Jesus said, "It is finished". What a glorious and triumphant saying this is. It brings to every believing soul such wonderful assurance and peace. As we saw in our meditation on verse 28, Jesus had come to the end of his great work, to work and provide complete salvation for sinners. He had accomplished all that God, the Father, had purposed for him to do and had given him to do. Jesus had come into this world and became a human being in order to do this. This work was for Jesus to be the second Adam, and be the representative before God for all his people, those who believe on him. In our place he lived the holy and righteous life which God requires of all of us, and he lived this life perfectly. Then as the holy one he became the sacrifice for sin, and took responsibility for our sin before the judgement seat of God. He accepted responsibility for all our sins and accepted the sentence which those sins deserved from the hand of God. He then voluntarily went to die and bear the penalty of our sin in his body on the cross. In that suffering he suffered both in body and spirit, and he suffered all the terrible pains of hell which sin deserves. He suffered eternal death and separation from God, and he did all this for us.

Now he declares, in this triumphant saying, "It is finished", and by this statement he is declaring to God, his Father, and to the world, that he had completed perfectly and eternally all that was necessary to atone for the sin of all his people. In this saying is our complete confidence that our Saviour has atoned for all our sin, and so we shall never have to stand before God's judgement seat and answer for our sins, and hear the awful words of condemnation and death. In these words is our assurance that there is no sin recorded now in the records of heaven against us for our sin, because Jesus has finished his work of suffering on account of our sin, and so our sins are blotted out from this record and from the sight of God forever.

The triumphant words which commences Romans 8 are true. There is now no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Why? because the atonement for our sin is complete - it is finished by our Saviour, and finished completely for ever.

There is now no need for those who believe in Jesus to fear God as a terrible judge. We have no more need to fear death, for we have no sins now to accuse us before the judge of all the earth. Our Saviour's obedience to blood, hides all our transgressions from view, as one of Toplady's hymns expresses so well. These words give us a wonderful future to look forward to, for heaven is opened to us because of this finished work of our Saviour.

These words tell us that there is now no more need for priests to offer sacrifices for sin, because Jesus has made the one perfect and complete sacrifice. To continue to offer sacrifices for sin is to say we do not believe Christ did finish his work, and there could be no worse dishonour done to Christ than this.

These words tell us we have a priest forever, and so need no other earthly priest, for Jesus is a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, and he is in heaven now presenting before God his finished work on our behalf. We need no earthly priest to plead for us.

Because he had finished his work of atoning for sin, Jesus could end his suffering, and we hear him doing this in the words of our text "With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit". In other words he gave up his spirit into the hands of God his Father.

What a wonderful action this is. Notice that Jesus is unique here and quite unlike any other dying. When we die we have no control over ourselves and our death. Jesus on the other hand is in complete control, as he was in all his suffering. When he had completed his work, he voluntarily and by his will gave up his body to death. He bowed his head, and he gave up his spirit. It was his act as our mighty Saviour and Lord.

Let us bow down and worship and praise the name of Jesus. How glorious is his name in all the world. He has finished his work, and he has redeemed his people according to the will of the Father.