The Spirit breathes life into lifeless man solely on the basis of that which Christ has done on man’s behalf.  And unsaved man can do no more than receive that which has already been done for him.  Nothing else enters into the matter.

When Christ referred to His finished work immediately before His death on the Cross, He cried out one word in “a loud voice” — Tetelestai — which has been translated in the English text, “It is finished” (John 19:30; cf. Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46).  Tetelestai is the perfect tense form of the Greek verb, teleo, which means “to bring something to an end or completion.”  This word in the perfect tense could be more accurately expressed and translated, “It has been finished,” or “It has been completed.”

That to which Christ referred in John 19:30 was His work of redemption.  The perfect tense that He used refers to a work completed in past time with the results of that work extending into and existing during present time in a finished state.  At the moment Christ cried out, announcing that His work had been completed, there was then no reason for His death to be prolonged.  The blood of the Passover Lamb had been shed, and God had “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5, 6, 12; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).  Thus, at this point, “He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit [lit., comparing the other gospel accounts, ‘He breathed out,’ i.e., He expired, willingly giving up His life]” (John 10:17, 18; 19:30).

Redeemed man has been saved by grace through faith solely on the basis of that which Christ referred to when He cried out from the Cross, “Tetelestai.”  The words “are you saved [lit. ‘you have been saved’]” in Ephesians 2:8 are also the translation of a perfect tense in the Greek text.  The reference, as tetelestai, is to a work completed in past time with the results of this work extending into the present and existing in a finished state.

At the moment a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ (places his trust, reliance in Christ, i.e., receives, by faith, that which Christ has done on his behalf), the Spirit not only breathes life into that person but the Spirit also takes up His abode in the individual (cf. Genesis 1:2b; 2:7; Ezekiel 37:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19).  Through this means, the man passing “from death to life” becomes “a new creation” “in Christ,” a part of the “one new man” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:1, 15).