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These are words which no other man who has ever left this world has dared to say, or could say. Even the best men say, when they realise their approaching death, "I would that I might have lived to complete this work." Or, more often, "I feel as if my whole work were just beginning!" Or, oftener yet, "I have done nothing!" The only perfect work is Christ's. Has anything in nature fulfilled all its purpose? Is any rose without a blemish? Is any pleasure — is any affection — all it could be? Does He not "charge His angels with folly?" and are not "the heavens unclean in His sight?" The ancient artists, in a true sense of the incompleteness of all which a human hand could ever do, were wont to inscribe on their highest works not "he painted it;" or "he sculptured it;" but "he was painting it." To Christ only, of all that ever trod this earth, it belongs to say, "I have finished." What then was this "work?"

I. TO BE A MODEL MAN. Therefore, as His great type and fore. runner, David, went through almost all the vicissitudes of human life that he might write the Psalms, that keystone to every heart — so Christ passed through so many chapters of life, and filled so many relations, that He might be a Pattern to every one.

II. TO BE A TEACHER. Therefore He is called "The Word," for as a word conveys mind to mind, so Christ conveys the mind of God to the mind of man. With this end in view, He was always changing the letter of law into its spirit; making the obedience at once far more strict, and infinitely more free.

III. TO BE A SACRIFICE FOR SIN. This vast "work" Christ "finished" on the cross, so "finished" that it does not require or admit one iota of addition on your part. The worst thing you can do in the world is to treat that as unfinished! The unbelief in the finished work — giving God the lie, disparaging the work of Christ, and "limiting the Holy One of Israel" — is a greater sin than all the guilt for which you may be now wishing and doubting whether you are forgiven.

IV. TO BE THE MYSTICAL HEAD OF A MYSTICAL BODY. As such He died, rose, ascended. And every believer is a member in that mystical body. Therefore, believer, your death is past, and your resurrection and ascension are sure.

V. TO GLORIFY GOD. The two in His mind stand as one. And nothing has ever reached its resting-place till it rests there. This only is final — and the final is the test of everything — "Does it glorify God."

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

WEB: I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.