You know, one of the central tenets of the Christian faith is the teaching that Christians are united. To Christ, connected to Him spiritually in such a way that what happens to Him happens to the Christian. In Jesus' death, Christians die. In Jesus' resurrection, Christians are resurrected. We just sang it.
What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope. Christ in power resurrected, as we will be. When he comes.
Now the thing about resurrection is that it has a prerequisite. There's something that has to happen first. In order for resurrection to occur, what is that thing?
Well, it's death, isn't it? In order for something to come back to life, it must first die. If we would be raised from the dead with Christ, we must first die with Christ. The Bible describes Christ's death as a substitutionary death. When he died, he was dying in the place of someone else, in the place of others.
He was suffering the consequences of someone else's sin. And so when we read about Christ's suffering, We're reading about the suffering that we deserve, that we should have experienced. When we read about Christ's triumph over death and his reunion with God the Father in paradise, we're reading about the triumph and reunion that Christ has won for us, if indeed we are united to him by faith. For the past several Sundays, we've been considering what Christ experienced as he suffered on the cross. And we've considered that experience in light of the words that he spoke as he died.
There are, in fact, seven words or statements that Jesus made from the cross. These words reveal not only what Christ was experiencing as he suffered, but why he was experiencing this agonizing death, what its purpose was.
Now we've already considered five of these seven last words, so today we come to the last two statements he made from the cross. And as we think about these last two statements, keep in mind this tenet, this principle that in Christ's death, We die so that in Christ's resurrection we might live. The first of these last two statements is found in John 19, 30. John 19, 30 says, When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
And then the last words of Jesus on the cross are found in Luke 23, 46. Scripture says, Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he said. He breathed his last. Let's just pause and pray and ask God to help us understand the significance of these profound words.
Father in heaven, out of love. For the world you sent your only begotten Son into the world. To die in the place of sinners. And you have raised him from the dead so that. All might know that Christ's death was sufficient and acceptable and effective.
for the redemption of sinners. Thank you for your great love for us.
Now please help us to understand. the full significance, the implications of Christ's death and resurrection. And as we gain that understanding, would you help us to benefit from what Christ has done? Lord, if there are those here today who are not yet united to Christ by faith, O Lord, save them. May they come to know the security of a finished redemption.
May they come to know the peace. of having their own soul. commended to your safekeeping. For those who are in Christ already, may their assurance and joy in the salvation that's already theirs increase. To the praise of your name.
And it's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen. It is finished. Is there a statement that could possibly be packed with more sheer relief and happiness than this sixth word of Jesus on the cross? It is finished.
It's such a short statement, but in that one sentence is contained the sum of all joy. Everything God offers to sinful man. By way of comfort and acceptance, it is summed up in Christ's declaration, it is finished. I want us to contemplate three questions with regard to this glorious sentence from the cross. First, what does it mean?
Secondly, how do I know that it is finished? And thirdly, what does it matter? Why does it matter that it is finished? First, what does it mean? What exactly was finished?
Well, if we've been paying attention for all of human history, from the creation of the world to the day of Christ's crucifixion, we would know exactly what was finished. You see, at the beginning of the world, God created the human race and He gave them a law, a rule, a standard by which to live. If they kept that law, they would live happily ever after. If they broke that law, they would live miserably ever after. In fact, their misery would be so complete, so total, that it would end in death.
The payback for their lawbreaking, the wages of their sin, would be death.
So what did the human race do? They broke the rule. They disobeyed God's perfect law and incurred punishment. that went with that disobedience. They began to die.
But this wasn't just any death, it was a never-ending death, an eternal death, a forever death.
Now, the story of human history could have ended right then and there, but it didn't. You see, God. who was rich in mercy, had a plan. He would make a way to reverse the irreversible consequences of man's lawbreaking. He would send someone to suffer in the place of the lawbreaker so that they wouldn't have to suffer.
But the problem was, this substitute sufferer would have to be a perfect lawkeeper. otherwise he would be deserving of the same punishment that everyone else deserved. But there was not a perfect lawkeeper. All had sinned. All had gone astray.
None of them were righteous. No, not one. If this job were to get done, God would have to do it Himself. He would have to become a man so that he could die. He would have to live a perfectly sinless life so as not to be deserving of the same death that everyone else deserved.
He would have to die as a lawbreaker in order to satisfy the demands of justice for others. Friends, Jesus is God becoming that man, that substitute. His life was a life of keeping the whole law of God with perfection. His death was an act of justice, not against sins that he had committed. an act of justice against our sins.
God did all of this so that the world, which He loved so much, could be redeemed from the sinful misery and death it had brought upon itself.
So when Jesus said, it is finished, He was declaring that everything necessary for salvation had been accomplished. God's holy law had been obeyed. The requirements of justice had been met. There was nothing left to be done. Men's redemption had been secured.
The process was concluded. The case was closed. The debt was paid. It was finished. This statement was not the whimper of a defeated martyr, it was the victory cry of a successful savior.
You say, but Eugene, how do we know that the death of Jesus Christ accomplished anything? I mean, it looks pretty bleak. This man was rejected by his friends, condemned by the respected religious leaders of the day, found guilty by the government, executed as a criminal. What kind of a role model is that? What kind of a savior could he possibly hope to be?
How can you believe that the death of Christ was anything special, anything more than the pitiful end of a failed movement? How do I know that Christ's death Secured salvation for anyone.
Well, let me point to three. Pieces of evidence that assure us that Christ's death finished the work of salvation. First we know. that the death of Jesus Christ finished the work of salvation by the fact that Jesus' life was one of moral perfection. Moral perfection.
Jesus was no ordinary man. He never sinned, and that is not normal. That is extraordinary. I mean, how long does it take a newborn baby to begin exhibiting signs of self-centered narcissism? Days, hours, minutes, seconds?
What human being has ever navigated infancy and toddlerhood, childhood and adolescence, and matured into full adulthood, having never broken any of God's laws, never violated his own conscience, never spoken an untrue word, never caved to temptation, never entertained sinful thoughts. That simply doesn't happen. That person doesn't exist. Except in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was no ordinary man.
He was sinless. And so when Jesus was rejected by everyone and condemned to death as a criminal and shed his blood for sins that he didn't commit, a cosmic travesty occurred. Sinlessness is not supposed to die. Death is reserved for the sinful. But in that cosmic travesty, redemption was secured.
The work of salvation was finished. and we know it by looking no further than the morally perfect life. Of Jesus Christ. It is finished by the death of an unblemished Savior. Secondly, we know that Jesus Christ finished the work of salvation.
By the fact that he did not stay dead.
Now, we could take the time this morning to delve into the various strands of evidence that support the plausibility of the resurrection. I imagine there are a lot of preachers who are doing that in their sermons as we speak on this resurrection Sunday, and that's fine, but I'm not going to do that today. The Bible doesn't bend over backwards for us and try to convince us of the scientific plausibility of the resurrection. It simply declares that it happened and tells us why it happened. And so I'm simply going to declare to you this morning that Jesus is alive.
He is not dead. He has been raised from the dead and is seated on heaven's throne, alive and well, and reigning over all of his enemies, including death itself. The question I do want to answer, though, is why was Jesus raised from the dead? Romans 1.4 tells us. Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power.
by his resurrection from the dead. How do we know Jesus is who He said He is? How do we know that Christ finished redemption's work on the cross? How do we know that salvation can be found in no one else besides Jesus Christ? We know it by the fact that he was resurrected from the dead.
Christ's resurrection is the vindication, the proof, the evidence that these things are true, that the work of salvation is finished.
Now, there's one more place we can look in order to be convinced that Jesus finished salvation's work, and that is by seeing the effect of Christ's death upon all those who look to Him for salvation. The fact that the lives of those who come to faith in Christ are fundamentally changed. Is evidence of the effectiveness and the completion of the work that Christ has done. Folks, the consciences of horrific sinners are silenced when they find salvation in Christ. The moral bankruptcy of hardened rebels is reversed when they find salvation in Christ.
