It Is Finished


A Narrative of Christ’s Church, the Comforter, and the Finished Work 

with full Scripture Quotations


Benjamin my son,

From the beginning of His earthly ministry, Christ was not merely gathering crowds; He was preparing a people. John the Baptist, the forerunner, came as the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing material just as David prepared the stones and gold for Solomon’s Temple. Scripture says, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight"  Matthew 3:3. John gathered repentant men and women, baptizing them, shaping a people ready for the Messiah. As David prepared the material and Solomon built the Temple, so John prepared the people, and Christ Himself built His Church.

This pattern of material gathered, work finished, and then the filling of God’s glory is not new. It is the very pattern God established from the beginning. When Moses built the Tabernacle, Scripture says, " So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle"  Exodus 40:33–34. The material was gathered, the work was completed, and then the glory filled it. The same pattern appears in the Temple. After Solomon finished the house of the Lord, Scripture records, " It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place… that the house was filled with a cloud… for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God"  2 Chronicles 5:13–14. Again, the material was gathered, the work was finished, and then the glory filled it.

So it was with the first Church. Christ Himself declared its coming when He said, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"  Matthew 16:18. He did not say Peter would build it, nor the apostles, nor any man. Christ alone would build it, and He did so during His earthly ministry.

In Luke’s Gospel, we see the moment Christ formed the first assembly. "And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles"  Luke 6:12–13. Here Christ called out an ecclesia from among His disciples, a gathered, organized body under His authority. This was not a crowd, nor a future abstraction, but the first Church, built by His own hands.

Christ Himself shepherded this assembly. He taught them, commissioned them, gave them discipline, and instituted the ordinances. He breathed life into them, just as God breathed life into Adam. After His resurrection, "he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost"  John 20:22. This was not symbolic. It was Christ, the first Comforter, imparting spiritual life and capacity to the assembly He had formed.

Before His ascension, Christ promised that His departure would not leave them orphaned. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you"  John 14:18. Again, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;” John 14:16.   And yet again, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things"  John 14:26. Christ had been their Comforter in person; upon His ascension, He would send another Comforter, another of the same kind, to indwell, empower, and guide the Church He had already built.

Between His resurrection and Pentecost, Christ did not leave His assembly powerless. He breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"  John 20:22. This was a real impartation, a sustaining work of the Spirit during the interim between His ascension and the full empowering at Pentecost. Just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished, so the Church Christ built was filled with the Spirit after the work was complete.

When Christ cried, "It is finished"  John 19:30, He completed not only the atonement but the entire foundation of the New Covenant, including the foundation of His earthly ecclesia. Nothing remained unfinished. The pattern, the authority, the ordinances, the commission,  all were complete. Pentecost did not create the Church; Pentecost empowered it. Scripture says, "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved"  Acts 2:47. You cannot add to something that does not already exist. The assembly Christ formed before His ascension was now filled with the Spirit He had promised,  just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished.

Thus the earthly Church is not being built in the sense of foundation, it is built, and it propagates. Local assemblies rise and fall, but the Church Christ founded continues through the ages, each congregation a continuation of that first ecclesia He called out on the mountainside.

And beyond this earthly propagation lies the Great Ecclesia, the heavenly assembly yet to be gathered. It is future in gathering, but finished in foundation. Christ’s work lacks nothing. The Spirit seals every believer into that coming congregation, and one day the redeemed of all ages will assemble as one. But until that day, the earthly ecclesia,  the Church Christ built,  continues its witness, empowered by the Comforter He sent, standing on the finished work He accomplished.

All my love,

Dad

A.K. Pritchard   1979 - 2026 -