{"id":11291,"date":"2026-03-30T15:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11291"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:36:21","slug":"it-is-finished-it-is-finished-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11291","title":{"rendered":"It is finished. It is finished, indeed."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of Jesus of Nazareth. No, that is not the story. Not the real story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real story is: Death is dead. Death is over. And it\u2019s all because of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do people commonly think about life and death? Many think: \u201cEat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u201d Of course, this way of thinking is nothing new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People today are basically the same as they have always been. Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:32: \u201cIf the dead are not raised, \u2018Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u2019\u201d In the First Century that\u2019s what people commonly thought. And he is quoting what was said centuries before him, in Isaiah 22:13. \u201cLet us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u201d Death is the end, that is it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People say that death is natural, like the seasons. Plants and animals come and go. The cycle of life and all that. As it says in Ecclesiastics 3: \u201cFor everything there is a season . . .  a time to be born and a time to die.\u201d This view is a certain kind of fatalism. When your time is up, your time is up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or people imagine that they go on to another life. They are so centered on themselves that they believe they will continue on no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We who are Christian try to express what Easter is about. We use metaphors like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. But that image really doesn\u2019t work. It is still just part of the cycle of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over against that is the basic Christian message: Death is dead. God has done something that is even more than reversing the second law of thermodynamics. Death is dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen? How was it accomplished? God himself came to be one of us. And not only came to be one of us but truly died. That does not work in any kind of category that we know. That\u2019s not part of the cycle of nature or anything natural to this world. No, death is conquered. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:23: \u201cThe last enemy to be conquered is death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And death isn\u2019t just natural. As it says in Romans: 6:23: \u201cThe wages of sin is death.\u201d And: \u201cThe sting of death is sin\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:56). The sting refers to the sting of the scorpion. The cause of death is sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the cross and resurrection death is conquered and also therefore sin. God settles his own accounts with himself. He makes it right again. As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:21: \u201cFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the holiness (righteousness) of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean for you and me? That\u2019s really, of course, what we want to hear about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for us as it was for Mary Magdalene. She knew him when he called her by name (John 20:16). That then is the same for you and me. It says in Isaiah 43:1: \u201cFear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That happens for us when we\u2019re baptized. There the Lord calls us by name and says: \u201cYou are mine.\u201d As it says in Romans 6:5: \u201cFor if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly<\/strong> be united with him in a resurrection like his.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Colossians 3:3-4: \u201cFor you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.\u201d Holiness, forgiveness, life forever. It\u2019s beyond even our imaginations. And yet that is the promise. Where he is and as he is, so shall we be, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Easter Sunday it is common all over the world for Christians to greet each other with the refrain: \u201cHe is risen. He is risen, indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way of saying what it\u2019s all about comes from the words at the end of Jesus\u2019 life, where on the cross he says: \u201cIt is finished\u201d (John 19:30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we know, in the Gospel of John words there have several layers of meaning. \u201cIt is finished\u201d means: This is the end. The cross is over and done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is finished\u201d also has another meaning. It means: \u201cIt is completed. It is accomplished. All has been taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we have in his death and resurrection is that it\u2019s all been taken care of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is finished. It is finished, indeed. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is summed up in 1 Corinthians 15: \u201cDeath is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? . . . Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d  Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18<\/p>\n

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of Jesus of Nazareth. No, that is not the story. Not the real story.<\/p>\n

The real story is: Death is dead. Death is over. And it\u2019s all because of him.<\/p>\n

What do people commonly think about life and death? Many think: \u201cEat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u201d Of course, this way of thinking is nothing new.<\/p>\n

People today are basically the same as they have always been. Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:32: \u201cIf the dead are not raised, \u2018Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u2019\u201d In the First Century that\u2019s what people commonly thought. And he is quoting what was said centuries before him, in Isaiah 22:13. \u201cLet us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.\u201d Death is the end, that is it.<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11291"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11295,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11291\/revisions\/11295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}