it is finished.

so i have been thinking a lot about Jesus' two last sayings on the cross.

"it is finished" was his proclamation that he completed God's purpose for him at that time. he was on the cross. we often feel like we are doing what God wants us to do, and we end up in really bleak conditions. there was Jesus, nailed to a cross after having been beat and mocked for days. the sun wouldn't even shine. this is how my work is completed? this is the end result? it can seem so dark when we've done all that we can and the result of our work is the opposite of what we thought we were trying to do.

then he says the part we forget about: "now into your hands i commit my spirit"... i'm trusting you that this dark day and this painful death is not the end of God's plan! imagine those who loved Jesus, imagine his mother thinking "this is the work you were supposed to do, and it ends like this?" but we forget that even though God works through us, he doesn't not leave it up to us to complete; we can't! we can't complete it on our own. we have to have faith, even when the results of our labor seem fruitless, that God did raise Jesus from the ultimate dead end.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:6-8

This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. - Acts 2:23-24