Heart Tracks - Finished!

"Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures He said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch and held it up to His lips. When Jesus had tasted it, He said, 'It is finished.' Then He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit." John 19:28-30...."It is finished. That is the last word in the redemption of man." Oswald Chamber....."It is finished, and Jesus is Lord." Lyric from the song, It Is Finished..."You tore the veil, You made a way, when You said that it was done." Lyric from the song, At The Cross

I often think that these three words of the King may well be both the best known, yet least experienced in their Truth, of all the words the Lord spoke. From the cross He proclaimed that the full ministry and work for which He had been sent had been accomplished. The atoning for all sin as well as it's power over humankind had been done and broken. On the cross, and in His subsequent resurrection, everything we must have to live abundant, victorious lives was completed. Jesus knew that it was finished. The devil knew, and knows it was finished as well. The question is, do we know it is finished as well? The victory has been won. The victory has been given. Have we received that victory? Have we entered into it?

The reality is, too many of His people live as if this truth is not real. We struggle and strive, barely making any spiritual progress, if we make any at all. We too often see Him as a God who must be appeased and pleased before He moves to any degree to help us. We know that His Son Jesus Christ came, lived, ministered, died and rose again. But we live as though He then removed Himself from the picture, and left us on our own to struggle through....with occasional interventions from Him on our behalf. After all, pain and suffering remain in this world. If it's really finished, why? If victory, abundance, strength and Holy Spirit power are really ours, why do we feel so weak, powerless, helpless...victimized. The full answers to these questions go beyond what I can write here, but maybe the journey to entering into this finished works starts with a realization of these three things.

First, we need to know that though it is finished, it isn't over. The battle is won, but it goes on. The devil is defeated, but he fights on. We are redeemed, but we continue to live in a fallen world. A world temporarily in the enemy's hands, but whose hands are controlled by Almighty God. It is not over, but it is done! Fight as he may, assault as he will, he cannot thwart the purposes of the Father for us if we will cling to Him, abide in Him, live surrendered to Him. We can live resurrection lives in a fallen world held in the grip of death. Until He returns, the battle goes on, but the victory is already ours...He overcame the full might of hell on the cross. In Him, we do, we have, as well.

Secondly, though it is finished, we're not. We are not finished in carrying out, living out, that which He created us for and called us to. We're not finished in His placing of us in the front lines of already won battles. We fight, but we fight with the knowledge that the enemy we fight is already beaten...and knows it. All the devil has is bluster...and lies....and threats....and his own name. We come against all that in the name of Almighty God. No matter how fearsome he appears through whatever means of attack he uses, he is already beaten, and we have already won.

Last, one of the enemy's greatest lies will be to get us to believe it is we who are finished, not him. He wants us to believe that the situation is too far gone, or that our failures and sins have been too many. That everything is far too gone, far past the point of saving. We are finished, and he has won. What Christ the King tells us in His finished work is that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be so "finished" and dead that the Father cannot raise it up. All the circumstantial evidence or "proofs" the enemy may offer to the contrary are lies. The Lord reigns, no matter how deep the darkness, and no matter how long dead. Death is swallowed up in victory. Has that reality, made so at the cross, become yours? Have you ever come to the cross...to Christ...to life?

So, how real are those three words, "It is finished," to you and me? Everything that was needed for us to have victorious, abundant, and overcoming life was done at the cross. It was finished. At the cross.....Come to cross. Come to victory. Come to His life. What keeps you from it?

Blessings,
Pastor O