Accomplishment is a feeling all of us can relate to. It is finished! I’m finally done with my homework. It is finished! I don’t know that I could do another sprint this practice. It is finished! The laundry is done for the week. The think about all of those accomplishments is that there is always more work to do. This is different with Jesus.
When Jesus cried out – it is finished – on the cross, he was done… completely done forever. All sin for all time was paid for. That means all the sins that were committed and all the sins that would be committed. If that sounds too good to be true. Paul says the same thing in his letter to the Christians in Rome HERE.
Let me put it to you this way. You boss storms into your office and he is happy. That is enough to give you pause, but what he says is unbelievable. “Bob, you’ve done it! And when I say it I mean everything. It’s all done. All the work that we gave you in the past and all the work that we could ever imagine to give you. It’s all done!” All you can do it stammer out a few syllables before he stops you and keeps going. “I want you to know that you’ve earned a reward for all your hard work.” “For what exactly again?” you think. “Bob, take some time for yourself. Go on that cruise – you know, after you can do that sort of thing again, go fishing, skiing, whatever it is that you like to do!” This isn’t working because you can’t remember doing it ALL. “Oh, and Bob, we’re still going to be paying you, of course. Good man, you’ve earned it!”
That might sound too good to be true for you, but through faith in Jesus, it’s your new reality. Oh, you don’t get to rest just yet. Work now, you can rest in heaven. But the point is through Jesus because of all that he accomplished – you don’t have any spiritual requirements to fill before your God! It is finished.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s sermon taken from John 19: Jesus Spoke a Word of Accomplishment.
Book(s): John
Series: Seven Times He Spoke
Tag(s): Lent
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg