Jesus Christ did it all! