The words were familiar.
I had heard them preached many times.
I had quoted them myself.
Yet I had never truly considered their significance.
"It is finished."
When Pastor Lovedale asked me what those words meant, several answers came to mind.
His suffering was finished.
His earthly ministry was finished.
His life on earth was finished.
But Pastor Lovedale encouraged me to think more deeply.
"Why did Jesus come into the world?" he asked.
"To save sinners," I replied.
"Exactly. And if He accomplished that purpose, what would He say?"
The answer suddenly became obvious.
"It is finished."
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then the truth began to unfold before me.
Jesus had not come merely to start the work of salvation.
He had come to complete it.
He had not come to do part of the work and leave the rest for sinners to finish.
He had come to accomplish everything necessary for their salvation.
By crying out, "It is finished," Jesus declared that the work He came to do had been completed. Sin had been dealt with. The debt had been paid. The penalty had been borne.
Nothing remained to be added by human effort.
The realization was overwhelming.
For decades I had been trying to finish what Christ had already finished.
No wonder I was exhausted.
No wonder I lived with fear.
I had been carrying a burden that Christ had already carried to the cross.
Pastor Lovedale then opened his Bible and read:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
The words seemed to shine from the page.
Not of yourselves.
Not of works.
How had I missed it for so many years?
I had spoken about grace while secretly trusting my own efforts.
I had preached faith while depending on my performance.
I said salvation was God's gift, yet I lived as though I had to earn it.
Now I could finally see the contradiction.
If salvation could be earned through good works, Christ would not have needed to die.
If righteousness could be achieved through human effort, the cross would have been unnecessary.
But Christ died because sinners could not save themselves.
That was the truth I had been missing all those years.
As it settled into my heart, the burden I had carried for decades began to lift.
For the first time in my life, I understood what it meant to rest in the finished work of Christ.
And as I reflected on this newfound peace, I found myself looking back over the long road that had brought me here.