One thing we like to hear are the words “Paid in Full”. After years of paying a mortgage every month, or perhaps car payments, student loans, or any other time payments, when the notice comes stamped “Paid in Full”, it is very good news. Knowing that there is one less thing taking our money every month brings a big feeling of relief. It’s no fun having a debt hanging over one’s head! Our Scripture verse for today tells us about another “Paid in Full” time.
Today we’re looking at just one verse from the Gospel of John. While Jesus hung on the cross He made seven statements. The sixth of the seven statements was “It is finished.” If we look at a list of these seven statements, they are all rather self-explanatory in their meaning. However, one might wonder exactly what Jesus meant here. Let’s take a closer look at this sixth statement of Jesus, and what He meant.
Just prior to our verse, Jesus had made His fifth statement, which was “I thirst”. That’s easy to understand. Part of the torture of being crucified was the terrible thirst that one experienced. Jesus made that statement, and then one of the soldiers dipped a sponge in some sour wine, put the sponge on a stick, and handed it up to Jesus. Then Jesus made our sixth statement, “It is finished.” Some people might think that He was telling the soldier that He was done taking the sour wine, that the soldier could take the sponge back. No, that is not what this statement meant. Jesus wasn’t just having a brief conversation with the soldier. It was so much more.
The best way to understand this statement of Jesus is to look at the words in the original Greek language. The Greek word used is “tetelestai”. It is a word that archeologists have found on sheets of ancient Greek papyrus, which were old billing receipts and accounting ledgers. Written across these bills was the word “tetelestai”, which meant “Paid in Full”. The people whose bills those were did not need to make any more payments. The bill was paid! Depending on how big the bill was, that would have been a happy day for the debtor! The creditor could no longer demand any more money. The debt was paid.
Some people may think that they don’t owe anything to anyone. They may live in a house that was already paid for, perhaps by their parents or grandparents. They don’t carry a credit card or car debt. However, we all have one debt that we owe, and that is our sin debt. We all have sinned (Romans 3:23). No one is exempt from that. And the penalty for sin is death and separation from God (Romans 6:23). There is no way that any of us can fully pay the penalty for our sins. It is like a creditor coming to us and telling us that we owe multiple billions of dollars. How could we possibly pay that!!
If we have a large bill that we need to pay, we may be lucky to have someone with more money than us who is willing to pay that debt. Generally a creditor doesn’t care who pays the bill, as long as it gets paid. In the case of our sin debt, a debt we had no way of fulfilling, there was Someone who paid that for us, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. There was one thing that Jesus came to earth to do, and that was to redeem mankind. His death on the cross paid our sin-debt.
Just moments prior to His death, Jesus cried out Tetelestai! Paid in full! I do not imagine that He said that in a mumble, but instead cried that out triumphantly. Jesus had finished what He had come to do. The entire work of redemption had been brought to completion. Jesus paid the full penalty for our sins. With His death, the complex sacrificial system ended because Jesus took all sin upon Himself.
When someone pays a huge bill that we owe, we should be smart enough to believe that they really did pay it, and not continue to try and make payments ourselves, especially for a debt so huge we could never possibly finish paying it! Our sin-debt has been paid by Jesus. He paid that with His Blood on the Cross. Stop trying to pay that yourself. Stop trying to get to Heaven by your good works, because there will never be enough to pay that debt. Accept what Jesus did. He paid that for you. Tetelestai! Paid in Full!
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