God, urged Jesus to go to Judea and perform miracles openly. Jesus told them He wasn’t ready for that. His time had not come.

But when His time had come and Jesus went to the cross, when He made that triumphant cry, “It is finished! Tetelestai!” what did it mean? It meant He had finished the work God had sent Him to do. It meant He had fulfilled every demand of Holy God, He had made the supreme sacrifice so that the whole world of lost sinners could be saved, made righteous by His blood, if they asked to be. It meant there was nothing left undone.

When Jesus rose from the grave He bore the scars of what He had done for the world, for you and me. He rose triumphant on the third day, just as He had said He would. Whether Pharisees, hard hearted Roman soldiers, and skeptics believe or not, the truth is, Jesus, the Messiah, finished the job He’d come to do.

All those who truly believe and trust in the power of Jesus will be saved. He finished His job and we are saved from slavery to sin. We are saved for eternity beginning whenever we ask the King of Kings to be our Master.

Hallelujah! Tetelestai! Paid in full.

Happy Easter–a few days late!