The Bible is full of prophecy. Throughout the course of His life, Jesus Christ fulfilled over 450 prophecies spoken about Him in the Old Testament.
In books like Daniel and Revelation, we can read prophecies of the end times and the return of Christ. Yet, there is one prophetic message the Lord has been especially using to encourage me lately, and I believe it may be the greatest of all.
While reading the Gospels, it is clear that the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus to evangelize, exhort, cast out demons, heal, teach and much more. However, I think we often overlook the fact that He was also a prophet (which He alludes to in Luke 13:33). Along with several end-times prophecies, Jesus also told prophecies about His own death and resurrection (see Matthew 16:21).
As Jesus hung on the cross and took His last breath, He shared one last prophetic statement when He said, “It is finished.” John 19:30 lets us know He then immediately “bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Was that statement really prophetic? I believe it was. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:14 (NASB), “and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain.” He goes on to say if Christ was not raised from the dead, we are still bound by sin. When Jesus said it was finished, I believe His efforts were complete. He had suffered everything He needed to suffer for our sake, and, in that way, it was finished. However, the Bible tells us that without Christ being raised again, our faith is worthless. In that sense, there was still one thing left to be done.
The last thing left—the final work—was something Jesus was fully believing in and trusting His Father to do. Yes, Jesus raised Himself as we see in John 10:18, but the Father and the Holy Spirit also raised Him (see Acts 2:32 and Romans 8:11). This means that the final words of Jesus were full of faith. With the same resurrecting faith that Abraham carried as He walked Isaac up the mountain, Jesus committed His own spirit to the Father. Even after everything He suffered for us, Jesus was still listening to the Holy Spirit and speaking the words of the Lord over the future.
Jesus’ words can encourage us today because they are spoken during a time when His world had completely fallen apart. Everything had been taken away from Him, and yet He was still trusting God to come through. I don’t know where you’re at today, but I do know that if you set your eyes on Jesus Christ, give Him the first place in your heart and meditate on His sacrificial love and grace, you can move forward in faith too.
Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that we have the privilege to rest in Jesus’ finished work. The cross did not look like a victory to those standing around but that is exactly what it was. Because of His victory, we get to walk victorious even when it looks like things are falling apart. Choose to hand your situation over to God today. Choose to rest and trust in His character and Word. He will see you through.