Christ’s Finished Work – Page 5

Category: Christ’s Finished Work

Christ’s Finished Work: New Creation

15 February 2023 blogpastor Leave a comment

Most Christians would have heard of the term “new creation”. They will first encounter it in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old have passed away; behold the new has come” (ESV).

When people decide to follow Christ, they will experience a spiritual transformation. Once dead in sins and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1), they will be made alive towards God. Their hearts of stone will become hearts of flesh. Their conscience will be cleansed, and renewed to a new sensitivity. This immediate and supernatural transformation is the work of the Spirit of God.

The old life of guilt, alienation from God and others have passed away and the new creation has come. They have entered into intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and this relationship is so deep and profound, it is termed “union”. They will realise that they have actually begun a life-long journey of transformation towards the likeness of Christ.

This renewal is not merely individual, God is interested in forming a vast community of made-new people of all ethnicity, race and languages – a new society or humanity that has broken all barriers of race, gender and status, and that spans time and space. It is the church universal that is God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works so that the unbelieving world would see the grace and majesty and wisdom of God displayed in the church. A new creation indeed!

God’s new creation came to us in power through Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. Whereas Adam failed by disobedience and his descendants suffered all the consequences, Christ the last Adam, the ideal Adam, succeeded by his perfect obedience to God, and became the first of a new humanity that will live under the abundant blessings of his finished work. But there is still more. This humanity that will live in union with God forever will inhabit a new earth and heaven.

God also intends to redeem and renew the whole world he created, which has been “subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8: 20- 22)”. This earth was not as God created and intended it to be. It has been corrupted and polluted by the curse and by sin. This subjection of the earth to degradation is described as a groaning in pain like in the pains of childbirth. This wait will end at the “revealing of the sons of God” (verse 19), when the kingdom of God is finally birthed or consummated, at the glorious return of Christ.

I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband.I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighbourhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate”(Revelation 21:1-5 The Message).

New creation is one of the blessings of Christ’s finished work and it gives us a wonderful hope to look forward to. Besides that it gives us a glimpse of God’s heart of love and his incredible intention for an eternal intimacy with us. This vision of hope will certainly strengthen us to weather the storms of life whether hardships, persecution, suffering, or death.

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet. Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.

Christ’s Finished Work: Ministry & Message of Reconciliation

22 December 2022 blogpastor Leave a comment

What is the most important ministry of the church? It is the ministry of reconciliation, that God has entrusted the church with. What is the most important message of the church? It is the gospel, the message of reconciliation. What is the most important role of the church? That of being Christ’s ambassador. It is Paul who tells us this in this text 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

These entrustments are gifts of God’s grace to the church and the world. These can only exist if Christ died and rose again to be exalted at the right hand of the Father. They are blessings of Christ’s redemptive work. Without the finished work of Christ, there is no ministry of reconciliation, because it was his redemptive work that made sinful man’s reconciliation with God possible. There is no message because the message is the message of the gospel of the finished work, of the beautiful exchange that took place on the cross of Christ (2 Cor 5:21) when Christ took our sins on his own self and bore the penalty of death that was due to us; and in exchange, he gave us his righteousness to us, so that we have right standing before God.

All persons of the holy trinity were involved in the reconciliation process. The Father initiated the whole redemptive plan. Jesus Christ accomplished reconciliation by his death and resurrection from the dead. The Holy Spirit implements the reconciliation for without his activity and work in the world and through the church, reconciling sinful people to a holy God would be humanly impossible.

These sacred entrustments must be faithfully and diligently pursued and kept by God’s people, because the advancement of the kingdom, the health, growth and survival of the church, and the soon return of Christ are subject upon their faithful discharge.

As followers of Christ and members of the church, we can respond by committing ourselves to seek the reconciliation of sinners to God, by our exemplary lives in the home and workplaces, by our good deeds and kind acts, and by our persuasive sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ. By praying for the lost to know the Lord; by giving towards the church fund so that the church is resourced for outreach and missionary endeavours; and by getting enthusiastically involved in church programs that reaches out to the lost, we faithfully discharge these duties.

Lord Jesus, you came to earth to seek and save that which are lost. Embolden us to follow in your footsteps and engage in reconciling sinful people to God. Give us love to seek, courage to proclaim, and humility to lead people to You. Amen.

Christ’s Finished Work: Love of God

31 October 2022 blogpastor Leave a comment

The 1972’s revival, in my limited experience, was a revival of love. It was a crying revival, not a laughing revival (not that I have anything against holy laughter). It was a revival of tears – tears of contrition, and tears from being intensely flooded and overwhelmed by an outpouring of God’s love in the hearts of his children. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). This love is first God’s love for us, and in the recipients’ response, becomes their love for God. Revival is a love transfusion to the half-dead.

This love was made available only after Christ has completed his atonement on the cross and was raised from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father. “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). It is one of the many blessings of Christ’s finished work.

A love that grows

This love that we receive by the Spirit when we begin to follow Jesus is the starter kit. This love is not static. It is dynamic and it can grow richer and deeper or wax cold and fade. St Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus to experience and explore this love in greater measures and dimensions. He wanted the church to “have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3: 18,19). This not a conceptual, cognitive, head knowledge understanding of God’s love, but a love that is experienced in encounters with God, or in simple every day real life, where God’s action and presence is experienced.

A prayer experiment

When I was new to the faith, I prayed almost daily, St Paul’s prayer of Eph 3:14-19 for myself, for more than a month. I remember very intense and deep encounters with the Lord in prayer. I was baptized in God’s love a few times over. It felt like I was been washed and rinsed over and over in the cleansing waters of his presence and love. Why not pray this prayer and ask God for a broadening, heightening, deepening, and lengthening of your experience of his love? This is one prayer that God loves to answer. It will not be the same answer for everyone as it was for me. He knows what kind of experience each of us need. Try praying like this, and after a month, write in the comment box above, what you have experienced.

Transforming love

God’s love has the power to transform lives. Love casts out fear. Yet it constrains us towards discipleship and evangelism. It satisfies us and defines who we are as beloved children of God. We are not defined by what we own or have or possess. We are who we belong to, and who we are loved by. God’s love strips away the burden and yoke of having to meet people’s expectations of us, frees us from insecurities, worldly and fleshly desires and pursuits. It gives us hope and steadies us. I pray you will experience a growing love in these last days when the love of many Christians will grow cold.

Lord, thank you for the love of God that has been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Help me keep the fires going by gathering together with other believers in authentic relationships and God-honouring worship. Amen.

This is part of a planned series of writings on the topic, “The A to Z of Christ’s Finished Work”. I am writing it alphabet by alphabet Thus far the others that I have written can be found HERE.