When I Survey
H. Hoeksema
Book 2, Chapter 7
Victorious in Defeat

"It is finished." (John 19:30)

Did ever man appear so hopelessly lost, so completely put to nought, so utterly defeated as our Lord in the hour of His suffering and agony on Calvary? His enemies had triumphed over Him. He was forsaken by His own, condemned by the Church, sentenced by the worldly judge. There was no one to defend His cause. He had been mocked at and filled with reproach, beaten and buffeted and spit upon, scourged and crowned with a crown of thorns. And finally He had been led to the place of the Skull. And there "they crucified him, and two other with him, and Jesus in the midst." John 19:18. He is numbered with the transgressors, exposed as a criminal, in fact, as the chief of them, as public enemy number one! And even so, His enemies know not pity. And all that are present and watch this dreadful spectacle, as well as those that pass by, the chief priests and the people, the soldiers and even the malefactors that were crucified with Him, mock and jeer and taunt Him, sarcastically challenging Him to deliver Himself and come down from the cross, thus contributing to and bringing out in bolder relief the picture of utter helplessness and defeat He presents. And does not God Himself set His seal of approval upon this execution of judgment by men? For darkness envelops the cross, and soon from the darkness the terrible cry of utter amazement is heard: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Was ever man so utterly forsaken by God and men, as this man Jesus as He is hanging on the accursed tree?

But hark! The crucified One speaks once more! He complains of thirst, but the note of amazement that was in His voice a moment ago is gone. And again He cries out. And is there not this time a note of triumph in His voice? Is not this next to the last cross utterance an announcement of victory? "It is finished!" He shouts. And in the consciousness of having finished all, He now beckons death to take His earthly frame, and commends His spirit into the hands of the Father. Surely, this is not the death of a defeated man. He appears to be in perfect control even of the moment of His own death. And in the hour of what seems to be His utter defeat He announces the victory: "It is finished!" And while men slink away from Golgotha smiting their breasts and admitting defeat, God from heaven corroborates with signs and wonders the shout of triumph by His Son on the cross. Indeed, the moment of Christ's utter defeat is the beginning of His glorious victory! He is victorious even in His defeat!

It is finished! This is one of the briefest of the seven cross utterances. Like the immediately preceding one it consists of only one word in the original. Yet, it is one of the most momentous and significant declarations ever made. What does it mean? Surely, it is far more than the announcement of approaching death. In this sixth cross utterance the Savior does not mean to say that the end is fast approaching, and that He feels Himself sinking away into the mysterious depths of death. Such an interpretation would hardly be in harmony with the facts of Jesus' death. For these facts plainly witness that Jesus was never overcome by death, that death had no power at all arbitrarily to sever the thread of His earthly life; that, on the contrary, the Savior laid down His own life, as He had said, in His own time, and that death could come in only at His own beck and call. This is evident from the fact that the Lord died much sooner than was and could have been expected. Death by crucifixion was a very slow process of dying. It could last from one even to three whole days. But Jesus died within six hours. And all marvelled that He had died so soon. Death did not overpower Him. By the strength of His divine nature the Son of God sustained His human nature in all its suffering until the work was finished and the battle was won: then He gave up the ghost. This is evident, too, from the fact that the Savior remained fully and clearly conscious to the very last, and that He cried out with a powerful voice even at the moment of His departure from this life. The outcry "It is finished" cannot mean "I feel the end approaching." For no one took His life from Him. He had power to lay it down of Himself, and He had power to take it again.

Nor is this the meaning of the word that is used here in the original. It emphasizes that something is finished, that the end is attained that was to be reached, that a work had been accomplished. Hardly could this be said by man when death overtakes him, especially when he is still in the prime of his life, and when his life is taken from him by the sword of the worldly magistrate. Death usually takes us away from the stage of our earthly life and labors when it would seem that there are still many unfinished tasks. But with the Lord this was different. When He cried out "It is finished", He did not mean to announce that His earthly life was ended, but that His work was completed, that the purpose, the end of His earthly life and labors had been reached, and that now He could leave this world and lay down His life. This is the meaning of the word the Lord here employs. And that this is, indeed, the meaning of the sixth cross utterance is evident, finally, from the context. For in vs. 28 of John 19 we read: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." The Savior was conscious that all things were accomplished, that His work was finished. And as there was neither reason nor motive for Him to stay in the flesh even one moment longer that was required for the accomplishment of His work, He bowed the head and gave up the ghost. John 19:30.

