12/15/2025
The Fifth and Sixth Sayings From the Cross
Text: John 19:28–30 (KJV)
Reading
“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
Introduction
We have been studying in John’s Gospel—especially the crucifixion—and we have come down to the final sayings of our Lord. People have always been interested in last words. There are books about the last words of the saved and the lost. But the last words of Jesus Christ—the Son of God—carry weight beyond any other.
Today we look at the fifth and sixth sayings, found here in John 19:28–30:
1. “I thirst”
2. “It is finished”
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1) “I Thirst” — The Fulfillment of Scripture
Verse 28 begins: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished…”
This comes right after the fourth saying, that awful cry: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Those were the hours of darkness—when the Father’s wrath against sin was poured out upon the Son. Christ was not merely suffering from nails and scourging; He was bearing sin—our sin—under the judgment of God.
Then the darkness lifts. And Jesus knows something: “all things were now accomplished.” The wrath has spent itself. The payment is being completed. The work is reaching its end.
But John adds this: “that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”
Yes—physically, He thirsted. He had lost blood and fluids. But John tells you the real emphasis: Scripture must be fulfilled. This was not mainly a complaint of pain—it was a deliberate step of obedience, so not a single prophecy would fail.
That’s exactly what Jesus taught:
• Matthew 5:17–18 — He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil, and not one “jot or tittle” would fail until all be fulfilled.
So He says, “I thirst.” And what do they give Him? Vinegar. That matches prophecy precisely:
• Psalm 69:21 — “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
He didn’t “kind of” fulfill prophecy. He fulfilled it exactly.
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2) “It Is Finished” — One Word, Infinite Meaning
Verse 30: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
In English, that’s three words. In the original language it is one word, packed with meaning. It is a word of completion—of bringing a task to its intended end.
And the key thing to understand is this:
This was not a cry of defeat.
This was a shout of victory.
A mission accomplished. A work completed. A debt paid in full.
So what exactly was “finished”?
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A) His Work Was Finished
Jesus came to do the Father’s will, and He completed it.
• Hebrews 10:9 — “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.”
• Luke 2:49 — “I must be about my Father’s business.”
• John 4:34 — “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”
• Luke 19:10 — “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
• Matthew 20:28 — “…to give his life a ransom for many.”
• John 10:10 — “I am come that they might have life…”
• John 18:37 — “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world…”
When He said, “It is finished,” He was declaring:
Everything the Father gave Me to do up to this hour—I have done it.
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😎 Prophecy Was Finished
This is tied directly to verse 28: Scripture fulfillment.
Jesus fulfilled prophecy in His birth, life, and death:
• Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)
• Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
• Entered Jerusalem riding on a c**t (Zechariah 9:9)
• Crucifixion details pictured in Psalm 22
• Suffering servant shown in Isaiah 53
• Vinegar in thirst (Psalm 69:21)
Jesus Himself said it had to be this way:
• Luke 18:31 — “…all things that are written by the prophets… shall be accomplished.”
• Luke 22:37 — “…this that is written must yet be accomplished in me…”
So when He said, “It is finished,” He was also saying:
All prophecy concerning My first coming is completed.
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C) The Atonement Was Finished
This is the heart of it.
If “It is finished” means anything, it means this:
The price of salvation was fully paid.
Nothing is left for sinners to add.
That’s why this is shouting ground.
• Hebrews 10:12–14 — One sacrifice for sins forever… “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:3 — “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.”
• Galatians 1:4 — “Who gave himself for our sins…”
• Galatians 4:4–5 — “…to redeem them that were under the law…”
• Colossians 1:14 — “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
He didn’t make salvation possible if we finish the rest.
He finished the work Himself.
That’s why adding anything—religious effort, rituals, self-payment—doesn’t help. You can’t add to a finished work. You can only trust the One who finished it.
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D) Victory Over Death Was Finished
The cross was not just payment—it was conquest.
• Acts 2:24 — God raised Him up, because “it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
• Colossians 2:14–15 — The handwriting of ordinances against us nailed to His cross; He triumphed openly over principalities and powers.
• Hebrews 2:14–15 — Through death He destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil, and delivered those in bo***ge through fear of death.
• 1 Corinthians 15:54–57 — “O death, where is thy sting?” Thanks be to God who gives us the victory.
• Revelation 1:18 — “I am he that liveth, and was dead… and have the keys of hell and of death.”
Death clamped down on Christ—but it couldn’t hold Him. He broke its grip. And if you are in Christ, death cannot hold you either.
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Part 2 — “If Christ Destroyed Death, Why Are Graveyards Still Filling?”
Now some people hear us say, “Christ destroyed death,” and they think, That can’t be right. They look around and say, “If death is destroyed, why are graveyards still getting fuller all the time?”
That objection usually comes from this: we aren’t thinking in Bible language. We’re not understanding what God means when He uses certain words.
Words like abolish or destroy do not always mean “annihilate” (as in, erased from existence). Often the Bible means, “rendered powerless,” “put out of business,” “stripped of authority,” “the strength taken out of it.”
