Statements Recorded by the Apostle John in John’s Gospel and the book of Revelation.
In Bible Prophecy the “It is Done,”proclamation in the book of Revelation and “It is Finished,” statement on the cross are significant in that they mark the end of major time periods.
These statements are only used once in the Bible and are found only in the writings of the apostle John in both John’s Gospel and the book of Revelation.
In John’s Gospel is the only place as Jesus was dying that John records Jesus stating, “It is finished. ” This statement marked the end of the law and that the sacrifice of Jesus’s life to pay for man’s sin was finished, and it ushered in the Age of Grace. At the end of the age, when the wrath of God is complete and Jesus’s returns as King of Kings, John records in Revelation 16:17:
Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, of heaven; from the throne saying, It is done. And there were noises and thunderings and lightenings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.
Down in Revelation 16 verse 20 it tells us that every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Finished and done derive from the same word in the Greek. When Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake, rocks split, the veil of the temple was torn in two, and although he died at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the sun darkened for three hours. When Jesus returns the earthquake will obliterate the earth, and the moon will turn to blood, and the sky will roll up as a scroll.
Both statements signify the completion of two sets of significant prophetic forecasts, the first culminating with Jesus’s death on the cross and being the substitute and propitiation for the sins of the world, and the second marking the end of the world and of sin and death. It is finished is uttered after having completed a work, a ministry on earth and having to suffer for the sins of mankind and It is done marks the end of judgments on a world that rejected that work that was done on the cross.
The “it is finished” and “it is done” statements mark the end of the law, the resurrection, the start of the Age of Grace and its end. These are given to John, whom Jesus loved and as God would use Him to witness and write about the life and resurrection of Jesus, he would now record the vision of His return. Jesus’s declaration, “I come quickly” and the description of heaven would offer many a believer hope and promise in difficult times.