Misinterpreted

My husband, of whom I am very proud, brought the message at Sunday night’s service this past Sunday. After the service, he and I were in his office and a friend came in to encourage him and to tease him about something that Todd had said in his message. Somewhere along the way a phrase he said sounded like a certain not-so-nice slang phrase that is commonly “slipped” when some is describing being irritated or mad. You can use your imagination here and I’m sure you will figure it out! Our friend knew that Todd did not say this not so uplifting thing, but he wanted to let him know what it sounded like. We had quite a laugh from it and thought about how terrible it would be if someone really did misinterpret what was spoken and actually thought he would say such from the pulpit.

Although what Todd said may have been misinterpreted, there is another phrase that for 2000 years has been interpreted very clearly in God’s Word. This powerful phrase is tucked right smack dab in the middle of John 19:30.

“It is finished!”

Finished is such a final word, a word of completion. After you’ve eaten a big meal, feeling stuffed, you slide your plate away and say “I’m finished.” Remember those school projects and research papers we worked so hard on? I always had to make sure I told everyone in the house when I finally finished something I had worked so hard on. These are one time occurrences that have a definite end, but I don’t think that’s exactly what Jesus meant when He said “It is finished!” Yes, His death was a one time thing, but our sin was ongoing. The wonderful part about this phrase is the tense that the word finished was written in. It was written in a tense that means an action that happened and still has continuing results. The tense means it is finished and is still being finished. God, in His Sovereignty, made sure all of the bases were covered. He planned it so that the sins that occurred before that day were covered and the sins we commit today are still covered. A completed action with continual results.

Give me a little grace here – I know what I am getting ready to say is a stretch, but I want to show you something practical to give you a mental picture of what the tense of this verb means. We sin daily. We will never be without sin this side of Heaven. What else do we have in our house daily, which will never have an end? Come on ladies, you’ve all said it at some point in your life. “LAUNDRY! It never ends!” We never really get to say it’s completed, because it is continual, like our sin. Unless we take on Adam and Eve’s attire prior to sin, we will always have laundry that either needs to be washed or will need to be washed by the end of the day. Imagine that no matter what you wore, what your kids littered and left wadded in the floor, no matter how many times you changed clothes, the laundry was always FINISHED. Imagine the sense of completion, no more laundry room dread. Relief. Finished. Done. Complete. Accomplished.

Something continually happening, our sin, settled for through one completed action, death on a cross, producing new lasting effects every day.

“It is finished! A phrase not to be misinterpreted.



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