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Transcript 259B — "It is Finished" [Jn 19:30]
CALLER: Would you please explain, just what was finished when Jesus said, "it is finished"? Was all of Satan's kingdom finished at that time, or not?
HC: The question is raised, What did Christ mean when He said on the cross, "It is finished"? Wasn't all of Satan's power destroyed at that time?
Yes. When Christ said, "It is finished," He had just spent the time from Thursday night until late Friday afternoon enduring the wrath of God for our sins. God had poured out His wrath on Him, as payment for our sins, if we have placed our trust in Him. Christ was enduring the equivalent of an eternity in hell.
Now in the providence of enduring the wrath of God, He was also guaranteeing that Satan would be destroyed, that Satan would be eventually cast into hell. He was insuring that God meant exactly what He said, that the wages of sin is death. He was insuring that there was a Judgment Day for all of the unsaved who would not put their trust in Christ. By Christ enduring Judgment Day on our behalf, He was guaranteeing that God meant what He said, and that Judgment Day would also be a certain and sure thing for the whole human race, and for all of the fallen angels.
Now in Hebrews 2:14 we read that by Christ's death He destroyed, or He neutralized (the word destroyed there means to neutralize or to nullify) Satan, who has the power over death. Satan lost his ability to keep men in the bondage of sin. And from that point on they could be much more easily freed from Satan's kingdom. And we see this very dramatically on Pentecost afternoon when 3000 were saved after one sermon was preached.
Now in another sense Christ's work was not entirely finished on the cross. In one sense it was, but in another sense it was not. His suffering did include also the fact that He had to be buried, in His body, and it would not be complete in every sense of the word until Resurrection morning. And so from another standpoint the suffering of Christ embraced the whole period from Thursday night until Sunday morning, when He rose from the grave.
Thank you for that question.