John 19:30 Jesus said: “It is finished!”
Tullian Tchividjian tells the story of his friend’s daughter, Robin, who desperately wanted to avoid an English literature class for fear of failure. She cried before her seasoned teacher, who looked at her and said: “Robin, I know how you feel. What if I promised you an ‘A’ no matter what you did in the class? If I gave you an ‘A’ before you even started, would you be willing to take the class?” Robin replied through her tears: “Well, I think I could do that.” The teacher said: “I’m going to give you an ‘A’ in the class. You already have an ‘A’, so you can go to class.” Later the teacher explained what she had done. She explained how she took away the threat of a bad grade so that Robin could learn English literature. Robin ended up making straight ‘A’s on her own in that class.
Tchividjian concludes: “That’s how God deals with us. Because of Christ’s finished work, Christians already have an ‘A’. The threat of failure, judgment, and condemnation has been removed. We’re in – forever! Nothing we do will make our grade better, and nothing we do will make our grade worse. In his life, by his death, and with his resurrection, Christ our substitute secured for us the everything, the ‘A’, that we come into this world longing for and yet are incapable of securing for ourselves. All the pardon, the approval, the purpose, the freedom, the rescue, the meaning, the righteousness, the cleansing, the significance, the worth, and the affection we crave and need are already ours in Christ. We don’t need to add anything to it. The operative power that makes you a Christian is the same operative power that keeps you a Christian: the unconditional, unqualified, undeserved, unrestrained grace of God in the completed work of Christ. As I said, the banner under which Christians live reads, “It is finished.” So relax, and rejoice. Jesus plus nothing equals everything; everything minus Jesus equals nothing. You’re free!”
Reflect on the above – just beautiful!
Lord, I choose to live free today. Amen!
Leave a Reply