But what is implied in this announcement? Just what was finished? In general we may answer: all the work which the Father gave Him to do had been accomplished. Not, indeed, as if the Savior is not working even now. To be sure, He has all power in heaven and in earth, He reigns in might and glory at the right hand of God, He preserves His people, and causes all things to work together unto the coming of the glorious day when He shall appear as our Savior from heaven. But, first of all, the Savior is looking back here upon His life in the flesh, and upon that part of the work that had to be finished in human nature, in the likeness of sinful flesh; He is considering chiefly, no doubt, the program of His suffering and agonies of the last few hours; and with regard to that program of redemption in as far as it must be accomplished by the Son of God in the world, in the state of His humiliation, He here declares that it is finished, and that the end in view, the purpose of it all has been attained. That is why it is an announcement of victory. And for this reason we may also say, in the second place, that in principle all the work of salvation had been accomplished. In the perfect obedience of Jesus on the cross all the work is finished that must bear fruit in the eternal glory of the whole Church, of all the saints in the new creation!

But let us consider this sixth cross word a moment from the specific viewpoint of its being an outcry from the mouth of the Royal Sufferer, Who must enter into the glory of His kingdom through suffering. For it is especially when we view it in this light that we clearly discern in it the note of triumph, and understand it as an announcement of victory.

Jesus suffered and died as God's anointed King. And let us clearly understand that implication and significance of this. For this does not merely mean that He suffered and left His life on the battlefield in defense of His cause and kingdom. This, indeed, may also be said of the kings of this world. They have enemies that attack them and compel them to fight in defense of their kingdom. Or they themselves are motivated by carnal ambition and lust for power and aggrandizement, and go out to battle. And in the battle, whenever they personally went out with their armies to meet the enemy, they would often suffer, and forfeit their lives. In a sense, therefore, it might be said of them, too, that they were royal sufferers: they died as kings. However, their suffering and death were not essential to their kingship. On the contrary, their death is a loss. It may be their defeat. They meant to fight and gain the victory, but they did not intend to die. With the Christ, however, this is essentially different. He suffers and dies to establish His kingdom, and to enter into the possession and glory of it. He does not merely suffer in battle, but His suffering is His battle. He does not simply fight to the death, but by dying He fights. He deliberately chooses the way of suffering. He wants to die! In the fullest sense of the word He lays down His life, and in doing so He fights the battle for His kingdom. Suffering and death are not accidental with Him: they are the essence of His battle. He is the Royal Sufferer because there is no other way for Him to enter into the glory of His Kingdom than through the death of the cross!

For His Kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is the Christ. He was Anointed from before the foundation of the world to be King over all in the new creation. But that new creation, that eternal Kingdom of heaven, over which He was anointed King for ever, is the redeemed world. His kingdom, and the subjects of that kingdom, those whom the Father has given Him, are by nature in the power of the devil, the prince of this world. They are in sin, they are under the wrath and condemnation of God, they lie in the midst of death. From this power of the devil, sin, and death they must be delivered. And Christ is anointed, ordained and qualified by God the Father to accomplish this task. He has His fight not with flesh and blood, but with the powers of darkness. He must break the power of the devil, vanquish sin and death, and so battle His way into His kingdom. But how can sin and death be vanquished, and how can the devil be deprived of his power to rule in the world? Only in the way of the righteousness of God. The guilt of sin must be blotted out. The justice of God must be satisfied with respect to sin. And how can the justice of God be satisfied? Only by a perfect sacrifice. The sentence of God against sin is death. The soul that sinneth shall die. The case against the sinner, therefore, is hopeless as far as he is concerned. For how shall the sinner die and live? How shall the sinner that is himself dead in sin, an enemy of God by nature, sacrifice himself in death unto God? But God anointed His Son to stand at the head of His sinful people, so that He might represent them, take their place, assume responsibility for all their sin, and bring the perfect sacrifice that would satisfy the justice of God, and for ever blot out the guilt of sin. To bring that sacrifice and accomplish that perfect redemption, and thus to establish His eternal kingdom of glory on the sure foundation of the righteousness of God, the Son of God was ordained from before the foundation of the world.

