No Unfinished Business

“For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished” (Isaiah 53:8).

When a man dies young, we think of all he might have accomplished, the songs that might have been composed, books that might have been written, and amazing discoveries that might have been made.

“He might have won a Nobel Prize.”
“He might have won an Oscar.”
“He might have been a superstar.”
And on goes the sad speculation about what might have been.

That may be our worst fear . . . that we will die before our time.

We die too young . . . .
Or we die too soon . . .
Or we die with our work unfinished . . .
Or we die with our dreams unfulfilled.

You can’t say that about Jesus.
What else did he have left to accomplish?
He was put to death for the transgression of his own people.

Only one person in history never left behind any unfinished business. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the only person who could come to the end of his life and say—with absolute and total truthfulness—“I have finished everything I set out to do.”

Just before Jesus died, he cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Note that he did not say, “I am finished,” for that would imply that he died defeated. Rather, he cried out “It is finished,” meaning “I successfully completed the work I came to do.”

Since Jesus Christ paid in full the price for our sins, the work of salvation is now complete. That’s what we mean when we talk about the “finished work” of Jesus Christ. That’s not just a slogan; it’s a profound spiritual truth. What Jesus accomplished in his death was so awesome, so total, so complete that it could never be repeated, not even by Jesus himself. His work is “finished.” There is nothing more God could do to save the human race. There is no Plan B.  Plan A (the death of Christ) was good enough.