IT IS FINISHED

"It is finished." John 19:30 (NKJV)  Some of the last words of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, before He was crucified.  I'm not sure I had a good understanding of those words until today.  I had a Facebook conversation with a friend - someone I've never met.  But because Jesus was the center of the conversation, I began to look at these words closer.  The incredible thing is that these words were never mentioned.  But I know that in my Spirit I heard "What about these words - "It is finished?".

The definition of "finished" is:  1.  Ended or completed.  2. Completed or perfected in all details.  3.  Polished to the highest degree of excellence.  "Polished" means flawless, skillful, excellent.

It is finished.  It is completed.  It is perfected.  It is polished.  It is excellent.  It is flawless.  It is Jesus.  He is perfected and nothing can be more excellent that Him.  If I know and believe in my heart that He said these words, I then need to believe that what He says He means.  And since he meant that, He also meant it when He said "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  John 3:17 (NKJV)  So, I do believe that He meant it.  The world might be saved.  Through Him.  Through His acts.  Not through me.  Not through my acts.

He finished "it" for me and you (He died that I might have life, if I choose to accept it) but He is not "finished" with me yet.  There is still something I can do, if I want.  I will actively live while believing His words. I do this by praising Him for what He has already finished, completed, perfected, and polished to the highest degree of excellence.  I will continue to praise Him until I see the evidence of that which I believe in my heart He did on the cross.  I am evidence of it.  I am seeing evidence of it in my daughter, Chantel.  She has turned her heart to Jesus and I see her teaching her children about Jesus.  Evidence of what He said and did.  Because He was thinking of her that day.  And because He was thinking about you that day.  And I continue to praise Him after seeing the evidence.  Because I want to praise Him.  After all, He gave me life!

As I read this over, I am getting other levels of understanding.  I knew that would happen!  This is the way the Holy Spirit works - always teaching, always wooing, always saying "hey, look at it this way!".

Jesus said it.  Did I truly believe it?  In my heart?  Do I believe those words that He said while He hung there on the cross, bleeding out, dying, thinking of you and me?  He came that we might have life.  He died that we might have life.  Did I believe it?  Do I believe it now?  My Jesus does not lie and He does not speak lightly.  Yes, I believed it, but that conversation today led me to a higher level of understanding and belief.  I believe it and understand it deeper now.  Even as He died, He lived....and we are polished to the highest degree of excellence.  We just have to believe it.  It is finished.