Tetelestai (“It is finished”) the Key Word of the Gospel of John

Doctrine, Feature, Stephen Pitcher

STEVEN PITCHER | Author and Christian Apologist |

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30) 

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2)

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14a)

It has long been believed that when Jesus cried out from the cross that one Greek word, Tetelestai, “It is finished”, that he was making a definitive statement that his work of redemption had been completed. This has been a belief among Christians from the earliest days of the church to recent times. Believers have rejoiced in that completed work and have entered that eternal sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9-10) wherein they no longer work for salvation by striving to live a life of obedience to be worthy of being exalted to Jesus’ presence in heaven. Nor does Jesus have to continually offer himself to the Father to gain our acceptance into his presence.

As Spurgeon says:

 Tetelestai conveys “an ocean of meaning in a drop of language, a mere drop. It would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it. It is finished is the most charming note in all of Calvary’s music. The fire has passed upon the Lamb. He has borne the whole of the wrath that was due to His people. This is the royal dish of the feast of love.” 

Did Jesus mutter these words on the cross as His life slipped away in a tone of resigned defeat? Or were they regretfully sighed like one obliged to undertake a painful but necessary task? Did Jesus utter “It is finished” in exhausted relief that he had endured to the end? Or was it instead a defiant cry of victory?

How we understand this last word, then, seems to depend on how it was said. John’s passion narrative is at great pains to emphasise (sic) that Jesus was in control of the events that led to his death, that he was in control throughout his trial, torture and execution. … St. John is careful to emphasise that this suffering was chosen, not because suffering is good in itself, but out of obedience to the will of the Father. In other words, Jesus chose the cross with a goal in view, the cross was a means to an end. 

Tetelestai is the key word of the John’s gospel, as stated by Alf Corell in his work Consummatum Est:

Surely it is not an exaggeration to think that tetelestai is the key word of the Fourth Gospel.

However, there are numerous voices claiming that “It is not finished”. They say that we misinterpret Jesus by believing that His work of atonement was completed on the cross. As Alan Stubbs writes:

In contrast to this view that Christ’s atoning work was ’finished’ at the cross, it is suggested by some that Christ’s earthly passion was but an expression in time or history of something which happens only fully in eternity; and that the eternal Son of God is, therefore, to be thought of as continually offering Himself to God in order to secure our acceptance in God’s presence. 

Hebrews 10:1-2 tells us that Jesus’ offering was done once for all and is not repeated year after year, or even moment by moment as believers confess sins. When we commit sin, we repent, and Jesus intercedes with the Father on our behalf, not repeating atonement but repeating intercession based on the once-for-all atonement on the cross.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.  Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?—Hebrews 10:1,2

The fact is that the atonement of Christ has “ceased to be offered” as it was a one-time, unrepeatable act that was finished on the cross. Under the old covenant, the sacrifice never “ceased to be offered” as the priest had to repeat the Day of Atonement sacrifice every year. Furthermore, each sacrifice under the old covenant brought with it a consciousness of sins to the confessor. With believers in the new covenant, however, there is no longer “consciousness” of sins—because the atonement was finished! 

Every repeated sacrifice was a reminder of sins. It brought the consciousness of sins to the people again and again. But the work of Jesus on the cross takes away sin!

“All they are is a reminder of sin. So far from purifying a man, they remind him that he is not purified and that his sins still stand between him and God.” (Barclay)

“An atonement that needs constant repetition does not really atone; a conscience which has to be cleansed once a year has never been truly cleansed.” (Robinson) 

It’s also important to realize that “Tetelestai” was not describing the beginning of a gradual atonement or reconciliation by which believers throughout their lives are becoming holier and more Christlike. That process is sanctification, which is not to be confused with atonement (done on the cross) and justification (done at the point of belief of a new convert). Sanctification is the fruit of justification.

