When Jesus came to earth as a Man, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), He came to fulfil the law of the old covenant and to pay the price for humanity’s transgressions, which have their root in the first Adam. Jesus came to establish the new covenant based on grace.
At the start of His earthly ministry, Jesus revealed this when He entered a synagogue in Nazareth and read the following verses from the book of Isaiah.
Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because he has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Jesus stopped there and closed the scroll, leaving out the last line of Isaiah’s original words: “And the day of vengeance of our God”. Isaiah 61:2 He did so because He came to demonstrate God’s grace and loving kindness, not His wrath and justice.
The glory of Jesus’ finished work is in what took place on the cross of Calvary. Through His pain and suffering, He took upon Himself all our sin, our curse, our sicknesses and diseases. He bore on our behalf the full wrath and judgment of God Almighty.
The Bible tells us that when He took all that for us, He became so hideous and deformed that God in His mercy covered the face of the earth with darkness for three hours to hide Him from sight. Yet Jesus held on until all of God’s fiery judgment for sins had been exhausted.
Today, we are now holy, righteous, and blameless in Christ. Our behavior may not correspond yet. But, we keep feeding on His Word, and one day our action will correspond. Be it we are rich or poor, young or old believer, we are complete in Christ. And in Christ dwell all the fullness of God head bodily.
The problem is most believer has take this starting post "complete in Christ" and put it as the ending post. They think one day they will come to the end post and be complete in Christ. The reasoning is from man upwards instead from God downwards.
God's reality is we are complete in Christ. The very moment we are saved, we are complete in Christ. We are to walk out that completeness. Even when we fall, it may appear that we are incomplete. The truth is we are still complete. That fall cannot take away that completeness in us. Because our action is not the one that complete us, it is Christ's, His finished work at the cross. So, let's not make the starting post as the ending post. We are complete in Christ the moment Jesus finished His work at the cross. Amen!
Once upon a time, we were sinners, we addressed God as God, we pleaded for mercy. That was right then. But now, we are child of God. God is our Father, we don't come to Him with sinner's attitude, It does not please God. God will not respond to us. How could He be pleased?
When we are sin conscious, we are not valuing what His Son has done at the cross. We are not esteeming His perfect sacrifice at the cross to purge out every sins in our lives! Today, God will respond to us depending on how we treat Jesus. If we honor Jesus, God will honor us. If we reject Christ, God will reject us. Amen!
In John 19:30, at the cross, Jesus cried out "It is finished!" That is where it all started. When Jesus cried " finished!" We start. We start our Christian life's with the finished work.
When Jesus said "It is finished!" What exactly is finished? It is the cup that He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane The cup was full of our sin, our curse and our judgement, Jesus drank it and He said "finished". No more judgement from God for His law has been fully satisfied. God's holiness says if we sin against Him, we die. God cannot compromise or else He is no longer just and holy. At the cross, Jesus died for all our sin, resulting in God's holiness being greatly magnified. At the same time, God's unconditional love is widely expressed for all mankind. It is finished! Amen! Hallelujah!
The first spoken word of Jesus recorded in the Bible was when He was 12 years old. He said to his earthly parent "Don't you know I am about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49) His last word was recorded at the cross when he said "It is finished!" What was finished? His Father's business. And that is to have our sins forgiven righteously on a judicial foundation. Amen!
Next, He rose from the dead on the third day. The disciples were afraid, hiding in the upper room, and Jesus appeared . He asked one of them to touched Him, His flesh and bones, lest anyone thought He is a ghost. Jesus showed them His wounds which is the righteous foundation for Him to say this "Peace be with you!" (John 20:19). Peace is established on His finished work.
In John 21:15, Jesus was walking by the lake of Galilee, the disciples were fishing. Jesus made breakfast for them. After the breakfast, He asked this question "Do you love Me?" At the end of the chapter, He said to Peter "You follow Me."(John 21:22)
Let's look at the sequence:
"It is finished!" John 19:30
"Peace be with you!" John 20:19
"Do you love me?" John 21:15
"You follow me." John 21:22
The true Christian life's start with "It is finished!" We are complete in Christ, Our sins are forgiven (past,present & future). We are the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen!
Now, we possess the peace for Jesus said "Peace be with you." We have been made righteous with God on His finished work and therefore we have peace. The Bible says that we, being justified by faith, have peace with God.
When we are resting in the finished work and are enjoying the peace with God, we know there is nothing hindering between us and God,. Sin ,the barrier that prevent the blessing of God in our lives, has been purged completely. Amen!
