Tag: Christ’s finished work

Christ’s Finished Work: Yes and Amen

11 January 2024 blogpastor Leave a comment

The death and resurrection of Christ were foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. Alfred Edersheim found 456 Old Testament verses referring to the Messiah. J. Barton Payne found 574 verses describing Jesus’ coming. Conservatively Jesus coming and finished work fulfilled at least 300 prophecies about him. It demonstrates irrefutably that God keeps his promises. God is faithful. This is proven when Christ was born, lived a sinless life, died, rose again and ascended to the Father’s right hand. No wonder the apostle Paul could write to the Corinth church: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20). This verse highlights the faithfulness of God’s promises and their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Every promise God has made finds its affirmation and fulfilment in Jesus. In response, we glorify God by acknowledging and affirming these promises with our “Amen”.

The finished work of Christ is proof of God’s faithfulness

Since the death and resurrection of Christ confirmed, manifested, and established God’s faithfulness in keeping the promises that he made hundreds of years before Christ came, we can be doubly assured that he will keep all the other promises he has made about the present and future. All of the promises of God are “Yes”. They are guaranteed, are 100% fool-proof, and we should be agreeing and rejoicing with these statements with a resounding, heartfelt “Amen!” (which means “so be it” or “let it be so”). This is indeed a wide-ranging blessing springing forth from the finished work of Christ.

Just as the sun rises every morning without fail, so are God’s promises unfailing. We can trust in his promises with the same certainty that we expect the sun to rise each day. We see God keeping his promises in many of the events and stories narrated in the Bible. One well-known story is God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants. Even though Abraham and Sarah were old and childless, God fulfilled his promise by giving them Isaac. God’s promises are dependable even when they seem impossible to human logic, and they sometimes require faith and patience to await their fulfilment.

A well-known example of someone who tested God’s faithfulness is George Muller. He ran orphanages in 19^th century England. He never made known the needs of the orphanages nor asked for financial support from anyone. Instead, he wanted to test God’s faithfulness and show the sceptical world that God is real and will provide for all the needs of the orphans. Time and again, he trusted God’s promises and prayed, and the financial and food needs of the orphanages were met through unexpected means. This shows that God’s promises are “Yes” in Christ even in this day and age.

Confidence in times of doubt and difficulties

Knowing that God’s promises are “Yes” in Christ should fill us with confidence. In times of doubt or struggle, we can lean on His promises and find strength. For example, in moments of anxiety and fear, we can recall the promise that we read in Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and let it bring us peace. Or we can recall God’s promise in Philippians 4:6,7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. We believe these promises and we bring them to God in prayer and end with a firm “Amen”, which means “let it be so”. When we experience the fulfilment of the promises we pray over, we can boldly and happily share our stories with others and so glorify our Father in heaven.

Wide-ranging implication

The implication is that all the promises from the lips of our dear Master about prayer, the Holy Spirit, the abundant life, his coming again, our resurrection from the dead, the end of this age, our eternal home in the new heaven and new earth will be fulfilled because God has already proven that he always keeps his promises. What a great bonus it is that by believing God’s promises we can experience the fulness of all that God has for us. We can grow in faith, hope and love and join God in his fulfilling mission. No matter what trials, difficulties and challenges life throws at us we can rely on the God whose promises to us are “Yes” in Christ. To this, we shout and glorify God from the rooftops with a loud “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.

Christ’s Finished Work: X Factor

6 January 2024 blogpastor Leave a comment

Everyone has heard of the popular X Factor programme created by Simon Cowell, where contestants with musical talents compete with each other to win over judges and TV audiences who vote online. The winner is the one with the X factor (an outstanding special talent or quality) and receives the prize of a record contract.

The X-factor in Peter and John

In a way, the “X factor” was involved in the confrontation between the Jewish religious council and Peter and John in the wake of the remarkable healing of a man lame from birth (Acts 4). The council questioned the authority of Peter and John to perform that miracle. In their answer, Peter and John pointed out that it was not they, but Jesus, whom the leaders had crucified, that had healed the lame man. The educated and powerful council observed and noticed the calm authority and boldness of Peter and John. They closely resembled Jesus. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 ESV) The disciples had lived with Jesus 24/7 for about three years and had observed and imbibed his teachings, absorbed his attitude and imitated his actions. This was the “X factor” that stunned the religious council.

Christ’s finished work and X-factor

Today, through Christ’s death and resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit in our hearts, Christ lives in us. His presence, power and purpose permeate our being and change us from one degree of glory to another. We are being transformed into his likeness and image by the Spirit who dwells in us. It is written in 2 Cor 3:18: “And we all with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The Spirit begins a process of shaping our inner life so that it conforms to the values, character and mission of Jesus. It is a lifelong transformative journey that begins at conversion and leads us to maturity. How does this work?

