Contentment of the Cross
September 28, 2010It is finished. We have heard this, read it in the Bible where Jesus spoke these words and have had sermons preached over the pulpit about this final phrase uttered from the mouth of Our Saviour. But what does it mean in daily life as a child of God? Does it suggest we must still be under the burden of the law that He fulfilled? Does it indicate we have to be continually busy seeking the Kingdom to earn His approval? Does it signify that we have to work on being more like Him, or growing into His image?
It is finished...teleo in the Greek refers to something being completed, terminated, an action carried out to the full. So, if it is finished why does the Body of Christ insist on trying to fulfil what was completed on the cross? My conjecture is that we actually do not comprehend the full meaning of our being crucified with Him {Romans 6:6}, so believing we are still sinful, still faulty, still wayward we attempt to complete what Jesus has already fulfilled, that is, crucifying us with Him. We are fully redeemed not partially. He took our body of sin (the old man) and did away with it. When we “do away with something” it no longer is there...it means it is gone! We are to reckon ourselves (that means count on it) dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. When we actually believe it, count it to be done, sin cannot reign because the body of sin was crucified. We are struggling with something that no longer exists and the enemy is having a field day with the Body of Christ...condemning Her, criticising Her, telling Her of what she lacks and how She will never measure up. But that is not what God says about the Body....He says She is the righteousness of God , the hope of glory, the carriers of His manifold wisdom, the fullness of Him who fills all in all, complete in Him......not later, but NOW through the cross!
Romans 4:25 says " who (Jesus) was delivered up because of our offenses (sin), and was raised because of our justification....”
There is a significant distinction that I believe is often missed. It is because, not for, our justification that He rose. We were justified as soon as He died on the cross...we were crucified with Him (Romans 6:6)...our justification, that is being made right with God was at the very moment He died because we died too (Romans 6:8)...He rose as a consequence of our already being justified by His blood (Romans 5:9). It really was finished before He ever rose……we were made alive. We can do nothing to get justified...absolutely nothing…zero, zilch, nada!
We don't even have to try and get close to Him, or make ourselves spend time with Him (which in that mindset becomes a chore)....no we only need to awaken to the fact that we were crucified with Him, dead, buried and risen to newness of life (new creation)....we are perfectly united to the Perfect God who is love.....that can only bring contentment, a joyful peace that flows from the rivers of living waters He has placed within us.
Romans 6:10 say: “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” And we are in Him, therefore we live to God…{we died to sin; everything that separated us from Him including feeling numb or distant, or bored or complacent, or frustrated, or angry, or bitter, or envious, or hateful etc., crucified}. We are dead to all that…but alive to Christ.
For instance when someone has an injury and they are completely healed and then the symptoms return...the truth is they were healed and the fact that they are experiencing symptoms in no way negates that they were healed. Just as we died with Him now we believe that we live with Him. (“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” Romans 6:8). This is something that is present tense…now a far off experience. We believe and receive…For it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me. We have done a trade-off. New wine in new wineskins. We are the new wine through Him (Christ) poured out for us. Unrecognizable from who we were, dead in trespasses, now alive to glory! New, holy, righteous, wonderfully and fearfully made for His good pleasure which was the plan all along. A God who planned this prior to the foundations of the earth...salvation for all mankind {Ephesians 1:3-6, John 3:16} can only be accused of generosity without measure. {Eph 1:4} So the Creator of all things couldn’t wait, was anticipating, the moment Jesus would die “…having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” {Eph 1:5}. That is the depth, breadth, width, and length of His love.
When we come to an awareness of what He accomplished on the cross our only response is a joy unspeakable. A Father that is never distant, always present, always awake and attentive to our cry/call is not just worthy of worship but worthy of knowing… And Oh, how He wants to be known. So much so that He declares in Ephesians 3:19 that He desires us to know (experientially in Oneness as a husband and wife) His love that is beyond knowledge so that we will be filled with the fullness of God. In fact, He lives in us, through His Holy Spirit…this glorious Spirit that makes all that happened on that cross come to life in us…total reconciliation, Oneness with Him who made us able to commune fully.
The Word instructs us to meditate on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy…it is the Cross, the Cross, the Cross. Nothing is greater for it brought us into perfect union with the God of the universe our Daddy!
We are right now this very moment new creations, old things have passed away, all things have become new {2Cor. 5:17}. This is a supernatural truth; unearned, undeserved and unleashed by the goodness, faithfulness and love of God…It is finished. When we come to the conclusion that Jesus’ work on the cross is sufficient, as God’s grace is sufficient, contentment in the heart will rise like the morning sun, warm, jubilant awaiting a new day in Him, with whom we are One.
There is nothing further to work for…and all that we do in the Kingdom is as sons in perfect union with their Father, not hirelings earning their keep! So to my brothers and sister:
As Paul said, I will boast in nothing but Christ and Him crucified. The cross, the cross, the cross…It is finished!
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” {2Cor. 13:14}
Posted by Jessie Campbell.
