Daily Devotional | Finishing Well

In June 2023, ultra-marathon runner, Courtney Dauwalter set a woman’s record finishing the Western States 100-mile race in 15 hours, 29 minutes, and 34 seconds. The previous record had stood for 11 years. When making the final turn toward the finish line, Dauwalter stated, “That was the moment I let myself actually believe that we had finished.”

In John 19, Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (v. 30). A casual observer of Jesus’ death could make the mistake of thinking that He was only referring to His earthly life. In other words, He was saying that His life was ending. However, that would be a shallow understanding of the significance of that phrase.

According to theologian J. Dwight Pentecost, the term was used in Greek commercial life to signify “the discharge of a debt by a completed payment.” Jesus, by His life and death, accomplished what we as fallen humans could not. He lived a sinless life that pleased God in every respect. He died a painful death as payment for the sins of fallen humanity. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). The punishment that we (being guilty and unrighteous) should have received, Jesus (being innocent and righteous) endured. He made the way to God available to all.

Jesus completed His mission so that all who put their faith in Him may have eternal life (John 3:16). Since you’ve put your faith in Jesus, have you discovered your mission? And are you pursuing it?

>> Just as Jesus finished His mission, let’s strive to finish ours. As the writer to the Hebrews said, “[L]et us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:1–2).

Pray with Us

May we keep our eyes fixed on You—regardless of circumstances, doubts, friends, enemies, pain, or pleasure. Help us cast off what hinders us as we run the race You have set for us. Give us strength in the running!

BY Eric W. Moore

Eric Moore is Professor and Chair of the Applied Theology Field at Moody Theological Seminary. Eric is graduate of Michigan State University, Dallas Theological Seminary, the University of Michigan, and Western Seminary. He is the author of Pastoring the Small Church and a contributor to the One Volume Seminary (Moody Publishers). He has pastored Tree of Life Bible Fellowship church for over two decades. Eric and his wife, Marilyn, live in southeast Michigan and have three children.