Practices to predispose ourselves to receive grace

The transformative journey is aided by positioning ourselves to receive God’s grace through various spiritual disciplines:

Receiving God’s Word: Reading and studying the Bible to grasp the meta-narrative and understand who God is and what he has been doing throughout salvation history. Slow meditation of shorter passages and verses that we feel drawn to, allows the Spirit to illuminate, inspire, and create the desire for change in our lives. A renewal of the mind is essential. Romans 12:2 highlights this. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This means allowing the truths, beliefs, values, and perspectives of the Bible to uproot our deeply embedded old patterns of thought and values.

Faith-sharing in a community: Be part of a group that provides a safe space for honest sharing of the ups and downs of life, nurtures faithful prayer for one another, and loving commitment to serve one another. It is also in the community that we nurture qualities and attitudes that reflect Christ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23).

Regular reflection: Short pauses daily or weekly to reflect on the significant events, conversations, and experiences that affected you positively or negatively in the past day or week. We give thanks for the blessings, whether small or big, for in them we notice God’s love. We pray about those painful and unhappy moments that impacted us negatively and ask God to show us how he is present and how we can grow through that experience.

Loving service: Start loving people and doing things to serve them. We join God in his mission to embrace the world with his love. Gradually, we will discover our passion, giftings, and callings.

Prayer: This is a life-long journey of learning to trust and depend on God for everything. We first need to realize how spiritually impoverished and bankrupt we are. Jesus told his disciples in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Once we realize this, prayer begins.

Church calendar: The church calendar marks all the significant events in the life of Christ and the church: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday and Easter, and Pentecost. It provides a rhythm, structure and framework for the spiritual formation of the church. By participating and meditating on the themes and rituals suggested by each, we learn different aspects of Christ and his finished work and embed kingdom values into our lives. By revisiting the same stories and themes with fresh eyes each year, we experience afresh God’s loving embrace and deepen our faith in God.

All these ways help us to predispose ourselves to God’s grace and facilitate the Spirit’s formation of our faith and growth in Christ-likeness.

Christ’s Finished Work: Worship

29 December 2023 blogpastor Leave a comment

I remember that in the days of paper dictionaries the words before and after “worship” were “worse” and “worst” respectively. Worship keeps the “worse” from getting to the “worst”!

Worship under the old and new covenant

Worship of God under the old covenant was a tedious, costly and bloody affair. The bull, sheep, or goat had to be taken to the priests for checks. They had to be without defects to be accepted. Those who could not afford such costly sacrifices could offer doves instead. Once they pass the checks, the worshipper will kill the sacrificial animal and the priest will offer the best parts, or all the parts on the altar fire to be burnt as an offering to God to atone for the worshipper’s sins. The innocent life of the animal sacrifices paid for and covered the sins of the worshipper. Under the new covenant, animal sacrifices are no longer needed as Christ became the ultimate and sinless Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the cross to take away the sins of the world.

Under the old covenant, during the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place once a year with the blood from two sin offerings. The blood of a bull is atonement for his sins. The blood of a goat is for the sins of the nation of Israel. In this way, he made atonement for himself and the sins of Israel. He did this year after year. This annual ceremony pointed to a future coming of the Messiah who would be both the greater high priest and sacrifice.

Under the new covenant, we have a better high priest and a better sacrifice. Jesus himself was the ultimate High Priest and the ultimate Sacrifice. Hebrews 9:12 describes this finished work of Christ: “he did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” It was a once for all sacrifice that obtained our eternal redemption. It meant all our sins were forgiven and we have right standing with God and continual access to him. We do not worship to attain peace with God or right standing before God. Instead, right standing and peace with God have been achieved for us who put our faith in Christ. Our worship is therefore a grateful response to the finished work of Christ that secured our salvation.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy (Christ’s finished work), to offer your bodies (instead of animal sacrifices) as a living sacrifice (instead of dead animal sacrifices), holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1 NIV– my comments bracketed)

True and proper worship springs from Christ’s death and resurrection. We do not worship to obtain favours from God. It is a grateful thankfulness that Christ has already obtained and earned salvation for us. It is not mainly singing songs of praise to God and thanking him in a worship service or private prayer. These are important but one of many expressions of gratitude to God. In essence, worship has to do with fully surrendering our whole lives to God. We live our lives in gratitude and surrender and this pleases God. The process of surrender takes time as we let God renew our minds and transform our whole selves (all that we are and have). When I allow God to rule my life more and more in all that I do, be it studying, serving National Service, working in the marketplace, raising a family, or serving among God’s people, I am a true worshipper.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and his worshipers must worship in Spirit and truth” (John 4:23,24 NIV). When the good news of Jesus’ finished work is preached and people respond in faith to the message, they are born again by the Holy Spirit and will be able to worship in the Spirit as they ponder over the wonderful truths of salvation. Without the finished work of Christ, there is no true worship! Without worship, our life moves from “worse” to “worst”.

Prayer

Dear Father, thank you for sending your Son as our High Priest and ultimate sacrifice so that our sins can forever be dealt with and we can then worship you with gratitude and surrender. Empower us to live our lives more and more fully in this path of pleasing you. Amen.