Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” John 19:30.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
My love is in your lives because of My good will towards men as expressed in Jesus Christ, making you partakers of the divine nature in His new and everlasting Covenant of love.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39.
You will never understand the partaking of the body and blood of My Son, and the Eucharistic journey of remembrance we have been traveling together in these Life Lessons unless you understand covenant.
Jesus made Covenant with you, and He made Covenant with Me. He made Covenant with Me as your great High Priest and as Son of Man, and in that capacity as My beloved Son. He is your substitute and your identity. In Him you are in Covenant with Me. And you are locked in that Covenant with Me by your Covenant with Him that puts you in Him, for He will never break it. He is faithful and true to Me and to you. He links you with Me in righteousness, love, and truth. He is the only way into Covenant with Me because in Him your sins are gone and you are holy and blameless before Me.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:20-24.
In the Passover seder, the death, and resurrection of Jesus you are seeing the final forming and revelation of the New Covenant. And this was the work I gave Him to do. Covenant is My way, just as it is in its worldly counterpart as well, of two that are apart and have no authority or responsibility in the other’s life becoming as one and authorizing each one to take an active part in the other’s life to protect, defend, provide support, bless, and raise up the other party. I liken My covenant relationship with you to marriage, a marriage in the Spirit. In an earthly marriage the two become one flesh and it ends at death. In My Covenant it is where two become one in spirit and it never ends. The New Covenant is an everlasting Covenant. Everyone in Heaven is in Covenant with Me through Covenant with Jesus. The bride of Christ is My bride too, we are One. I have espoused you to Me forever in faithfulness and truth, for your Maker has become your husband.
Spouses have authority, responsibilities, rights, and access to the other’s life that two who have no covenant of marriage do not have. It is the most intimate and precious of covenants. It requires loyalty and faithfulness towards one another. It also requires that each do good to the other and that the greater one raises the lesser one to higher levels of prosperity and peace.
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17.
All the parties to the Covenant share all they have for what each has belongs to the other as well. You become joint holders of all so that each can fully access the other’s possessions and property. It has pleased Me to give the flock of Jesus the Kingdom! And Jesus has been pleased to make you His joint heirs to all I have, for all I have is His. That is My Covenant with Him and then in Him with you.
Many people ignore Covenant, but you should not. Maybe people who are living together in immorality regard marriage as unnecessary as just some legal paperwork, but that is not the case. A Covenant gives you rights, benefits, authority, and responsibilities that those not in the Covenant do not have. If you recall, Jesus would not give the children’s bread, that is, healing which is a Covenant right, to the Syrophoenician woman until she entered the Abrahamic covenant by her faith in Jesus as Lord.
Let us now continue our Eucharistic journey where we left off in our last Life Lesson.
At very close to the three o’clock hour, the time of the sacrifice of the evening burnt offering of the unblemished lamb, when Jesus completed the sacrifice of His eternal life in the flesh in payment for your sins (He cancelled your debt by nailing it to the Cross), He spoke a very important Word for all of you for it has to do with your salvation and your inclusion in the Covenant with Me and with Him.
Jesus had just spoken the Words that He was thirsting and after they had touched the sour wine to His lips and He had received it, He said, “It is finished!” John 19:30.
But before we continue, I would like to talk about this sour wine (sour grapes) being touched to His mouth and Him receiving it. Again, this was fulfilling Scripture, a prophecy I gave to Jeremiah.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD. “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Jeremiah 31:7-30.
Remember that My Son took all your sins on Himself, so He took those sour grapes of sin, of your iniquity, and set “His teeth on edge,” so that will never be the case for anyone who takes refuge in Him. I redeem the souls of My servants, and none of those who take refuge in Jesus will be condemned (found guilty). Psalm 34:22; Romans 8:1.
Jesus took your sour grapes away from you into His own mouth, to His own lips.
And right after, the very next lines, after canceling out the visiting of the sins of the parents on the children, Jeremiah’s prophecy continues to tell you when this cancelation will take place. Yes, the New Covenant.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Isaiah 31:7-34.
Your iniquities and sins I will remember NO MORE. My Holy Spirit testifies that to you when you have received Jesus as Lord. Hebrews 10:17.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:5-6.
At the Passover seder, My Son prayed to Me but included all of you in the prayer with Him. In the opening of the prayer He stated: “I glorified You on the earth, finishing the work which You have given Me to do.” John 17:4.
He had completed the assignment. The New Testament was written in Greek, and in Greek the word there for “finished,” is teleióō (τελειόω), which has somewhat different meanings depending on the context in which it is used—as a course, a race, or the like: to complete or finish it; as of time or prediction: to accomplish it; and as to perfecting something: to make perfect. It implies working through the entire process (stages) to reach the final phase (conclusion). To get all the way to the finish line.
He gave Me glory by finishing the work I gave Him to do. What was the work I gave Him to do? What did the angel tell Joseph that the child born to Mary fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin would be with child who would be “God with us” would do?
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21.
He came to save people from their sins.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5.
