Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Is IT Really Finished?

 

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!

·       YOUR walk with Christ through an eternity of blessing is just getting started, because his faithful love endures forever!

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©  


[1] You can listen to the sermon here

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