Here are some interesting final words from famous people. P.T. Barnum was a circus promoter who once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” He became wealthy by offering bizarre and mysterious sideshows in addition to the normal circus activities. When he lay dying in 1899 his last words were, “What were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” It really didn’t matter, because he couldn’t take any with him.
John Sedgwick was a Union General during the Civil War. At a battle near Spotsylvania, Virginia, in 1864, he mounted an embankment and was warned by his officers that there was a Confederate sniper shooting toward their position. He ignored the warning and said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Within seconds a sniper’s bullet smashed into his cheek under his right eye, and he fell dead.
Dwight L. Moody was a great preacher of the nineteenth century. He was an uneducated, unordained evangelist who shook two continents for Christ. As he lay dying in 1899, his family gathered around him and heard him speak his last, glorious words, “Is this dying? Why, this is bliss. There is no valley. Earth is receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling; I must go!”
Among the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He gave His life for us on the cross are these: “It is finished” (John 19:30). The single Greek word tetelestai meant something was accomplished. It comes from the Greek word teleioo, which means to fully accomplish a task. It was the word used by an artist as he put the finishing touches on his painting. He would step back and see that it was complete and say, “Tetelestai.”
When Jesus said, “Tetelestai!” it wasn’t a cry of defeat; it was a cry of victory! He did not say, “I am finished.” He said, “It is finished.” So if “it” was finished, what was “it”? The answer is that the entire work of redemption had been brought to completion. Another common use of the word tetelestai was in commerce. Interestingly, tetelestai has been found in the papyri being placed on receipts for taxes, meaning “paid in full.” So when the Lord Jesus cried, “Tetelestai,” He was also saying, “The sin debt has been paid in full!”
The bad news is that we are all sinners deserving of death and hell. The good news is that regardless of what we’ve done or where we’ve been or how many sins we’ve piled up in our lives, we can be forgiven because the Lord Jesus Christ stamped this word over the debt of all our sins: “Tetelestai! Paid in full!” That word is written in the red of the precious blood of Christ. And that means this: You and I cannot work for our salvation for it is already paid for. We can only receive or reject the finished work of Jesus. There is no third option or neutral ground.
God’s Word tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is a gift we can either accept or reject. We cannot pay for something that is already paid for. Have you accepted the free gift of God?