Reconciliation was finished in Christ’s death. Paul did not preach a gradual reconciliation. He preached what the old divines used to call the finished work. He did not preach a gradual reconciliation which was to become the reconciliation to the world only piecemeal, as men were induced to accept it, or were affected by the gospel. He preached something done once for all[.] 

Some, as will be shown, teach that the atonement of Jesus is an ongoing, or perpetual atonement in which Christ continues to atone for believer’s sins. The following, by Alan M. Stibbs, presented in 1952, includes a superb analogy:

Here some would contend that, if Christ is, as the Scripture makes so plain, still our great high priest in heaven, He must have something to offer. Since any fresh sacrifice or repetition of Calvary is unthinkable, they imagine that the one sacrifice, begun decisively at a point in time on the cross, goes on without end in eternity; that Christ is always doing without cessation in heaven what He began to do in His earthly body, that is, offering Himself to God to make propitiation for sin. This action, some also believe, He sustains in His mystical body the Church, especially through the oblation of the eucharistic elements. But here there are both misunderstanding of, and also major addition to, what Scripture actually says.

Admittedly the act of offering was necessary to constitute Christ a priest in fact, and not only in name, just as the act of child-bearing is necessary to constitute a woman a mother. But that truth does not mean in the case of motherhood that henceforth, to those who resort to her as “mother”, such a woman is always giving them birth. Her act of child-bearing is for them not only an indispensable but also a finished work. What they now enjoy are other complementary ministries of motherhood, which lie beyond the child-bearing. Similarly with Christ’s priesthood His propitiatory offering is not only an indispensable but also a finished work. 

People are born again at the moment of belief. It is a one-time, unrepeatable act. Following that, we now enjoy “other complementary ministries” of Christ’s work which includes intercession. Also, with salvation, we are born again once; we are not constantly in the state of being born again, and Christ is not in a constant state of paying for our sin and unrighteousness. This payment was finished once for all on the cross. Once we are born again, we are in a state of constantly battling our flesh, or sinful nature. In that reality, the Holy Spirit is at work to convict of sin and the need for repentance as we continually turn to Christ, confess our sin, and are cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). These two acts, the intercession of Jesus and the sanctification of the believer, are ongoing realities in our daily lives.

All Christians agree that there is much that Christ did before and after His death, and much He will do in the future. We do not deny that Christ continues to work as our intercessor with the Father. He receives and answers our prayers; He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell believers at their point of faith in the gospel, and through the Holy Spirit, He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Although Jesus’ work was finished on the cross, the work of the Holy Spirit continues in the church age. As Jesus told his disciples in John 16:7-11:

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.—John 16:7–11

Who are those who are now stating that Christ’s work on the cross was not finished?

There are several making this claim, believing that we misinterpret Jesus’ statement in John 19:30 by claiming that “it” was finished.

Arthur Bailey, lead Apostle of the House of Israel (a Sabbatarian Hebrew Roots group based in Charlotte, North Carolina) claims that it was only Jesus’ earthly life that was “finished”. Bailey has written a book titled, It’s NOT Finished where he states that Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) ministry occurs in four phases: Phase 1) Yeshua’s ministry before his death; Phase 2) Yeshua’s ministry at death; Phase 3) Yeshua’s ministry after his resurrection; and Phase 4) Yeshua’s [current] ministry in heaven. He goes on to describe a fifth phase which he calls “Yeshua’s ministry when He returns.”

Arthur Bailey claims that when Jesus said ,“It is finished,” He was only claiming to have finished His earthly life. Much remains to be done including His intercession/mediatorial work, His return, and His setting up the millennial kingdom. What Bailey disagrees with is what “it” is that has been completed. He believes that most of Christianity is wrong in stating that Jesus’ work was finished on the cross. Bailey writes:

When Yeshua said: “It is finished,” What did he mean? Theological and religious phrases not found in the Bible are often used by preachers or religious leaders to refer to this as “the finished work of Christ.” How many of you know that the Messiah was not finished? “The finished work of the cross” — you see, the work that was started, it actually didn’t start on the cross. The cross was a stopping point which transitioned him into another phase of his ministry. 

The question is: “What was finished?” The answer is simply, his life — his earthly life.

Arthur Bailey not only claims that it’s not finished, but makes a very bold statement concerning his own ministry and completion of the work that still needs to be done:

But from what I can surmise, I have only recognized two voices that are actually taking the true gospel of the Kingdom to the nations of the world.

One of them is Michael Rood [a Hebrew Roots teacher]. I am sad to say that I am the only other one. That’s two out of the thousands of voices. There are thousands of voices. If you turn on Christian TV from sun-up to sun-down, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, you will hear voice after voice after voice after voice and it is sad. It is sad that only two voices on the whole planet are actually taking a gospel that is minus all of the religious trappings of men. We’ve got work to do! We’ve got a lot of work to do.

We need the help of every able-bodied person. We need the pocketbooks and the billfolds and the wallets and the bank accounts of every able-bodied person. Whether you have two cents, two dollars, two hundred, two thousand or two million, we need you to recognize that it is not finished! 

There’s profit to be made in the name of Christ!

David M. Moffitt is another voice claiming that “it” is not finished: 

The ongoing high-priestly ministry of Jesus in the heavenly tabernacle stands among the more neglected aspects of New Testament Christology and soteriology in much modern biblical and theological reflection. Jesus’s cry in John’s Gospel, “It is finished” (19:30), has taken on a life of its own, becoming a proof text in certain circles for the view that the full and final completion of Jesus’s sacrificial and salvific work occurred as he expired on the cross.

In 2010, Moffitt wrote his doctoral dissertation while at Duke University on Jesus’ continuing work in the heavenly sanctuary, published the following year as Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He eventually published his recent work Rethinking the Atonement in 2022 in which he includes a chapter titled “It Is Not Finished: Jesus’s Perpetual Atoning Work as the Heavenly High Priest in Hebrews” where he states that Jesus’s atoning work in the heavenly sanctuary is perpetual. He asks, 

But is this the sum total of Jesus’s heavenly ministry? Moreover, does the once-for-all-ness of his sacrifice mean that his atoning work is fully and finally finished even now?

The logic of Hebrews 7:25 implies that, were it the case that Jesus were not actively interceding for his people, their complete salvation would not be possible. Yet this implication suggests another: Jesus’ followers are in need of ongoing atonement.

But does Hebrews 7 truly teach what Moffitt implies, that without an “ongoing atonement”, salvation would not be possible? In this previous statement he suggests that ongoing intercession implies ongoing atonement. Let’s look at what Scripture teaches in Hebrews 7:25-27:

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Offering the sacrifice, the moment when the atonement was made, was done “once for all when he offered up himself.” Along with that once-for-all offering, He “always lives to make intercession for” us. If we confuse ongoing intercession with the once-for-all atonement, we confuse two separate and specific works of Christ. The fact is, at Christ’s death, all our sins, past, present and future, were atoned. And we continually receive forgiveness as we call on the Lord for that forgiveness in real time.

Echoes of a Cult

Aside from Bailey and Moffitt, there is one other group that needs to be included with those who claim that the atonement was not completed on the cross: Seventh-day Adventism.

Seventh-day Adventism claims that the death of Christ on the cross was just the sacrifice made for the atonement, effectually a first phase of the atonement. The second phase of the atonement has been ongoing since October 22nd, 1844. 

In the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, belief number 24 contains the following:

Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary 

There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle that the Lord set up and not humans. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross.

At His ascension, He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and began His intercessory ministry, which was typified by the work of the high priest in the holy place of the earthly sanctuary.

In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry, which was typified by the work of the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary.

It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement. In that typical service the sanctuary was cleansed with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things are purified with the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Jesus.

The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. 

It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom.

This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent.

Note the difference between the description of the salvation of those who have died (“asleep in Christ”) compared to the salvation of those who are alive, (“abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” and “therefore are ready for translation to His everlasting kingdom.”) The dead will be resurrected if they are “asleep in Christ”, whereas the living will be translated if they are “abiding” in Jesus by “keeping the commandments of God”, particularly the fourth commandment which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been instituted to restore to Christianity.

Scripture teaches us that we shall all be changed, both the dead and the living, in the twinkling of an eye. This change does not come about by self-effort or a perfect degree of sanctification that we achieve. No matter the degree of perfection one achieves in this life, we will still need to be changed. The living and dead will be made ready, in the twinkling of an eye! We shall be changed because of the completed work of Christ. We are given the victory “through our Lord Jesus Christ,” as 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 tells us:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

About the atonement, Uriah Smith, a founding Seventh-day Adventist minister, author, educator, and theologian said the following:

The death of Christ and the atonement are not the same thing. And this relieves the matter of all difficulty. Christ did not make the atonement when he shed his blood upon the cross. Let this fact be fixed forever in the mind.

Ellen White, the Seventh-day Adventist prophetess and a founder of the organization said, in Patriarchs and Prophets:

The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement;

In other words, the atonement was not finished on the cross, nor was it completed upon Jesus’ ascension into heaven when He sat down at the Father’s right hand. In fact, Ellen White states that “it is finished” proclaims to the believer that he can now be exalted by living a life of obedience. These are her words in Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 3:

Jesus did not yield up his life till he had accomplished the work which he came to do; and he exclaimed with his parting breath, “It is finished!” Angels rejoiced as the words were uttered; for the great plan of redemption was being triumphantly carried out. There was joy in Heaven that the sons of Adam could now, through a life of obedience, be exalted finally to the presence of God.

The fact is that we “sons of Adam” are, in our own power, unable to live a “life of obedience.” The Bible makes this abundantly clear from the story of Adam and Eve all the way through the Old and New Testaments. We need rescue, redemption, and reconciliation, and Jesus has accomplished that redemption for us on the cross, once and for all, as Hebrews 10:10-12 tells us, 

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.—Hebrews 10:10–12

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. That work was done on the cross at one point in space and time, a great singularity that could never be repeated. It is because of the sacrifice of Jesus, not because of  a “life of obedience,” that we can be “exalted finally to the presence of God.”

What Is True?

In his article, Sacrifice, Session and Intercession, Nicholas J. Moore indicates that there are three works that are identified in Hebrews that should not be confused with each other, 1) Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross; a once-for-all unrepeatable act, 2) Jesus’ session [seating] at the Fathers right hand, and 3) intercession on behalf of believers.

Hebrews 1:3b states that:

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 

About this statement, Nicholas Moore tells us:

The first phrase here [of Hebrews 1:3] serves as an eloquently concise summary of the entire cultic section of the letter, which occupies most of Heb. 5-10 and should be taken to include the whole sacrificial process on the model of Yom Kippur [the annual day of atonement of Leviticus 16.] … Hebrews 1:3, anticipating and encapsulating the cultic argument of the entire letter, suggests a completion of the act of purification from sins before the Son’s heavenly session.

Alf Correll has explained the finality of “Tetelestai” very clearly in his work Consummatum Est:

[I]n the first half of the Gospel [of John] there are many sayings of the type: “‘mine hour is not yet come”’, in 12.23 we read “the hour is come”’, while in 19.27 we have the expression “from that hour”. Obviously … these instances refer to one decisive “hour’’, the hour of the death of Jesus; that is, the hour of his “lifting-up” and glorification. Indeed, it is to this hour alone that all the sayings and events throughout the Gospel point and through which they receive their right interpretation and significance. … Now this “accomplishment” is effected at the hour of Christ’s death upon the Cross, when the dying Saviour cries out his last word to the world: tetelestai “It is finished!” There is no resignation in this cry, nor is it a mere statement of the fact that the passion of Jesus has now come to an end, that his lifework is accomplished, although these thoughts are naturally implicit in it. On the contrary it is a proclamation of triumph and victory, a crying out to all ages and all peoples that the great hour has now arrived, the turning point of history is now come. Not only so, but the old dispensation is now at an end, the era of fulfillment is begun. It is the hour, moreover, wherein all the promises of the old dispensation are fulfilled; the hour, too, that sheds light upon the meaning of all that Jesus himself during his earthly ministry has said and done. It is the hour wherein the Son comes forth as the conqueror of the “world”, obedient to the will of the Father to the very end, showing by his death both the true nature and the real significance of his own mission to the world. 

And Hebrews 9:12 tell us:

…he entered once for all into the holy places … thus securing an eternal redemption.

Our eternal redemption was secure upon Christ’s entrance into the “holy places.” Our redemption is not secured in an ongoing atonement, but was secured once and for all by Christ before being seated at the Father’s right hand.

Do you rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross? Have you entered that eternal Sabbath rest “today” promised to all who would enter as stated in Hebrews 4:4–10?

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Endnotes

  1. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
  2. Spurgeon, Charles H., Emphasis in original. As quoted on Precept Austin Bible Commentary, available online at https://preceptaustin.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/tetelestai-it-is-finished-paid-in-full/ online as of Dec. 1, 2025.
  3. From Dominican Friars, available online at https://www.english.op.org/godzdogz/it-is-finished-john-1930/ online as of Dec. 1, 2025. Emphasis in original.
  4. Corell, Alf, Consummatum Est, p. 106, London SPCK, 1958.
  5. Stibbs, Alan M., The Finished Work of Christ, p. 5, 1952, Available at the following website: https://theologicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/work_stibbs.pdf online as of Dec. 7, 2025.
  6. From The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik, emphasis in original, available online at https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/hebrews-10/ as of Dec. 9, 2025.
  7. Forsyth, P. T., The Work of Christ,     1910, p. 32. Available at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, at https://ccel.org/ccel/f/forsyth/work/cache/work.pdf online as of Nov. 12, 2025.
  8. Stibbs, ibid, p. 30-31.
  9. Bailey, Arthur, It’s NOT Finished, p. 67, Arthur Bailey Ministries, 2015. Available online at https://arthurbaileyministries.com/ebooks/its-not-finished-ebook/ Online as of Dec. 1, 2025.
  10. Ibid, p. 8.
  11. Bailey, Arthur, Ibid, p. 8.
  12. Moffitt, David M., It Is Not Finished: Jesus Perpetual Atoning Work as the Heavenly High Priest in Hebrews, p. 1. Available online at https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19034/It_Is_Not_Finished_Jesus_high_priesthood_submitted_draft.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y online as of Dec .7, 2025.
  13. Ibid, p. 2.
  14. Ibid, p. 16.
  15. Emphasis mine.
  16. From the official Seventh-day Adventist Church website, available at https://adventist.org/beliefs#belief-24 Available online as of Dec. 1, 2025.
  17. Smith, Uriah, The Sanctuary and the 2300 Days of Daniel 8:14, p. 165, 1877.
  18. White, Ellen G., Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 357, 1890.
  19. White, Ellen G., Spirit of Prophecy, volume 3, p. 167-168, 1878 Emphasis mine.
  20. Emphasis mine.
  21. Moore, Nicholas J., “Sacrifice, Session and Intercession: The End of Christ’s Offering in Hebrews,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament Volume 42, No. 4, p. 527-528, emphasis in original. Available online at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341663477_Sacrifice_Session_and_IntercessionThe_End_of_Christ’s_Offering_in_Hebrews Available online as of Dec. 1, 2025.
  22. Corell, Alf, Consummatum Est, p. 105-106, London SPCK, 1958.
  23. Emphasis mine.

 

Stephen Pitcher
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