"It is finished", "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit"

• It is finished  - Isa 63:1-5 acknowledges that only the Lord Jesus was qualified to atone for the sins of His people. Lord Jesus mission is to do the Work of His Father as he declares in John 4:34. The salvation of all true believers was completed before Christ voluntarily died, when He uttered the majestic words, “it is finished”, and yielded up His spirit to His Father (John 19:30). What had been “finished” was the Atonement for the sins of God’s elect – a crucial element of their salvation. No mere human could pay the enormous price of the sins of those whom Christ came to save. Only a perfect Being – Jesus Christ, Who was fully God and fully man – could pay the infinite price required by God’s justice for sin, only he can drink of the cup of God's wrath reserved for you and I. Only God could become laden with sin – not His own, of course – for His people, and only He could successfully atone for the sins of all the believers. We read 1 Pet 1:18-20 that the Lord Jesus Christ offered his soul, or life, as payment for the sins of every child of God – even before He created this universe. Our only hope for salvation is in the finished work of Christ.  Christ Did All the Work of Salvation. What was the “work of faith”, or rather, “the work of Christ” that He so faithfully performed? The “travail”, or “work” in Isa 53:11, that Christ had to endure was eternal damnation, which the Bible calls the “second death”.

Rev 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

1 Pet 1:18-20  “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world: but was manifest in these last times for you.”

John 6:37-40 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Psa 40:7-8 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”

John 4:34 “Jesus saith unto them, My meat [food] is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”

Psa 75:8 "For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked [you and I] of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."

Luke 22:42 "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup [Lord Jesus drank that cup of God's wrath in place of His Elect] from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."

Isa 63:1-5 “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.”

1 John 4:10 "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Isa 53:11 “He [referring to the Father] shall see of the travail [or work] of his [Christ’s] soul, and shall be satisfied: by his [Christ’s] knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he [Christ] shall bear their iniquities.”

John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Luke 24:44-46 “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:”

Col 2:11-12 “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

Php 3:9 “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”

• The Son of Man be Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth - We read in Matt 12:38-40 that the Son of man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. First of all, God is not saying that Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights. Secondly, “the heart of the earth” is a figure of speech that involves the suffering of Christ under God's wrath, He endured hell for our sins. The suffering of Christ began on Thursday evening in the Garden of Gethsemane. No man had yet laid a hand on Him, and yet He threw Himself to the ground with loud cries and the sweat poured off His body like great drops of blood into the ground because He was already enduring the wrath of God. He was spiritually in hell; the nature of hell is to be under the wrath of God. On Sunday morning, He arose from the grave which was the final proof that He had completely paid for the sins of those He came to save, that is, He had endured the equivalent of eternal damnation on behalf of those He came to save. He did not suffer the whole three days and three nights, from Thursday night until Sunday morning. His suffering ceased when He hung on the cross and said, “It is finished”, and that was Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours after He had gone into the Garden of Gethsemane. Right after that, He said in Luke 23:46, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. His body was put in the grave; He did not go into the grave as a whole personality. He was no longer suffering. These activities were all proofs and, therefore, were all part of His atonement experience. Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night equals three nights. All day Friday, all day Saturday, and a partial day Sunday, which is counted as a day, equals three days. Thus, three days and three nights are involved with the atonement.

Jon 2:2-7 "And said, I [Jonah typifying Christ] cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. 4Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 5The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. 7When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

Matt 12:38-40 “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master [teacher], we would see a sign [or miracle] from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

• Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit  - God the Father had promised Christ that His soul would not be left in Hell, but that He would be raised from the dead. Proof that the penalty was paid is that Christ left His body and in His spirit essence, He went to be with His heavenly father. We read in Luke 23:46 that Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. There was no longer any payment for sins being made. His body was still on the cross but in His spirit essence He had gone to be with the Father. When His body was put in the grave, it did not see corruption because the penalty had been fully paid. The big proof and final evidence that the penalty for our sins was fully paid, is the fact that He rose again on Sunday morning. It was also proof that His soul had not been left in hell, that is, under the wrath of God. Christ had completely endured the wrath of God for us. David, an ancestor of Christ, lived about one thousand years earlier, and he had prophesied that Christ would be successful in paying for our sins and that He would be raised up and sit on the throne. In Ephesians 1, God says He experienced the resurrection, ascended up into heaven, sat down at the right hand of God, and He has been given authority over everything in this age and in the age to come. This passage indicates that all of God’s promises concerning what Christ was required to do to be our Savior, have been faithfully fulfilled. We can absolutely depend upon the fact that God’s salvation program will be carried out with meticulous accuracy.

Acts 2:28-32 “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”

Eph 1:17-22 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,"