The Unity of the Cross

by Keith Gardner

John 19:30 “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

In the sacrifice of the cross we have a coalescing of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man; a uniting of two realities, the finite and the infinite. There is a unifying of the body, soul and spirit; bringing all things into completeness; in anticipation of the day that this work will be fully seen.

It is at the cross that this coming together is most evident. It is in the shedding of Jesus’ blood that we find our hope of salvation. It is in the broken body that we find our source of healing. At the cross, the temple’s curtain is torn from top to bottom, giving all of us direct access to the Father. At the cross the Son is returned to the Father to make intercession for the believer, and at the cross the Holy Spirit is delivered to dwell with the spirit of man as a deposit; anticipating the resurrection of the body.

When Jesus’ life ended with “it is finished” he was not talking about his life, or his work on this good earth. He was referring to the plan of the Father to reunite the created man with his creator God; and a returning of life and death to the One whom first breathed the spirit of life in the newly formed man. Upon his death, Jesus descended into the depths of hell, snatching the keys of life and death, and delivering them back to the Father. Our fate is no longer tied to keeping the works of doing good deeds, but in believing in the One whose sacrifice has made all this possible. Colossians 2:13-15 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

When Jesus said “it is finished” he was also saying “it is just beginning”. All of our hopes, strength, and resources are found in our new life that was made possible by Jesus’ death. It was in Jesus’ death that we find eternal life; and it is in His resurrection that we find our eternal hope. 1 Peter 1:3-5 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The cross is not a relic of some past event. The cross is a reminder of the transformative work that began on that faithful day and continues even now. The cross is what makes possible “on earth as it is in heaven”.