Perfect Completion
Tetelestai: Occasionally the significance of a verb is found not only in its meaning but in the tense attached to it. And in some cases, English struggles to convey the deeper meaning of the tense. In John 19:30, we read Jesus’ final words on the cross: “It is finished”.
In Greek, however, this phrase represents only one Greek word, tetelestai, and its is one of the most important things Jesus ever said. The Greek verb teleo means to complete or finish something.
But in this case, the verb is not in the simple past tense, indicating that he is done. John 19:30 uses the perfect tense, which underscores an action that is fully completed and has present-day consequences.
Given the significance of what Jesus has accomplished on the Cross, John therefore uses the perfect tense to emphasize that Jesus has truly and exhaustively finished what the Father sent him to do and that the ongoing effects of his work continue to be with us today.
What a gift!
