I was listening to a radio preacher the other day, and she seemed to be trying to explain things that were accomplished and completed in the name of the Lord, while admitting that those same things must still be dealt with.
She said that Satan was defeated at the cross, but doesn’t know it yet. Really? I thought defeated meant that he had no more power, was no longer a threat. The message from pulpits across the country is that we still struggle against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” It sounds more like Satan will be defeated, but doesn’t believe it yet.
She went on to say that our sins were nailed to the cross, but she admitted that we still struggle with them. I suppose she was referring to the teaching that the cross (the finished work of Christ) provided complete forgiveness for our sins, even though we still sin. I believe that Christ died while bringing God’s message of love to us. However, God wants us to stop sinning, and no amount of forgiveness is going to change that. Discipline will.
The radio preacher then tried to illustrate her point by saying that God gave the promised land to the Israelites, but that they had to go in and take it. So basically God was saying, “I don’t care much for those people in Canaan; they don’t believe in me, and they’re sinning like crazy. So I want you to go in and kill every man, woman, child and animal. That’ll show ‘em! Plus you get free land — after you dispose of all of those carcasses.” No comment.
Jesus finished what he was sent to do, because he was in complete obedience to his Father. We, on the other hand, are still an unfinished work. Jesus us taught us how to live, and assured us that what we call death is not really the end.
And why are we so concerned about being “finished” anyway? Jesus’ prayer for us was that we would recognize the fact that true eternal life is to know God as the only true God, and that God sent his Son to us. (John 17:3)
With this process there is no timeline. We need only trust in Christ, who is the “author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)
And obey.
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