No one would question the fact that Christ is risen, yet many deny practically that He has accomplished the work which He came to perform. But if He be risen His work is accomplished. God raised Him in proof thereof.
To be plain, what is Christ? The Saviour. What led Him from the glory in which He dwelt with the Father? The work of our salvation! — Has He performed this work? Surely, and His resurrection and glorification bear evidence of the fact. As He said, (in John 17): — “Have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do, and now, O Father, glorify Thou one with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” He had finished the work, and on that account sought, yea, could justly claim, the place which He had so willingly surrendered.
Now, the great controversy between God and man this — not that a work is to be done for salvation— but who is to be the workman Man considers that he must accomplish the work if he should not overlook the blood of the cross altogether, he deems it necessary that he add something of his own to it. Hence he makes resolutions, turns over a new leaf, undergoes some kind of spiritual penance, struggles religiously with more or less earnestness, all according to the sense of his need. Yet, blessed be God, all this effort is as unnecessary as it is unavailing. Hearken, dear reader, to the clear sounding notes of the precious and perfect substitute, “It is finished.” His was the effort, His the death-struggle, and His the triumphant victory. Look for a moment into the sepulcher where His body was laid. Is that body there No— the tomb is empty and its captive free He is risen, oh! sound His praises.
Death abolished, Satan vanquished, sin put away, the sword of justice sheathed, and heaven’s portals thrown open.
Let us go to the drunkard — see his hopeless case — look on his sin-shattered frame, and think of his soul steeped in despair. Poor man, thou art sadly undone; thou hast fitted thyself for hell; but say, is there no hope for thee? “Ah no,” he responds, “I have sinned away my mercy, and naught can I anticipate but a drunkard’s doom; the work which could take me to heaven would be far, far greater than I could do.” Stay, poor soul, and listen to the voice from Calvary — “It is finished,” finished even for the poor besotted drunkard.
Let us travel to a heathen shore and witness the devotion of the worshippers of some unknown and loveless deity. Conscience seems to tell them of needed sacrifice and hence their cruel oblations. Human victims are laid on their altars, and the outraged deity is thus courted and appeased. Oh! stop their wild delusion by the liberating and life-giving cry, “It is finished.”
Let us visit the subjects of priest-imposed penance, and see the honest yet mistaken professors of a corrupted christianity laboring thus and otherwise to fit themselves for the favor and smile of God. What mem all this toil? “So much forgiveness for so much labor, they gloomily reply. Stay! have ye never read, has it been carefully concealed from your souls that “It is finished?” Away with your beads, and fastings and money-bought indulgences and hear the shout of deliverance — “It is finished.” Finally, what heard we from the lips of one nearer to us in answer to the question of his hopes of heaven? “I’m doing my best.” Nay, then, what meaneth the word of the dying Deliverer, “It is finished?” What room is there for thy doings if He hath done all? and blessed be His name, He hath done all. Yes, the judgment all borne, the stripes all laid, the wrath all undergone. “It is finished.” Sinner, believe, live, enjoy, and adore.
Do not these tidings fall sweetly on thy soul, poor lost one, that since Christ has done all, nothing is required of thee? The work of the Saviour in its own solitary dignity meets the claims of thy Creditor. God is satisfied, perfectly satisfied! His word proclaims forgiveness, on the ground of the blood that has been shed. Say, art thou not satisfied? Canst not thou rest on that ransom price which answers the divine claims I See, Christ is risen, the receipt of the debt fully paid. Look and live. God asks thee for naught, for it is finished — finished for all, for the drunkard, the heathen and the formalist, so that, as they are, salvation may be theirs. I say boldly there is nothing for the sinner to do, for “it is finished.” If the saint be called to work, and surely he is, he works because he is saved — he works from salvation, not for it — from life, not for it. He stands on Christ alone for salvation, and being in the racecourse he runs for the prize.
Sinner, believe! saint, rejoice and labor.
J. W. S.
The very smallest space between the head and the members would destroy life; how close then must be the union with Him!
If I could say, I am a better man than when I began life in Christ, it would be only because I see more of my own vileness now than I did years ago.
You never find a man ashamed of a false religion; yet you will often find Christians who have got the truth and who are ashamed of it.