Tuesday, April 19,
2022
Give thanks to
the Lord, for he is good! His
faithful love endures forever. Psalm
118:1
I attended a friend’s church last Saturday evening. Pastor Michael’s sermon was an inspiring
recounting of the transition that flows from the cross, as Jesus proclaimed
those fateful words: It is
finished. That flow turned the
typical Easter din of “cross, grave, empty tomb….and (yawn from getting up too
early for sunrise service) to now what else? The sermon was: It is Finished; but He is Not![1]
The message centered around the Greek word tetelestai,
from which we translate into English “it is finished…or completed”. The word is military in origin, as in a completed
mission. It was also used in
antiquity as a legal tool for debts.
When a debt was fully-paid the debt-holder would write TETELESTAI
across the original document, as testament to the honorable completing of all
claims. This is the word shouted from
the cross by Jesus…completed…nothing else required. That is true beyond question, as Scripture declares
over and again that His death was propitiation for our sins…paid-in-full.
But what of the last part…IT was finished…but
HE is NOT? The crux of Micael’s
message rested on the fact (again rooted in Scripture) that the completed work
of the cross was but the firstfruits of what was to come. To summarize, it means Christ died once, for
all sins; but He’s still working with us (and on us) to
develop who we are…we are being transformed into His image.
This concept isn’t new.
Any believer who has entered the world of discipleship, following Jesus
with prayer, presence in worship, meaningful stewardship of tithes and
offerings, learning to serve others in the community, and being a faithful
witness, has an understanding that Christ is anything but finished
working on us. He is bringing us to a
mature stature in His character. For all
of us, THAT takes a considerable transformation. It’s what apostle Paul meant when he wrote to
the church at Ephesus:
This will continue
until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we
will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete
standard of Christ. Ephesians 4:13
Now, here’s the candy of it all – it isn’t something we HAVE
to do…it what we GET to do! It’s like this: Elizabeth and I have struggled all our lives
to make a monthly mortgage payment. We
never quite got there in the first four houses we bought. By the time we got to this fifth house, we settled
on a 15 year mortgage. It was paid-off
several years ago – I don’t think they actually wrote tetelestai
on the mortgage paper – but we did get a letter of thanks from the mortgage
company saying our debt was over. It was
finished. But we
are not. We get to live in the house
now. Elizabeth gets to (within reason)
redecorate and rearrange. Russell gets
to repair and take care of cutting the grass.
And that is what Jesus did with your eternity. He’s given us a place and a purpose that is as
secure as the promise of that empty tomb.
And He’s given us freedom to create (with him) all the beauty that life
holds in promise.
For You Today
Two great truths to rest on here:
· IT (the payment of
debt for your sins) is finished. Receive that gift, and cherish it!
·
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have
a blessed day!
[1] Title image: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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