Finished?!!!

"It is finished" is the last sentence uttered by Christ on the cross.  Three short words but the victory chant for Christians throughout the ages. 

The word "finished" is actually the Greek banking term that meant "Paid in full."  The debt (or cost) of each person's lifetime of sin had been paid.  I do not have the ability to explain how a holy God could take on the sins of an entire world, nor how an eternity of punishment was meted out in three earth hours except to state that I don't have to explain it, I just have to believe it.  It's the cornerstone of my faith.

Jewish tradition says at 3 in the afternoon on Fridays, a priest would blow the shofar as a call to the people to prepare themselves for the coming Sabbath and to re-focus their lives away from their everyday concerns and back on God.  Now imagine that it is the Friday of the crucifixion and you are standing at the foot of the cross.  You hear the blast of the shofar and as the sound fades away, hearing "It is finished...The debt is paid in full...There is nothing else left on his or her account." 

The thought gives me goosebumps. 

Christ stands ready to give you a brand new life...He doesn't care how messed up your current one is, or how much of it you have lived already.  He is willing to take your old, ruined and stained life and give you one that He has planned for you.  It even comes with an instruction book (the Bible) and companions (your local church).  You aren't alone anymore...that old life is "finished" and you have a new one just waiting for you to come and get it.