Spurgeon Quote of the Day

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished:

and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” John 19:30. 

Once again—when He said, “It is finished,” Jesus had totally destroyed the power of Satan, of sin, and of death. The Champion had entered the lists to do battle for our soul’s redemption against all our foes. He met Sin. Horrible, terrible, all-but omnipotent Sin nailed Him to the Cross; but in that deed, Christ nailed Sin also to the tree. There they both did hang together—Sin and Sin’s Destroyer. Sin destroyed Christ, and by that destruction Christ destroyed Sin! Next came the second enemy, Satan. He assaulted Christ with all his hosts. Calling up his myrmidons from every corner and quarter of the universe, he said, “Awake, arise, or be forever fallen! Here is our great Enemy who has sworn to bruise my head; now let us bruise His heel!” They shot their hellish darts into His heart; they poured their boiling cauldrons on His brain; they emptied their venom into His veins; they spat their insinuations into His face; they hissed their devilish fears into His ears. He stood alone, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, hounded by all the dogs of Hell! Our Champion quailed not, but used His holy weapons, striking right and left with all the power of God-supported Manhood! On came the hosts; volley after volley was discharged against Him. No mimic thunders were these, but such as might shake the very gates of Hell! The Conqueror steadily advanced, overturning their ranks, dashing in pieces His enemies, breaking the bow, and cutting the spear in sunder, and burning the chariots in the fire, while he cried, “In the name of God will I destroy you!” At last, foot to foot, He met the champion of Hell, and now our David fought with Goliath. Not long was the struggle; thick was the darkness which gathered round them both; but He who is the Son of God as well as the Son of Mary, knew how to smite the fiend, and He did smite him with Divine fury, till, having despoiled him of his armor, having quenched his fiery darts, and broken his head, He cried, “It is finished” and sent the fiend, bleeding and howling, down to Hell! We can imagine him pursued by the eternal Savior, who exclaims—

“Traitor!
My bolt shall find and pierce you through, Though under Hell’s profoundest wave You div’st, to seek a sheltering grave.”

His thunderbolt overtook the fiend, and grasping him with both His hands, the Savior drew around him the great chain. The angels brought the royal chariot from on high, to whose wheels the captive fiend was bound. Lash the coursers up the everlasting hills! Spirits made perfect come forth to meet Him. Sing to the conqueror who drags death and Hell behind Him, and leads captivity captive! “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.” But stay; before He enters, let Him be rid of this His burden. Lo, He takes the fiend, and hurls him down through illimitable night, broken, bruised, with his power destroyed, bereft of his crown, to lie forever howling in the Pit of Hell! Thus when the Savior cried, “It is finished,” He had defeated Sin and Satan; nor less had he vanquished Death. Death had come against Him, as Christmas Evans puts it, with his fiery dart, which he struck right through the Savior, till the point fixed in the Cross, and when he tried to pull it out again, he left the sting behind. What more could he do? He was disarmed. Then Christ set some of his prisoners free; for many of the saints arose and were seen of many—then He said to him, “Death, I take from you your keys; you must live for a little while to be the warden of those beds in which My saints shall sleep but give Me your keys.” And lo, the Savior stands today with the keys of death hanging at His belt, and He waits until the hour shall come of which no man knows; when the trumpet of the archangel shall ring like the silver trumpets of Jubilee, and then He shall say, “Let My captives go free.” Then shall the tombs be opened in virtue of Christ’s death, and the very bodies of the saints shall live again in an eternity of glory—

“‘It is finished!’ Hear the dying Savior cry.”

C.H. Spurgeon- "It is Finished"