It is finished...again!

Have you ever needed to hear something over and over and over. Or, have you not realized you need to hear something but you did, over and over and over? I think this has happened to me recently. I have been involved in a study for the past several months on Jesus in Genesis. It is a fascinating study to see Christ in Noah, Abraham, Joseph and others. To see the parallels between Joseph's life leading to his being seated at the right-hand of Pharaoh and Christ's life leading to his being seated at the right hand of God.

But enough about that. Let me get back to my point. What I have been exposed to over and over and over is the Gospel. For the longest time I thought the Gospel was something "the lost" needed to be exposed to so they could "get saved" and move on with their lives. I thought the Gospel was something that an evangelist needed to focus his efforts on and those of us Believers needed to worry about more important things. How wrong I was, how arrogant I was, how flat out ignorant was I to believe this!

I truly believe that if we are looking for it we can see the Gospel everywhere in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Every book shows us the Good News. At the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus the Jews were in bondage to Egypt much like we are in bondage to sin. The Jews were helpless, they did not have an army, they did not have weapons and they did not have a military ruler. They were hopeless and helpless much like us outside of Christ.

Colossians 2: 13 - When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature...

Ephesians 2: 1-3 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind...

I don't know about you but I have never seen a dead person do anything and this is how we are described.

However, what the Jews did have was a God who saw their need, a God who stepped into their situation and rescued them. Israel had nothing to do with being released from Egypt. God brought them out, God parted the sea and allowed them to cross over on dry land, God closed the sea and destroyed the army of Egypt. God provided manna. God did not allow their sandals to wear out as they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness.

This is exactly what he did for us. Let me share the rest of the verses above to show what God did for us.

Colossians 2: 13 - When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins

Ephesians 2: 1-5 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

God stepped in and made us alive, he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. This is Good News, this is the Gospel and I need to hear this over and over and over. The life I/we now live should not be a life of do more, work more or try harder. The life we now live should be a life of resting more in the finished work of Christ.  The three most beautiful words spoken were from Christ's mouth as he was hanging on the cross - "It is finished." He did it all, he did what I could not do, he paid the price I could not pay.  God help us not to miss this.