Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
~ Brennan Manning
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as He is pure.
~ from 1 John 3
Oh beloved, our Beloved hath screamed the truth across all time and eternity. He both gasped and roared the statement that will never be fully comprehended, for it will take eternity for the impact to unfold.
Tetelestai! It is finished.
Oh beloved, our Beloved hath screamed the truth across all time and eternity. He both gasped and roared the statement that will never be fully comprehended, for it will take eternity for the impact to unfold.
Tetelestai! It is finished.
…an ocean of meaning in a drop of language, a mere drop. It would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it. IT IS FINISHED is the most charming note in all of Calvary’s music. The fire has passed upon the Lamb. He has borne the whole of the wrath that was due to His people. This is the royal dish of the feast of love.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
And finished it is. For He, The Lamb slain before the foundations of the world spoke across eternity in that moment. All sin (read: all of it) was paid in full in that place. The cross, and the work He did on it, laid all claims against us aside and rendered them moot.
And have no doubt beloved,
There is no doubt in the counsels of the ages.
There is no doubt among the angels.
There is no doubt among the demons.
There is no doubt among those who have fallen asleep.
It is finished.
There is only one place where doubt remains. And it appears in the most curious of places. The doubt is in those of us who are most greatly affected by the truth spoken by the One who is The Way, The Truth and The Life. We are the ones who doubt what He has already done for us.
And so, in the death of Christ, we are faced with another death which must occur. All of me has to go. Any of my preconceived notions of who I was before, must be crushed under the preeminence of the King who has triumphed over both (my) sin and (my impending) death.
My gnawing fear that I am not good enough for G_d, must be replaced with a conviction that being good enough is not (and never was) possible.
My tenacious grasp on justice and balancing things in scales must be ripped out of my hands. And in exchange, they are poured full of mercy and grace.
My desires for self-promotion and recognition must be slain. And in their place must come the expectation that i am now a servant-king of a Kingdom which will have no end.
My willingness to depend on the brain G_d gave me, must end in confusion and chaos. And now i must simply know that i have the Mind of Christ.
My miserly outlook on life must be overwhelmed by a vision for the lavish abundance that was, is and will be poured out onto me forever.
My fleshly dwelling screams for its former comforts. However, that voice must be ignored to hear the more beautiful Voice which brings the only real comfort i have ever had.
My horrible propensity to judge other people must be subsumed by a Love which now flows out of me in rivers of Living water.
My self-built prison walls of isolation must be shattered with the new reality that i will never be alone – ever again.
Can we see it? My doubts about the finished work of the cross must be reconciled with reality. Finished means finished. And the fact that i do not feel finished is a pretty goofy reason to start thinking G_d did not do what He said He already did. Regardless, there is within us, this final and very violent struggle to fully believe. And this is the process many theologians call sanctification. For within us – as the Spirit drives an ever-deeper wedge between soul and spirit – who we really are is set apart from that which we are not.
So yeah, Jesus died. Jesus was buried. Jesus rose again. It is finished. And the only thing left that needs to die for us to experience the enormously abundant portent of this Truth is our doubt. For in dying to this selfish doubt, it is instantly replaced with a conviction of which the rest of creation is already convinced.
Time to die beloved. Let Him have you tonight.
No sermon is of any value, or likely to be useful, which has not the three Rs in it: ruin by the fall, redemption by Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
~John C. Ryland (1723-1792)