And the Bible is clear that the final removal of death is still future.
Revelation 21:4 says, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death…”
That’s the eternal state. That’s coming. We look forward to it. But we also know death is still around right now—yet the Bible still says Christ destroyed death. So what does that mean?
To understand it, we have to answer the question:
1) What is death?
At its root, death is separation.
But we must distinguish between physical death and spiritual death.
A) Physical death
Physical death is the separation of the soul/spirit from the body. When the spirit departs, the body becomes lifeless.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
Generally speaking, that is the rule for mankind (until the Lord comes).
Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death… and there is no discharge in that war.”
When God says, “It’s time,” nobody can hold it off. There’s no discharge from that war.
😎 Spiritual death
Spiritual death is separation of man from God. God is life. When man is alienated from God, he is spiritually dead.
In the Garden, God told Adam that in the day he ate he would surely die. He did die—not immediately physically, but spiritually. The separation happened.
Ephesians 2 explains it plainly:
• Ephesians 2:1 — “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
We are born physically alive but spiritually dead—separated from God.
Then comes the great turning point:
• Ephesians 2:4–5 — “But God, who is rich in mercy… even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…”
That’s salvation: God makes the dead sinner live.
And Ephesians 4:17–18 describes the lost man as “alienated from the life of God.” That is spiritual death: separation from God’s life.
2) The second death
Revelation 20:11–15 describes the Great White Throne judgment. It says death and hell deliver up the dead, and then “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
The second death is eternal separation from God, fixed and final.
So death is separation—physical now, spiritual now, and for the lost, eternal separation in the lake of fire.
3) Why the Old Testament saints were “held”
Before Christ’s atonement was accomplished, Scripture presents the dead as going to the realm of the departed—called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek. In the KJV the terms are sometimes rendered “grave,” “hell,” or “pit,” depending on context.
Luke 16 (the rich man and Lazarus) shows two conditions in that realm:
• Lazarus comforted in Abraham’s bosom
• The rich man in torment
And between them a great gulf fixed, so none can pass from one side to the other (Luke 16:26).
Job even described it as a kind of captivity:
• Job 3:18 — “There the prisoners rest together…”
And Isaiah pictures the oppressor as one who “opened not the house of his prisoners” (Isaiah 14:17).
4) Christ came to preach deliverance and to break the prison
Isaiah 42:6–7 foretold that the Servant would come:
“…to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
Jesus applied this mission language to Himself:
• Luke 4:18 — “…to preach deliverance to the captives…”
Peter adds a hard but important statement:
• 1 Peter 3:18–19 — Christ, being put to death in the flesh, quickened by the Spirit, “by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.”
And Paul states:
• Ephesians 4:8–10 — “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive… Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”
The point is this: Christ did not go down as a victim. He went down as a conqueror. He entered the strong man’s house and spoiled it.
That matches Christ’s own teaching:
• Matthew 12:29 — “How can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?”
5) So what does it mean that He “abolished” or “destroyed” death?
2 Timothy 1:10 says Christ “hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
“Abolished” doesn’t mean death stopped existing immediately in the world. It means death’s authority and sting were broken for God’s people. Death is no longer the master. It is no longer the final jailer. It no longer holds the keys.
That’s why Revelation 1:18 matters:
“…I am alive for evermore… and have the keys of hell and of death.”
Keys speak of authority. Jesus took authority.
6) The “now” and the “not yet”
The full application is still coming.
1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
And Revelation 21:4 says in the eternal state there will be no more death.
So yes—death is still present in the world today. Graveyards still fill. But for the child of God the sting is gone, the fear is answered, and the outcome is settled.
That’s why Paul can say:
• 1 Corinthians 15:55–57 — “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? …thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The bee has already lost its stinger. It can still buzz. It can still threaten. But it can’t ultimately kill the believer the way it once did—because Christ took the sting away.
7) Practical comfort
Now I’m not pretending the process of dying can’t be hard. Many people suffer on the way out of this world. But for the believer, what the world calls “death” is not horror—it’s transition.
Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord… and he added, “which is far better.”
So if we understand what Scripture means by death—and what it means when Christ destroyed it—then we stop reading Bible promises like skeptics and we start reading them like believers.
Christ didn’t lie when He said, “It is finished.”
And He didn’t exaggerate when the Word says He abolished death.
He stripped it of its rightful claim, broke its authority, took the keys, and guaranteed the final victory that will be fully seen when death is finally gone forever.
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Closing Exhortation
So when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was declaring:
• The work is completed.
• Prophecy is fulfilled.
• The atonement is fully accomplished.
• Death’s power is broken.
That is why the believer can answer Satan’s accusations with one truth:
Christ finished it.
Not “I finished it.”
Not “I’m good enough.”
But: He paid it all.
Do you know Him? If you do, then those words apply to you:
Your salvation has been purchased full and free.
Our part is not to work for it—our part is to believe.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