And this effect of Christ's redemption on the lives and hearts and minds of people transcends ethnicity and gender and social status and time. It's not cultural, it's not psychological or environmental, it's real. We know that Christ's death finished the work of redemption because unredeemable people. who come to Christ in faith get redeemed. They become something they weren't before.
And all because Christ's death finished everything necessary for their salvation.
So why does any of this matter? What difference does it make if Christ has finished the work of salvation? Beloved, listen to this. If the work of redemption is finished, that it means I can stop working for my own redemption. It means that I must stop working for my own redemption.
Have you ever done a job and someone comes in after you and redoes the job? Maybe they didn't like the way you did it. Maybe they thought they could do it better. Maybe they just wanted to one-up you. What does this say when someone does the work you've already done over again?
It says, you didn't do it right. You didn't do it well. You didn't finish the job. Friends, when we try to improve ourselves morally in our own strength, When we try to come off as better than we are, more noble, more wise, more strong than we really are, in order to impress others or impress ourselves or impress God, when we try to save our own souls, we're saying, Jesus, you didn't finish the work. You didn't do it right.
You didn't do it well enough. We're saying I don't need help. I can save myself. The problem with that is you do need help. You cannot save yourself.
There is no other name under heaven by which sinners can be saved. The only way back from sin and the death that comes with it is the redeeming death of a perfect substitute. The only way of salvation for Adam's race is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If Christ has finished the work, and He has. that I need to stop trying to do the work myself.
And I stopped trying to do the work myself by receiving and resting upon Christ alone for my salvation. We don't run the race ourselves. And to even try is futile. Christ runs the race for us. And his crossing the finish line is our crossing the finish line.
As one pastor put it, when it comes to our justification, Jesus will be all, or he will be none. When you find yourself lying awake at night, terrified at some offense you've committed. Overwhelmed by the guilt of the things you've done, the things you've said, the attitudes you've harbored, the relationships you've ruined. When you try for the millionth time to break that addiction, to let go of that resentment, to stop being a slave to fear and anxiety. When you're wearied by wrestling with God and worn out from trying to avoid having to bow in joyful surrender to the one whom you know is worthy of your full devotion and trust and love.
When the work of rescuing yourself from yourself has become impossible. Look to Christ. and realize the work is already finished. You have but to stop striving. and rely fully and forever on the other on the finished work of Christ.
There is one final statement Jesus made from the cross. We might call it a word of reunion. We find it in Luke 23, 46. Jesus said as he died, Father, into your hands. I commit my spirit.
And again, I'd like us to ask: what does this mean? How do I know it's true? And why does it matter? First, let's consider what it means. To understand what this statement means, we need to begin by recognizing.
Who it is who is doing the committing. These words, of course, were spoken by Jesus Christ, but it's important that we understand they were spoken by Jesus Christ as the substitute, the mediator for sinners. Remember what I said just a few moments ago, that foundational tenet that Christians are united to Christ. What happens to Christ happens to Christians. In Christ's death, all Christians die.
In Christ's resurrection, all Christians are resurrected. In Christ's committing his spirit to the Father, he is in fact committing the spirits of all Christians into the safekeeping of the Father. What then does it mean to commit one spirit into the hands of another? To commit one's spirit into the hands of God means that Christ was entrusting to God the care and the keeping of his soul after death. This was an act of faith.
This was an act of trust. It was an act of resting in the power and the goodness of God. Notice Christ wasn't looking to himself for the care of his soul. He wasn't looking to his family or his church or his government. He certainly wasn't looking to the religious cultic practices of the day.
Of which there were many in first century Rome, he was looking to God the Father, the Creator of the universe. As God, he is all-powerful. Altogether capable of protecting and keeping the spirits of his children after death. As Father, He is gracious and kind and loving. Altogether willing to protect and keep the spirits of his children after death.
