Come and View the Word Made Flesh

 

Good Friday

 

1 Come and view the Word made flesh

On whom all our sin was laid;

He has words that will refresh

Every sinner who has strayed:

“It is finished!” Christ decreed,

Giving everything you need.

 

2 All the Scriptures are fulfilled,

All Christ’s sufferings are complete,

All God’s righteous wrath is stilled,

Satan here has met defeat.

“It is finished!” Jesus cries,

Gives His spirit up and dies. 

 

3 Come here, sinner, rest your soul

In the wounds of Christ your God;

Here your sins have no control,

Washed away in Jesus’ blood;

“It is finished!” hear him shout;

All your guilt is blotted out. 

 

4 Bring your conscience here to find

What alone can make it good;

Here God’s mercy shows His mind,

Doing what you never could;

“It is finished!” You are free –

Christ’s death is your guarantee.

 

5 Every sin to which you turned

Has become your Savior’s loss;

All the punishment you earned

Has been poured out on the cross.

“It is finished!” It is true,

There is nothing left to do.

 

6 Do you see your sin inside?

Do not look inside your heart;

See your sin on Him who died,

See the truth his words impart:

“It is finished!” not in you,

In Him who makes all things new. 

 

7 If you try and can’t forget

Sins that long have held you bound,

Bring your heartache and regret

To the words where faith is found:

“It is finished!” Hear him say

Words that take all sin away. 

 

8 When the battle rages on,

When your flesh desires the lie;

Look to God the Father’s Son,

Hear his clear, triumphant cry:

“It is finished!” It is done!

Jesus has already won. 

 

9 When you fall to sin again,

And you fear God’s righteous wrath;

See his blood remove the stain,

See your wages paid in death:

“It is finished.” From his veins

Flows the flood that cleans your stains. 

 

10 Do you fear the future now,

Knowing what the past has been?

Let this saying teach you how

All your time is found in Him:

“It is finished!” Nothing can

Snatch you from your Savior’s hand. 

 

11 In these words forgiveness find,

In these words your Sabbath lies,

Giving sight back to the blind,

Comfort for our pains and sighs:

“It is finished!” Nothing more

Is there left to end the war. 

 

12 Peace He gives, his peace he leaves

With these words that shatter doubt;

Blest is he who this believes!

Let him join with Christ and shout:

“It is finished” Christ has died!

By this I am justified. 

 

I can’t express in words how beautiful it is what Jesus says, “It is finished.”  No poetry, no rhetoric, no power of intellect can fully mine the depths of these words.  I beg you to cherish them as the power of God himself against the gates of hell, against your guilty conscience, against the world that praises her good works, against your flesh that always wants to shove its accomplishments into God’s sight.  Jesus has finished it.  He sacrificed himself for you.  He paid the debt you owe.  The Law that curses you placed its entire curse on Jesus.  There is no power of the devil; there is no pain of hell, there is no bondage to sin; there is no shade of death that did not fall on the Son of God in our flesh and blood and that was not overcome by his innocence and divine power. 

 

In everything you do, in every prayer you pray, in every hope you have, in your fears, in your worries, in your regret remember “It is finished.”  This is what your baptism teaches you every day.  You cannot lose as long as you have these words in your heart.  Amen. 

 

3/12/15