Thus He came into the world. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53:6. And with the responsibility for all our iniquities upon Himself, He said, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 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." Ps. 40:6-8. And with that delight to do God's will in His heart, and with all our iniquities upon Himself, He deliberately rejected all other ways and chose the way of the cross, the way of death and hell! This is why "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Isa. 53:7. That, and not because He is powerless, is the reason why all the mockery and sarcastic invectives of the enemies cannot induce Him to come down from that cross, and why He silently endures when the soldiers even case into His teeth the taunt: "If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself." That cross is His battlefield! That apparently helpless Sufferer, Who appears so utterly passive, is engaged in a fierce battle. That apparently impotent victim of His enemies, has the devil by his throat, is taking the sting out of death, is choking the last accusing breath of condemnation out of sin. He is fighting the battle for the righteousness of God into the glory of His everlasting kingdom at the head of all whom the Father has given Him! That is why He is more than victor, for even His enemies, unwittingly, by attempting to destroy Him, are instrumental in leading Him on to victory! And that is why the moment of His apparent utter defeat is the moment of His final victory, and He is able to announce to all the world: "It is finished!" The battle is fought! The foe is vanquished! Sin is blotted out! Eternal righteousness is obtained for all mine! The devil is for ever dethroned! Death is swallowed up in victory! The way through deepest death and hell is wide open and leads into the heavenly tabernacle of God with men! "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Rev. 11:15. It is finished!

Lo! Even now, as the Servant of Jehovah, the Royal Sufferer, makes His announcement of victory, and departs from the earthly tabernacle of His flesh, God sustains the claim of His beloved Son with signs from heaven! The Roman centurion gives Him testimony that He was a righteous man, the Son of God, Lu. 23:47; Matt. 27:54. Those that had come to mock now smite their breasts, and return in utter amazement, Lu. 32:48. The veil of the temple is marvellously rent by the hand of Him that dwells between the cherubim, a sign that the old temple is destroyed, and that the way into the true sanctuary, into the presence of God is now opened. When Christ breaks through the flesh in which all our iniquities had been contracted, everything splits, opens up as it were to make room for the new economy of things. The earth quakes, as a prophecy of the day when God shall shake yet once more, not only the earth, but also the heavens, to usher in the eternal kingdom of glory. The rocks rend, and the graves are opened: death must give up its victims unto the glorious resurrection that is to come! O, indeed, victorious in His defeat is the Royal Sufferer! With perfect confidence He even now announces His own victory: It is finished! And God from heaven corrborates His testimony that righteousness is established, that sin is blotted out, that death is overcome, and that the eternal kingdom of His Anointed has been established!

Only by grace, and through faith, we, too, corroborate the truth of that announcement. And receiving this testimony we put all our confidence in Him that uttered it: the crucified and risen Lord! And putting all our confidence in Him we enter into a finished work. Then we enter into a finished righteousness, the righteousness of God in Christ, and we know that, even though all things in this world testify to the contrary, and our own conscience accuse us, we are justified and have peace with God. Then we enter into a perfect victory over sin, the devil, and death, for faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Then we do, indeed, still fight a battle in this world, but it is a battle against foes that have been vanquished by the Captain of our salvation. None of our work can add to the perfection of His work; our fighting cannot make His victory more sure and complete. For it is finished! And entering by faith into the finished work of our Lord, we know that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us even unto death!