So, Jesus, in his role as a substitute for sinners, entrusts his very soul to God, who is both all-powerful and infinitely gracious. And in committing his soul to this great God, he was committing the souls of everyone who was or would be united to Christ by faith. One Puritan pastor said, when Christ commends his soul to God, he does, as it were, bind up all the souls of the elect in one bundle with his and solemnly presents them all to his Father's acceptance. In Christ's acceptance before the Father, all who claim Christ as their substitute, as their representative, as their Savior, are accepted before the Father.
Now wouldn't it be wonderful? If I could know beyond the shadow of a doubt that my soul is safely committed into the hands of Almighty God. where it will be kept from ruin. shielded from destruction, rescued from the very death that it deserves. Wouldn't that be a wonderful assurance to have?
How then can I get that assurance? How do I know that in Christ my soul is committed into the safe and strong hands of God?
Well, for starters, let's just stop and take note of how Jesus made this last declaration. He didn't half-heartedly say, I commit my soul to God. He didn't squeak it out with the voice of a mouth. No, Luke describes how he delivered this message. He roused himself one last time, filling his burning, dehydrated lungs with air, and called out with a loud voice in Greek, megas phone, with like a megaphone, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
And we might add, and the spirits of all those who belong to me. Jesus shouted this declaration for everyone to hear. And friends, we're still hearing it today. If you are Christ's, it doesn't matter how black your heart has become. What your sins you've committed, what doubts you entertain, what temptations you fall for, how many years you've squandered.
Your soul is not eternally forsaken, but is entrusted to the capable and willing hands of God Almighty. And we can know this because Jesus Christ Himself shouted it from the very cross where He secured our souls for all eternity. But God has given us even more assurances that He is able and willing to keep our souls. God is gracious that way. He accommodates our doubts by giving us reassurances over and over again.
From time to time, I've had opportunity to travel outside of the country, and I've noticed something about myself. The longer I'm out of the United States, the more frequently I check to make sure I still have my passport. Make sure it's still on my person. I don't want to lose it. It's my proof of citizenship.
I take it out and look at it to make sure I've got the right one, make sure it's really mine. There's comfort, particularly when I'm not in my homeland, that I have a homeland and that I have evidence of belonging to that homeland, that I have a legal right, legal access to that homeland. Beloved, if you are in Christ, God has given you evidence that your citizenship is in heaven, that your souls will be secured by none other than God Himself. For one, He is the one who's created your soul. You have a soul because God the Creator breathed that soul into you.
But not only that, God has also redeemed your soul. Scripture says your soul was corrupted and dead, but God made it alive and declared you justified before him. Not only that, God is also sanctifying your soul. All who are in Christ are being conformed more and more to the likeness of Christ. God is sanctifying your soul.
You see, all these things are evidences of the confidence we can have that God is the keeper of my soul. But it doesn't stop there. God has sealed our souls with the guarantee of His Spirit in our hearts. We have the Spirit of God in us as earnest money, so to speak, that we truly belong, body and soul, to God. But it continues.
Let's keep looking at our passport. God has also made His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our bridegroom. The husband of my soul. And folks, husbands don't abandon their brides. Especially this husband, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty to save.
Lastly, we can know that we know that our souls are kept safe in the hands of God because God never changes. The same God who brought the Spirit of Jesus safely to paradise after Calvary. Is the God who holds you and me, who holds all who are united to God. by their faith in Christ. Paul said it like this, and we have every right to say it with Paul, if Christ is ours.
For I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. Until that day.
So why does it matter? What difference does it make to know that my soul is kept and will forever be kept with God in Christ?
Well, it means that I no longer have to fear death. The worst the world can do to me, the worst the devil can do to me, the worst my sin can do to me is no match for the keeping power of God. I don't have to fear the unknown of death because what I do know is that God will keep my soul safe, even. in death. It also means that If God is trustworthy with our very souls, He is trustworthy with every lesser thing that affects us.
