“It is finished.”

Take a moment to ponder the potency of those words.

Where in your life do you need to know that it’s finished? Where in your life are you trying to earn your way, prove your worth, or get what’s already yours in Christ?

What shame do you still cling to? What guilt do you bear?

Today, hear your victor speak these words over you: “It is finished.”

In the Greek, the phrase is actually represented by a single word: tetelestai.

That word means “finished” or “completed.”

Get this … tetelestai also means “PAID IN FULL.”

Tetelestai was written on receipts in New Testament times to show that a bill had been paid in full.

When Jesus died on the cross, our debt was paid IN FULL.

It is finished.

We don’t have to carry our shame anymore.

It is finished.

We don’t need to pay our own way.

It is finished.

We can stop trying so hard to be more, to be enough, to prove ourselves.

It is finished.

Sit with that truth. There was a tremendous debt for our sin, long before we took our first breath. The wrath due us, was upon his shoulders. And with his last breath, Jesus uttered the words, “It is finished.”

Paid in full.

That is the startling truth of the marvelous cross. When we try to earn our way, we are saying to Jesus, “Thanks, but I can do this on my own. I appreciate the agony you endured, but it wasn’t quite enough.”

Today, let’s linger at the cross. Let’s see it for what it is — a full payment for a debt we owed but simply couldn’t pay.

We bring nothing to the cross — but our sin. We owe nothing to Jesus — but our adoration.

YOUR TURN: Where in your life do you need to know that it is, indeed, finished?