Tetelestai:

All of us are guilty of sins of weakness.  We do not always go and deliberately sin or choose to go against God’s will.  Every day, we unintentionally make mistakes, use poor judgments, continue bad habits and make infractions against God.  However, we no longer have the need to bring sin offerings like the people of the Old Testament. Christ was the perfect substitute.  Jesus said he came “to give his life a ransom for many.”  Mark 10:45.  Jesus’ blood and his sacrifice on the cross are all that anyone needs.  Today there is comfort in knowing that with the death of Christ on the cross, the only sufficient sin offering was offered once and for all.  When Jesus cried “It is finished!” on the cross (“Tetelestai” in the Greek – literally “Paid in Full”) he declared that all the requirements for our eternal life had been met.  Those who still want to do temple work to progress towards their own salvation deny Christ’s assertion that “It is finished!”  They will not earn the right to be judged worthy in God’s sight.  All the sacred work that needs to be carried out has already been done on the cross.  Christ’s substitution has made those who believe “It is finished!” fully forgiven and perfect.  Only through faith in Christ’s sacred work on the cross can we live with Heavenly Father in the celestial kingdom.

Heavenly Father reinforced in the daily lives of his Israelite people the picture of a perfect atoning substitute as the only answer to their sin.  Click here to go to the parallel Old Testament article addressing the Sin Offering.