"You can't work hard enough to 'be holy' or to become holy. Holy is a by-product of receiving and agreeing with our 'complete' status in Christ--holy being a 'condition' not an activity." -Scott Schang, The Rhema Code.
How often do we spend our energy trying to make ourselves into what we already are? Can we add to what Christ has already done on our behalf? Did his sacrifice fall short of redeeming us, leaving us with the responsibility to finish what he was obviously unable to accomplish? Do we really have such a low regard for his death and resurrection?
I, for one, want to live every moment of every day out of the reality He purchased for me. And if I do stumble, I know it was a case of my living a false reality, not a matter of me being incomplete.
I am reminded of Abraham and Isaac. A sacrifice needed to be made, but before Abraham could sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him and provided a ram for the sacrifice. So Isaac climbed down off the altar and Abraham sacrificed the ram. But how disturbingly wrong would it have been for Isaac (having already been saved from the sacrifice) if he had then jumped into the fire with the ram which had been given in his place! My point is this, what good is a substitutionary sacrifice if we feel we need to jump into the flames with it?
Jesus was our substitutionary lamb, and He took all judgment and condemnation upon Himself on the cross. We have no right to subject ourselves to the fires of self-judgment and condemnation.
When Jesus said, "It is finished" He was telling the truth.
So are we going to live out of his finished work? Or are we going to live a false reality, trying to make ourselves into what we are already are?
I know who I am. I am his. And I am going to live out of the reality of his finished work.
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