Mission Accomplished

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book;
³¹ but these are written so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life in his name.
(John 20:30-31, ESV)

Jesus revealed himself to us by saying:
1) I am the bread of life. (6:35)
2) I am the light of the world. (8:12)
3) I am the door of the sheep. (10:7)
4) I am the good shepherd. (10:11, 14)
5) I am the resurrection and the life. (11:25)
6) I am the way, and the truth, and the life. (14:6)
7) I am the true vine. (15:1)

1. Jesus came to solve our problem.
The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29)

2. Jesus came to give us .
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (3:16-17)

3. Jesus came to do the of the Father.
³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (4:31-34)

4. Jesus came to the Father by completing the he was given to do.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (17:1-5)

The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, ¹⁷ and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹ So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” ²² Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, ²⁴ so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
   “They divided my garments among them,
    and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, ²⁵ but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

The Death of Jesus
²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (19:16b-30)

5. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” he was saying: .

• The has been paid in full to secure the release of all my people. (cf. Mark 10:45; redemption)
• The of God has been fully absorbed and turned into favor for all who repent and believe. (cf. Romans 3:25, 1 John 2:2; propitiation)
• The full and final for sins has been made “once for all” on behalf of all who trust and follow me. (cf. Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 9:26, 10:10; substitutionary atonement)
• Salvation has been for all whom God has chosen, called, justified, and will glorify (cf. John 10:27-30; Romans 8:28-39).

Christ satisfied God’s justice by dying for all to pay for the sins of the elect. These sins can never be punished again since that would violate God’s justice. Sins can only be punished once, either by a substitute or by yourself. (Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon)

“If we give our assent to this word which Christ pronounced, we ought to be satisfied with his death alone for salvation, and we are not at liberty to apply for assistance in any other quarter; for he who was sent by the Heavenly Father to obtain for us a full acquittal, and to accomplish our redemption, knew well what belonged to his office, and did not fail in what he knew to be demanded of him. It was chiefly for the purpose of giving peace and tranquillity to our consciences that he pronounced this word, It is finished. Let us stop here, therefore, if we do not choose to be deprived of the salvation which he has procured for us. (John Calvin, John, Calvin’s Commentaries, comment on 19:30)