Today, as we celebrate Good Friday, we are reminded of the three words Jesus uttered that day, “It is finished.” You might be wondering what Jesus meant when He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The Greek word for “it is finished” is “tetelestai,” an accounting term meaning “paid in full.” This would have been completely understood by the people at the time John wrote this Gospel. The word, “tetelestai” was written on documents and receipts indicating a bill had been paid in full.
Jesus paid our debt in full. What debt did we owe and where and when did it begin? The debt owed by man originated in the Garden of Eden and on the account of Adam’s sin. God created man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden where they lived without sin and sickness. God freely allowed them to eat the fruit of every tree but one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:17 says, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Did God mean that Adam and Eve would die at that moment? No, He meant that there would be a spiritual death or separation from Him. Sinful man could no longer be spiritually connected to a Holy God. But God! He had a plan. We have an awesome Father that already had a plan in motion to redeem us from this separation and the curse of sickness—His name is Jesus.
Good Friday was the first step Jesus took to set us free from sin, bondage, and sickness. He used His own body to set us free from sickness and pain. The 39 stripes on His back were for every sickness, disease, and pain anyone would ever experience. There isn’t any sickness past, present, or future that Jesus didn’t already pay the price for when the Roman soldiers scourged Him before He was crucified (John 19:1).
Years after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, the law was given to Moses to show people that they needed a savior. God’s original design and plan was for mankind to live by faith. Once sin entered the world, people’s hearts turned toward sin and not to God, causing Him to provide the law which pointed out their sins. Jesus came to set us free from the law so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:14).
On that Good Friday over 2,000 years ago as Jesus went to the cross, He fulfilled the law and all of its requirements so we could live free from the law and be fully restored in our relationship with Almighty God. Colossians 2:14 says, “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” The handwriting of requirements that was against us was the law. “Blotting out” or “wiped out” was translated from the Greek word “exaleipho,” which meant to smear out or obliterate. This verse is saying that the Old Testament Law was nailed to the cross with Jesus. He smeared out/obliterated/wiped out the law that was being held against us. At that moment on the cross, God not only forgave each one of us for our sins, but He also did away with the laws. This enables us to relate to God through our faith in Jesus. There is no more sins, laws, barriers, or a curtain separating us from God, our Father. The moment Jesus said, “It is finished,” the veil (curtain) in the Temple was torn from the top to the bottom (Mark 15:38) giving us full access to the Most Holy Place in the physical temple as well as the spiritual temple, when you become a believer.
God sent His only Son to earth to die on the cross so that His people could be healed, saved, and delivered from their distress and destruction (Psalm 107:19-20). On that Good Friday, Jesus did exactly what He was sent to do—“tetelestai!” Tetelestai is a Greek action verb indicating it had been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. Jesus’ death on the cross happened 2,000 years ago and is still in effect today!
Know that without a shadow of a doubt that sickness, pain, disabilities, poverty, and bondage were nailed to the cross. “It is finished!”
~Donna Jones