It is Finished

This sermon was preached for Good Friday by Pastor Ted Carnahan on April 3, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

It is finished.

But what, O Lord, is finished?

Where once there was a barrier of separation between you and God, caused by your wicked and corrupted human nature, now you have been welcomed, not just as a servant of God, but as a beloved son or daughter of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Is there any longer separation between you and God? No. It is finished.

Where once we rightly feared death, for death seems to us dark and mysterious and threatening, now we have life and peace.

Our congregation has known suffering and death quite a lot recently. Tomorrow morning we will lay to rest our sister, Evie Fransen. Later, we will find time to honor Rick and Kathy Johnson, Lindsay Rossow, and Kelly Hargus, commending them to God in the hope of resurrection.

We have felt the sting of death. We know it in our bones. In our pain, we join the psalmist in crying out, and yet we cling to the high priest who has wept as we weep.

But now the sting of death is being removed as our Lord Jesus goes to the cross to confront death. The Lord has mastered death by confronting it directly. He has laid waste to death. He has conquered it utterly.

And now, in Christ, death itself is no longer final, for in the cross of Christ we can be confident that we shall rise with our Lord.

Therefore, our high priest, tested as we are in every way except without sin, invites us to approach the throne of grace boldly. For even death will no longer stand between us and God. No. It is finished.

We can no longer be accused by the evil one, who we sometimes call the devil or Satan. His power is shown to be temporary and soon to be set aside.

The accusations he once levied against us as our accuser (for that is what the word Satan means, "accuser") have now been blotted out. They are covered over so that they cannot any longer be read.

As Isaiah the prophet foretold, "he was pierced for our transgressions." Yet in that piercing, our accusations are blotted out.

God hears those accusations against us, and behold, the verdict is laid aside. For the sake of the innocent suffering and death of his son, he looks not upon your sin, but upon the righteousness of his son Jesus.

The devil's accusations no longer have power over us. His time is at an end. No. It is finished.

And God does this, not because of anything we do, nor because there is any merit in us, but solely for the sake of the righteousness in his son, Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, so that all we can do is gather at the foot of the cross in wonder.

Look up! See the Lord of life crucified!

Here is God's answer to your accusation. He sends his son to suffer and die upon that cross for you.

Thus, the temporary triumph of evil is exposed as futile. When we see evil succeed in the world, we can be confident that there is no real power in it, nothing truly substantial about it. Its time is short. It will soon be done away with entirely.

To the world, the cross looks like a failure: a king, but crucified. Yet God declares victory in weakness.

The one who hangs upon the cross, who soon will be buried, will rise and will conquer evil. Will evil ever have the last word over us again? No. It is finished.

Death thought that it could swallow up the Author of Life. But now, having chewed and swallowed him, now the Mighty One destroys death from the inside out. We are now no longer bound by the law with its commandments and punishments, for we have been transferred into the dominion of God's grace.

All these promises of a coming Messiah have been fulfilled in the life and death of Christ our Lord.

So now, having witnessed such a victory — not a victory as the world counts victory, but such a victory as God considers victory, which is the best victory of all — now having witnessed this victory, now comes to an end all our rebellion against God. For who can rebel against a lamb who goes so gently to his death?

Now comes an end to all our striving to earn God's love, for what can we add to the cross except our Amen and our Come, Lord Jesus.

Now comes to an end all our pretenses at being the good people. Christ our Lord has died upon the cross. My sin has put him there.

All rebellion, all striving, all pretense. It is finished.

But this cross will not have the last word. For there is yet another promise to be fulfilled. Death will be swallowed up in victory.

First for Jesus Christ in his flesh, and then for you and for me, so that all that is left for us to do this night is to gaze upon the cross with wonder.

Here is the man, God's own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Here is the man who willingly took up his cross for you.

Here is the man who dies that you may live.

Let us worship him at the foot of his cross.

Are you there? Are you there with me? Are you there with me at the foot of the cross, gazing up at our Savior? Can you see him there, bleeding and dying for you?

Let us take up our crosses and follow him. For yes, it is finished.