I reconciled you to Myself through Christ, namely, I was in Christ reconciling the world to Myself, for you had severed yourselves from Me by sin, not counting your trespasses against you but accounting them all to Him and punishing Him in your place. 1 Corinthians 5:18-21.
Why did I send Him? I so loved the world that I gave you My only begotten Son so that all who believe in Him will never perish but have eternal life. I did not send Him to condemn you but to save you. I sent Him to seek out and save the lost, Luke 19:10, for I desire that all men be saved and come to know the truth. 1 Timothy 2:4. He came to do My Will, Hebrews 10:7-9, it was His delight to do My Will, Psalm 40:8, and it prospered in His hands. Isaiah 53:10. It was My doing that He who knew no sin to be sin on your behalf, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. I sent My Word, and He is My Word made flesh, to heal you and deliver you from your destructions. Psalm 107:20. I anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil. Acts 10:38. But there is another extremely important purpose for which I sent Him:
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is faithful and true. He spoke only My Word and My Word is truth. It is impossible for Me to lie. Jesus said, in fact, spoke it to Me, that He had finished the work I gave Him to do, so you must know that He did. He finished and completed, accomplished and perfected, all of the above purposes.
What does this mean to you? You are saved, healed, delivered, righteous, forgiven, and blessed. And any works Satan is doing, has done, or will do in your life can be undoneHow? By the blood of the Lamb and the Word of YOUR testimony. Like Jesus you must speak the Word and rebuke Satan and any infirmity, pain, or evil he tries to put into you and your life.
Now Jesus confirmed this on the Cross, i.e., that it is finished. He had now been through the reception of your sins into His flesh in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the trials, judgment of condemnation, crowning with thorns, scourging, carrying of the Cross, piercing of His hands and feet, hanging on the Cross, the reviling and mocking, speaking and fulfilling all that was in My Word concerning Him by the Words He spoke and the things that took place, including the darkness on the land, and the things concerning the release from your sins were accomplished as He had stated at the Seder meal. But there was another purpose that He had now finished. And that is what these Words, “It is finished,” and the final Words, “Father, into Your hands I commit (entrust, deposit) My Spirit,” confirm and establish.
He had made Covenant with Me. He sealed it in His blood on the Cross. My Covenant with Him and His Covenant with Me began at the Jordan in His baptism by John when, as Son of Man according to the flesh, I declared Him to be “My beloved Son.” And the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Him and His Covenant with Me was sealed and finished on the Cross by the shedding of His blood, the blood of the New and everlasting Covenant. And the result? He committed His Spirit to Me (but there is much more here that we will address in our next Life Lesson) and gave His eternal life in the flesh for My desire, and My assignment to Him, to save My people from their sins and the Church was born from His wounded side.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:6.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14.
Abraham made Covenant with Me soon after he was met by Melchizedek offering him the bread and the wine and when he put his faith in My promise of a son and of inheriting the land, that was where My promises began, but that covenant was finally sealed with the blessing of increase, multiplication, and the seed being a descendant of his who would take down the gates of the enemy when he, like Me, was willing to sacrifice his son.
What work had Jesus finished? The work of reconciliation, a binding Covenant with better promises was now established between Me and Jesus, and at the Passover Seder a New Covenant was established between Jesus and His disciples, and all who would believe in Him through their words.
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:20-21.
And that is why it is so important for you to witness to My Son and share My Words of Salvation for you, as His disciples, are bringing those who believe by hearing your Word about My Son into the New and everlasting Covenant, the same one that those entered into at the institution of the eternal Passover memorial, the body and the blood of My Son given for you at the Last Supper, ever new, ever for you.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.
I have made you all ministers of reconciliation.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.
And My Holy Spirit in you will witness with your spirit and will give you words and a wisdom no one can take exception to or contradict.
As far as your Salvation goes, it is complete, perfect, and finished by My Son, you only need to work out what is in you. Do not say you don’t have forgiveness, love, joy, healing, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. My Son does not lie, and He finished the work I gave Him to do. It is time you drew out what is already in you and got busy finishing your assignment. And as I sent Him to go about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, so He sends you! Don’t beg Me for things that you have, use them. It is time to grow up.
But I would like to share with you one more layer of “It is finished.” You owed Me a huge debt for the eternal life you lost by sin. An eternal life for an eternal life was the only way to pay what you owed under the Law. And no one had an eternal life to give. Adam was the father of you all and he had corrupted the seed to being perishable by submitting to the lies of the devil instead of the truth. Lies are not eternal, they are corrupt and perishable. Only truth, the Word of truth, can birth you to eternal life. But Jesus came conceived and born of My Word without the seed of Adam in Him, and He came to pay for the eternal life you lost with His own eternal life in the flesh. And He did. He paid in full. And when a debt is paid in full it is finished, no further payment is needed.
And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Hebrews 10:17-18.
I love you! Do you still not understand who you have in Me? Who you have in Jesus? You have eternal life with Me, who is Love and Light in a Kingdom beyond all your can ask or imagine. Every good thing given and every perfect gift. Enjoy them and draw them out for they are deposited in you even now, in your heavenly account where you are seated with and in Christ at My right hand where there are pleasures forever.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken 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. Colossians 2:13-15.