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Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net What does “It” mean? No matter what picture the “passion” or the crucifiction of Christ conjures up in your mind; after all the verbal abuse from those for which He came; after the beatings which rendered the rib bones in His back visible; after being stripped, nailed to a cross, raised high to be mocked and ridiculed by all present, in John 19: 30 He said: “it is finished”. What was “it”? Was it important? Do you realize Jesus had to do a chin-up just to speak? Did He mean only this immediate pain and suffering? ----- Let’s turn the spiritual switch. I don’t think He was referring to His immediate circumstances at all. If you look in the front of your Bible, it probably says “the Old and New Testaments”. The Greek word for Testament is the same for the word for Covenant. When Jesus instituted the Lords Supper, he said: “this is a new covenant in My blood”. (please read Jeremiah ch 31). So what was the old covenant? Simply put, it was the Law. In fact, the first five books of the Bible are called the Law. We have an adversary, and His name is Satan. He hates you if for no other reason than God loves you. You are made in the image of God. His #1 priority is to keep you from a saving knowledge of Christ (2nd Corr. 4:4) but failing that, he wants to keep you in bondage that you wont appropriate all that Christ bought for you on the Cross. His #1 tool to accomplish this is Legalism. He will use it with regard to salvation. “If I can be good enough, or better than my neighbor, or better than most, or don’t do any really bad things, I’ll get to Heaven”. NOT! This is Legalism. Once we are saved, we try to live under this same bondage. Heb. 12:2 says Jesus is ths “author and completer” of our faith. Paul said: “it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me”. Christian life isn’t imitation, but participation. Heb 3:14 says we become “partakers of Christ”. Heb 13:21 says that Jesus is “working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight”. Keeping the law is a wonderful thing. Jesus commanded three things before His ascension; “Make disciples”, “baptize”, and “teach all that I have Commanded you”. Jesus quoted the law, edited the law, and even made some new ones. But Romans 3:20 says that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified”. I’m Confused. Don’t be. Jesus came “not to condemn the law but to fulfill it.” Why? Cause we couldn’t. “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. Is He not serious about the law? You bet He is. In John 14:21 He says “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”. In Biblical times, if I owed you money, you would go down to the community bulletin-board and post a sign saying what a scoundrel I was, and that I don’t pay my bills. This was designed to shame me into complying. In Colo. chapter 2, vs 14, Jesus took the law which was against me, and nailed it to the Cross, and having thwarted Satan’s plan, He made a show; or a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. He paid my sin bill, He freed me form the condemnation of the law, He empowers me to keep it, I’m forgiven and Heaven bound,–He did all that and He said “it is finished”. Hallelujah What a Savior. |
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