thrive community

Grace. What a powerful word. It’s even more powerful to those who understand the depth of its meaning from personal experience. The great exchange where weary souls can finally rest.

It is finished. Three beautiful words. They, too are words of rest but are also words of beauty that, once understood, will release joy and worship. The great exchange where weary souls are finally free.

Rest and freedom are the fruit of a life that understands the “good news” that Jesus spoke of. For some reason, the fruit of the “good news” in most churches actually looks like bad news. I know the words are spoken the same, but the end result in their parishioners lives looks nothing like rest and freedom.

You see, most people who profess to follow Jesus are not really free. There is an unconscious enslavement to a lifestyle of “proving their worthiness to God” and have yet to realize they don’t need to anymore.

What we don’t realize is that God is more excited about this idea than we are (Eph. 1:5). Yet our tendency is to keep working to get His “thumbs up” for our inferior attempts so that, by some means, we can get Him to like us more. We are enamored and distracted by our own efforts, hoping they will draw God’s favorable attention, all the while He’s trying to get our attention by pointing to the cross.

What we have here is a failure to communicate, and I don’t think God is the one who needs a better hearing aid on this one.

There is one main issue we continually fail to get through our juvenile brains and self-righteous hearts. We already have full acceptance and approval from God right now, not because of what we have done to earn it but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. This “new way” of relating to God through Jesus and His finished work on the cross is really good news if we’ll pay close attention.

“It is finished” means that the task is completed (John 19:30). There is no more need to perform for God to get His approval. God has approved the work Jesus has completed for us. God has fully and effectively finalized any needed effort to work for His love and no more penance for sin needs to be done on anyone’s part because Jesus is the final sacrifice for all sin. Period! (Heb. 10:12) (Rom. 5:9)(1 Thess. 5:9).

Because of Jesus and what He has accomplished for us through the cross, God has opened up a whole new perspective for everyone involved. We were once seen as unholy and blamed for being sinful, but now, through Jesus, we are seen by God as holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:3-5). Jesus’ work has satisfied God and justified us before Him (Rom. 5:1). God is not mad at us anymore (Rom. 5:9). Can I get an “amen” from somebody?

Our alienation from God because of sin has been overcome by the finished work of Jesus. We’ve been brought near to God, not because we did anything to bridge the gap, but because Jesus has redeemed us and brought us home. We can stand firm in His love for us and can hold our heads high in celebration of God’s grace as His children, whole and unashamed (Col. 1:21-23).

This new relationship allows you and I the opportunity to quit trying to “become worthy” and rest in the fact that we “are worthy” because Jesus made us so (2 Cor. 5:21). Those who will be audacious enough to actually believe God at His Word and end the “religious approval” game continually played by “gospel deceived” Christianity will discover an amazing, supernatural rest that can only come from being at peace with God (Heb. 4:1-2).

Freedom is found in abundance when the liberating truth of what Jesus came to deliver takes root in us (Gal. 5:1). It is a freedom that will release the soul, not to attempt “living without Him” but to make “living about Him”, for the life here on earth and the life to come (Heb. 9:15). On this side of the cross, we get to obey God, not to gain His love, but out of love for what He has already done for us. Now we can live to serve His mission and the world around us, not out of duty but because we are delighted in being His children and want everyone to know the peace that comes from being the beneficiary of God’s grace (2 Cor. 9:8).

If you are not free and at rest, then you don’t believe it’s really finished. It’s that simple.

May you find the grace to believe God and what He’s finished for you, so that you may enter into the freedom and rest that is a worthy representation of the “good news” Jesus delivered.

I look forward to hearing what you think.