It is really accomplished
Jesus made a revealing statement about the Holy Scriptures to a group of Jewish leaders who were persecuting him: "The Scriptures themselves point to me." (Joh 5,39)Years later, this truth was confirmed by an angel of the Lord through a proclamation: “For the prophetic message that the Spirit of God inspires is the message of Jesus.” (Offb 19,10).
Unfortunately, the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day ignored the truth of both scriptures and the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead, the religious rituals of the temple in Jerusalem were at the center of their interest because they provided their own advantages. So they lost the God of Israel from their sight and could not see the fulfillment of prophecies in the person and in the service of Jesus, the promised Messiah.
The temple in Jerusalem was really magnificent. The Jewish historian and scholar Flavius Josephus wrote: “The gleaming white marble facade is decorated with gold and of awe-inspiring beauty. They heard Jesus' prophecy that this glorious temple, the center of worship under the old covenant, would be utterly destroyed. A destruction that signaled God's plan of salvation for all humanity will be carried out in due time without this temple. What astonishment and what a shock it caused in people.
Jesus was clearly not particularly impressed by the temple in Jerusalem, and for good reason. He knew that God's glory could not be surpassed by any building erected by humans, no matter how magnificent. Jesus told his disciples that the temple would be replaced. The temple no longer served the purpose for which it had been built. Jesus explained, "Is it not Scripture that says, 'My house will be a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." (Mk 11,17).
Read also what the Gospel of Matthew reports about this: “Jesus left the temple and was about to go away. His disciples came to him and pointed out the splendor of the temple buildings. ‘All this impresses you, doesn’t it?’ Jesus said. ‘But I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another; everything will be destroyed.’” (Mt 24,1-2, Lk 21,6).
There were two occasions when Jesus foretold the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The first occurrence was his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when people laid their clothes on the ground in front of him. It was a gesture of admiration for high-ranking figures.
Note what Luke reports: “As Jesus approached the city and saw it before him, he wept over it and said, ‘If only you, even you, had known today what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from you; you do not see it. The days are coming when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will destroy you and dash to pieces your children who live in you; they will not leave one stone on another in the entire city, because you did not recognize the time when God met with you.’” (Lk 19,41-44).
The second occurrence in which Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem occurred while Jesus was being led through the city to the place of his crucifixion. People crowded the streets, both his enemies and his devoted followers. Jesus prophesied what would happen to the city and the temple and what would happen to the people as a result of the destruction by the Romans.
Please read what Luke reports: “A large crowd followed Jesus, including many women who wailed and wept for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time is coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren women who never bore children!” Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Bury us!”’” (Lk 23,27-30).
We know from history that Jesus' prophecy was fulfilled some 40 years after his announcement. In AD 66 there was a revolt of the Jews against the Romans and in AD 70 the temple was torn down, most of Jerusalem was destroyed and the people suffered terribly. Everything happened just as Jesus said with great sadness about it.
When Jesus exclaimed on the cross, “It is finished,” he was referring not only to the completion of his atoning work of redemption, but also declaring that the Old Covenant (Israel’s way of life and worship according to the Law of Moses) had fulfilled the purpose God had given it. With Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, God, in and through Christ and through the Holy Spirit, has completed the work of reconciling all humanity to himself. Now what the prophet Jeremiah foretold is coming to pass: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant they did not keep, even though I was their Lord,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jer 31,31-34).
With the words “It is finished” Jesus proclaimed the good news about the institution of the new covenant. The old is gone, the new has come. Sin was nailed to the cross and God's grace has come to us through Christ's redeeming act of atonement, allowing for the profound work of the Holy Spirit to renew our hearts and minds. This change allows us to participate in human nature renewed through Jesus Christ. What was promised and shown under the old covenant has been fulfilled through Christ in the new covenant.
As the Apostle Paul taught, Christ (the personified New Covenant) has obtained for us what the Law of Moses (the Old Covenant) neither could nor should accomplish. “What conclusion shall we draw then? People who are not Jewish have been declared righteous by God without any effort on their part. They have received the righteousness that is based on faith. Israel, on the other hand, in all its efforts to fulfill the law and thereby attain righteousness, has not reached the end that the law is about. Why not? Because the foundation on which they built was not faith; they thought they could reach the end through their own efforts. The obstacle they encountered was ‘the stumbling block’.” (Röm 9,30-32).
The Pharisees of Jesus' time and the believers who came from Judaism were influenced by pride and sin through their legal attitude in the time of the Apostle Paul. They assumed that through their own religious endeavors they could attain what only God Himself by grace, in and through Jesus, can do for us. Their old covenant (work righteousness) approach was a corruption brought about by the power of sin. There was certainly no lack of grace and faith in the old covenant, but as God already knew, Israel would turn away from that grace.
That is why the New Covenant was planned in advance as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. A fulfillment that was accomplished in the person of Jesus and through his ministry and through the Holy Spirit. He saved humanity from pride and the power of sin and created a new depth in relationships with all people around the world. A relationship that leads to eternal life in the presence of the Triune God.
To show the great significance of what took place on Calvary's cross, shortly after Jesus proclaimed, "It is finished," the city of Jerusalem was shaken by an earthquake. Human existence was fundamentally transformed, leading to the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the establishment of the New Covenant:
- The curtain in the temple that prevented access to the Holy of Holies was torn in two from top to bottom.
- Graves opened. Many dead saints were raised.
- Jesus was recognized by the audience as the Son of God.
- The old covenant made way for the new covenant.
When Jesus cried out the words, "It is finished," He was declaring the end of God's presence in a man-made temple, in the "Holy of Holies." Paul wrote in his letters to the Corinthians that God now dwells in a nonphysical temple formed by the Holy Spirit:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? Whoever destroys God’s temple destroys himself, because he brings God’s judgment on himself. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that holy temple.” (1 Kor. 3,16-17, 2. Kor. 6,16).
The apostle Paul put it this way: “Come to him! It is that living stone which men have rejected, but which God himself has chosen and which in his eyes is priceless. Allow yourselves to be incorporated as living stones into the house that is being built by God and filled with His Spirit. Be established into a holy priesthood so that you may offer sacrifices to God that are of His Spirit—sacrifices that He delights in because they are based on the work of Jesus Christ. “You, however, are the chosen people of God; you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to him alone, commissioned to proclaim his great deeds - the deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1. Petr. 2,4-5 and 9).
In addition, all of our time is set apart and made holy as we live under the New Covenant, which means that we participate in His ongoing ministry with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Regardless of whether we work in our jobs in our jobs or are involved in our free time, we are citizens of heaven, the kingdom of God. We live the new life in Christ and will live either until our death or until the return of Jesus.
Dear ones, the old order no longer exists. In Christ we are a new creature, called by God and endowed with the Holy Spirit. With Jesus we are on the mission to live and pass on the good news. Let us do our part in the work of our father! By participating in the life of Jesus through the Holy Spirit we are one and connected with one another.
by Joseph Tkach
