J C Ryle
This part of John’s narrative of Christ’s passion contains points of deep interest which are silently passed over by Matthew, Mark and Luke. The reason of this silence we are not told. Suffice it for us to remember that, both in what they recorded and in what they did not record, all four Evangelists wrote by inspiration of God.
Let us mark, for one thing, in these verses, the many fulfilments of prophetic Scripture throughout every part of Christ’s crucifixion. Three different predictions are specially mentioned – in Exodus, Psalms and Zechariah – which received their accomplishment at the cross. Others, as every well-informed Bible-reader knows, might easily be added. All combine to prove one and the same thing. They prove that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ at Golgotha was a thing foreseen and predetermined by God. Hundreds of years before the crucifixion, every part of the solemn transaction was arranged in God’s counsels, and the minutest particulars were revealed to the Prophets. From first to last it was a thing foreknown, and every portion of it was in accordance with a settled plan and design. In the highest, fullest sense, when Christ died, He “died according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3).
1Taken, with editing, from Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3. This article contains the first two points in Ryle’s comments on John 19:28-37.
We need not hesitate to regard such fulfilments of prophecy as strong evidence of the Divine authority of God’s Word. The Prophets foretell, not only Christ’s death, but the particulars of His death. It is impossible to explain so many accomplishments of predicted circumstances upon any other theory. To talk of luck, chance and accidental coincidence as sufficient explanation is preposterous and absurd. The only rational account is the inspiration of God.
The Prophets who foretold the particulars of the crucifixion, were inspired by Him who foresees the end from the beginning; and the books they wrote under His inspiration ought not to be read as human compositions but Divine. Great indeed are the difficulties of all who pretend to deny the inspiration of the Bible. It really requires more unreasoning faith to be an infidel than to be a Christian. The man who regards the repeated fulfilment of minute prophecies about Christ’s death, such as those about His dress, His thirst, His pierced side and His bones, as the result of chance and not of design must indeed be a credulous man.
We should mark, secondly, in these verses, the specially solemn saying which came from the Lord’s lips just before He died. John relates that “when Jesus . . . had received the vinegar . . . He said, It is finished; and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost”. It is surely not too much to say that, of all the seven famous sayings of Christ on the cross, none is more remarkable than this, which John alone has recorded.
The precise meaning of this wondrous expression, “It is finished”, is a point which the Holy Spirit has not thought good to reveal to us. That there is a depth about it, we must all instinctively feel, which man has probably no line to fathom. Yet there is perhaps no irreverence in conjecturing the thoughts that were in the Lord’s mind when the word was spoken.
The finishing of all the known and unknown sufferings which He came to endure, as Substitute; the finishing of the ceremonial law, which He came to wind up and fulfill, as the true Sacrifice for sin; the finishing of the many prophecies, which He came to accomplish; the finishing of the great work of man’s redemption, which was now close at hand – all this, we need not doubt, the Lord had in view when He said, “It is finished”. There may have been more, for anything we know. But in handling the language of such a Being as the Saviour, on such an occasion, and at so mysterious a crisis in His history, it is well to be cautious. The place whereon we stand is holy ground.
One comforting thought, at all events, stands out most clearly on the face of this famous expression. We rest our souls on a “finished work” if we rest them on the work of Jesus Christ the Lord. We need not fear that either sin,
or Satan, or law shall condemn us at the last day. We may lean back on the thought that we have a Saviour who has done all, paid all, accomplished all, performed all that is necessary for our salvation. We may take up the challenge of the Apostle, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died: yea rather, that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom 8:34). When we look at our own works, we may well be ashamed of their imperfections. But when we look at the finished work of Christ, we may feel peace. We “are complete in Him” if we believe (Col 2:10).