After all God has done for us, He asked " Do you see anything in Me that cause you to love Me?" He asked "Do you love Me?" And then when we say "Yes Lord, I love you," Then He said "Follow Me." So, from here,we can see the sequence of God's order of reconciling with mankind.
However, instead of following this order, some traditional Christians start to follow Christ by placing His finished work as the ending post. They set standards and boundaries and make Christianity look like an uphill task. "Have you read 10 chapters a day?" " Have you pray two hours everyday?"
And then, they will say " Do your very best to love God" and continue to say " Only then, you will have peace with God when the work is finished!" They have gotten it upside down!
In John 19:30, at the cross, Jesus cried out "It is finished!" That is where it all started. When Jesus cried " finished!" We start. We start our Christian life's with the finished work.
When Jesus said "It is finished!" What exactly is finished? It is the cup that He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane The cup was full of our sin, our curse and our judgement, Jesus drank it and He said "finished". No more judgement from God for His law has been fully satisfied. God's holiness says if we sin against Him, we die. God cannot compromise or else He is no longer just and holy. At the cross, Jesus died for all our sin, resulting in God's holiness being greatly magnified. At the same time, God's unconditional love is widely expressed for all mankind. It is finished! Amen! Hallelujah!
Next, He rose from the dead on the third day. The disciples were afraid, hiding in the upper room, and Jesus appeared . He asked one of them to touched Him, His flesh and bones, lest anyone thought He is a ghost. Jesus showed them His wounds which is the righteous foundation for Him to say this "Peace be with you!" (John 20:19). Peace is established on His finished work.
In John 21:15, Jesus was walking by the lake of Galilee, the disciples were fishing. Jesus made breakfast for them. After the breakfast, He asked this question "Do you love Me?" At the end of the chapter, He said to Peter "You follow Me."(John 21:22)
Let's look at the sequence:
"It is finished!" John 19:30
"Peace be with you!" John 20:19
"Do you love me?" John 21:15
"You follow me." John 21:22
The true Christian life's start with "It is finished!" We are complete in Christ, Our sins are forgiven (past,present & future). We are the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen!
Now, we possess the peace for Jesus said "Peace be with you." We have been made righteous with God on His finished work and therefore we have peace. The Bible says that we, being justified by faith, have peace with God.
When we are resting in the finished work and are enjoying the peace with God, we know there is nothing hindering between us and God,. Sin ,the barrier that prevent the blessing of God in our lives, has been purged completely. Amen!
After all God has done for us, He asked " Do you see anything in Me that cause you to love Me?" He asked "Do you love Me?" And then when we say "Yes Lord, I love you," Then He said "Follow Me." So, from here,we can see the sequence of God's order of reconciling with mankind.
However, instead of following this order, some traditional Christians start to follow Christ by placing His finished work as the ending post. They set standards and boundaries and make Christianity look like an uphill task. "Have you read 10 chapters a day?" " Have you pray two hours everyday?"
And then, they will say " Do your very best to love God" and continue to say " Only then, you will have peace with God when the work is finished!" They have gotten it upside down!
What God has placed as first, let's not reverse it. Our Christian can only be effective and empowering when we follow the right sequence of God's order. His finished work is the basis for our peace. Without it, we can never be justified before Him. Neither can we claim the gift of righteousness. Without His finished work, we will continue to remain in sin-consciousness whenever we come before His throne.
When sin has dominion over our lives, how could we be empowered to love? If sin has dominion over us, how are we going to follow our Lord? Praise be to God for He knew that only when our conscience is settled with His peace, we are ready to establish a love relationship with Him.
The Bible says we love because He first loved us. His love is permanently and perpetually displayed on the cross. That love is demonstrated by His Beloved, His one and only Son, finishing the work on the cross. And that finished work marked the starting post to the redemptive plan of our almighty God in reconciling with all mankind. And that finished work is the foundation in granting us access to His peace, favor and abundant blessing! How great is our God! How can we not love Him and follow Him? Amen! Hallelujah!
When sin has dominion over our lives, how could we be empowered to love? If sin has dominion over us, how are we going to follow our Lord? Praise be to God for He knew that only when our conscience is settled with His peace, we are ready to establish a love relationship with Him.
The Bible says we love because He first loved us. His love is permanently and perpetually displayed on the cross. That love is demonstrated by His Beloved, His one and only Son, finishing the work on the cross. And that finished work marked the starting post to the redemptive plan of our almighty God in reconciling with all mankind. And that finished work is the foundation in granting us access to His peace, favor and abundant blessing! How great is our God! How can we not love Him and follow Him? Amen! Hallelujah!
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