Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 07 – November 1981

 

Tetelestai

 

Sermon by Rev. K. Vethaak on John 19:28-30

Scripture Readings: Matthew 27:45-51

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

I guess that many of us would know what it is to pay off a house.  Maybe when you were younger you paid your deposit and got a bank loan to buy the house you are now living in.  And year after year, perhaps for 15 or 20 years you have been paying off that house.

And then at last the day comes on which you will make your final payment and the house will become yours and the debt you owed the bank will have been fully paid.  Well I guess that when you have made that last payment and you come home from the bank you’d have a little celebration.  You’d give your wife a hug and say, “It’s done, it’s finished it’s paid for..!”

Now if you had been living in the time of Jesus, and you had just paid off your humble abode, or paid out a large debt then you could race home to your wife and say just one word – one word that would tell her that the debt was paid.  And that word was “tetelestai.”  Hey honey, guess what?  What?  Tetelestai..!

Tetelestai – a commercial word that means “the debt is paid” – every last cent – everything owing has been paid.  The transaction has been completed.  The debt’s finished.  There is nothing more to be paid.  There is nothing owing.

I guess that in a day of high interest rates and expensive houses and cars most of us would just love to come home and say that word: Tetelestai – it’s done, paid for, finished.  We don’t owe another penny.

It’s the sort of concept that gives you a lovely, warm free feeling inside – Tetelestai – the debt is paid.

But now, do you know something?  Do you know that Jesus used this particular word on the cross?  And that he used it in a very special way?  Let’s look at the account of the death of Jesus that we have in John 19:28-30.

Now John records here two statements that Jesus made from the cross.  Jesus said, “I am thirsty”.  In other words Jesus was asking for a drink.  Why?  Why at this point of time just before Jesus was to die did he ask for a drink?  The answer is that Jesus wanted to say something that everyone could hear.  He wanted to say one word out loud that everyone could hear.  And if your mouth is dry and your throat is parched you can only whisper, you can’t call out loud.  So Jesus asked for a drink, and when he had received it he cried out in a loud cry of victory – Tetelestai!.  It is finished!  It is done!  The debt has been paid!  And then says the Bible, Jesus bowed his head and gave up his Spirit: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Now I want to show you something.  Turn to Matt.27:45-51.  Jesus cried out twice with a loud voice – one was a cry of agony, the second a cry of victory.

These two great cries summarise the work of Jesus on the cross.  Now to understand what was happening we must realise that every sin we commit is like a debt that we owe to God – something that God holds against us.  Every time we do or think something wrong… every time we fail to live up to God’s standard of perfection… every time we fail to love and serve God with all our being, we sin and incur a debt.

And when we look at our debt of sin, when we add up everything that we have ever thought or done wrong, then we come to a gigantic, unrepayable total.  The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  None of us can even begin to pay our debt against God.  But the Bible says that God loved us so much that he sent his only Son Jesus into our world to die on the cross.

And today we want to remember the death of Jesus on the cross.  Jesus was nailed to the cross on Good Friday and the Bible says that he hung there for six hours.  During the last three hours from noon to three the sun refused to shine, the world turned black.  The darkness signified judgement, the judgement of God that was falling upon Jesus, and in the midst of the darkness Jesus cried out: “Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?” – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When the darkness fell Jesus looked up and knew that he was cut off from God.  He was separated from his Father. He was in hell.  This man who had never sinned, who had never had a wrong thought or motive, who had never rebelled against God in word, thought or deed looked up and God was gone.  God the Son was cut off from God the Father.

You see all of our sin, all of our rottenness, all of our filth was being laid on Jesus and God could no longer look on his son because of our sin.  God the father had to enter into Judgement against God the Son.

Some 700 years before the prophet Isaiah had foretold what would happen.

All of us like sheep have gone astray.
Each one of us has turned to his own way
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.

God the Son, Jesus Christ, suffered there on the cross as our substitute, he clothed himself with our sins and God the father entered into judgement against Him.

When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, it was the most terrible cry that has ever gone up from this earth.  Even the angels must have shuddered in horror at the spectacle of the Son of God hanging between heaven and earth.  He was cut off and damned because of our sin.  That was the meaning of the first loud cry.

But you know that wasn’t the only loud cry that came from the cross.  There was something else that Jesus had to say, and he wanted to say it loud and clear so that the world could hear it.  And so Jesus asked for a drink.  And then he cried out in victory – “tetelestai!”  “It’s done!  The debt has been paid!”  And then Jesus was able to say: “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

And now this morning I want you to be quite certain that you have heard the voice of Jesus say, “Tetelestai” – “it is done, it is finished, the payment for sin is complete.”  “I did it all here on the cross.”  “There is nothing to add.  You can be absolutely sure that your sins are forgiven and that you have eternal life.  I’ve done it all for you.”  “Tetelestai – the debt has been paid, once and for all.”  “My work of redemption is complete.”

The Bible summarised it very neatly in Ephesians 2 in this way:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith –
and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God –
not by works that no one can boast.

John Stott, the famous Anglican minister who is the Queen’s Chaplain, defined grace in this way: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

The payment for our sins.  The gift of eternal life, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, cleansing are all to be found there in what Jesus did on the cross. There is nothing that you and I can do to add to that.  There is nothing we can do to earn our own salvation.

Jesus said, “It is finished, it has been done.  I have done it.”  The only thing we can do, the thing that we must do – is to put all our trust and all our faith in Jesus alone.

He alone could say, “Tetelestai”, and it is only as through faith we are joined to him that we can say, “Tetelestai” – “it is finished my debt has been paid.”

Can you say “tetelestai” because you know that you have put all your trust in Jesus alone?  Do you know that your debt has been paid?

Amen.