If God is handling the eternal state of your soul, do you think He might overlook that difficult circumstance over there or that troublesome person over there? Is there really anything at all that has the power to pose a legitimate threat to our joy and peace and confidence if God has taken care of the biggest threat? The greatest danger, the most fearful possibility? Of course not. Ask yourself, what is the biggest stress in my life?
What is the greatest threat to my comfort and peace? Then compare that to the eternal separation of your soul from God and ask yourself: if God can keep my soul, Can he not keep everything else that concerns me? If he takes care of our eternal life, he will take care of our daily bread. I should point out that Jesus' last words on the cross come from Psalm 31. Psalm 31 is a beautiful expression of trust in a God who sees and knows everything his children are going through and brings them through it all in the end.
Do you want to know what it looks like to rest in God? Psalm 31 describes it in glorious, glorious detail. In fact, let me just read the first five verses of this prayer that come from. Spilling out of a mouth of a person who has truly found rest in God. Psalm 31.
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness, Deliver me. Incline your ear to me. Rescue me speedily.
Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. For you are my rock and my fortress. And for your name's sake, you lead me and guide me. You take me out of the net they have hidden from me. for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me. Oh Lord. Faithful God. I want to encourage you to go home this afternoon and read Psalm 31 in its entirety.
Realizing that if Jesus can pray this psalm from the cross, you and I can pray it in the face of any trial or challenge we might face. As we close this morning, it's very important that I be perfectly clear about something. We've spoken about some wonderful spiritual blessings that are made available to sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ. But every blessing that Christ offers to sinners is. contingent upon one thing.
That the sinner be united. by faith to Christ. I said earlier: if you are in Christ, then everything He won on the cross, the forgiveness of sins, access to paradise, adoption into the family of God, peace with God, God's protection and safekeeping of your soul, eternal life, eternal joy, no more tears or pain or sorrow. All of it is yours if you are in Christ. But friends, the opposite is also true.
If you are not united to Christ, then none of these blessings are yours.
Souls who fall into the hands of an almighty God without Christ. Do not fall into the hands of safekeeping. They fall into the hands of divine anger and judgment. and retribution. For those who stand before God without Christ, the work is not finished.
It isn't even begun. There is an insurmountable debt to be paid, and you will have to pay it if you are not in Christ, and Christ is not in you. The most crucial question of the hour then is: Am I in Christ? And if not, how do I get Christ? The answer is simple.
So simple, in fact, that many a soul has forfeited the glorious blessings of heaven on account of its simplicity. It's simply this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's as simple as that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
and you will be saved.
Now that word believe is a loaded word. It means far more than what we maybe mean when we say something like, I believe in the Easter bunny, or I don't believe in the Easter bunny. That use of the word has to do with believing whether something is factual or not. To believe savingly in Jesus is to believe not only the facts about him as they are presented in the pages of scripture, his miraculous birth, his morally perfect life, his purposeful death, his vindicating resurrection, and so on. It also means to trust that these facts about Jesus, who he is, and what he has done, are the means by which a holy God forgives and accepts a sinner like me.
To believe in Jesus means to stop trying to finish the work on your own and rely on the work that He has already done. One summer, when I was in high school, I worked with a group of young men. clearing land for our church. to build a camp for handicapped children. The land was acres and acres of overgrown, undeveloped woods growing in hard Georgia clay.
The woods were so thickly overgrown that we couldn't really get tractors and machinery in there. We had to clear it mostly by hand. It was probably the most physically demanding work I've ever had to do. It was so hot. And the days were so long.
But at the end of the day, as the sun started hanging low in the sky, we would hear the boss yell through the woods: it's quitting time. And we would all come running to the work van for the ride home. It was the best sound in the world hearing the boss say: it's quitting time, it's finished, let's go home. Friends. If Christ says it is finished, then it truly is finished.
If Christ says the work is over, then it truly is quitting time. The work is finished. Our eternal rest is one. If you're still working, it's time to stop working. and come inside.
and dine with Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, truly you are mighty to save. And we rest in you, our risen Lord. Amen.
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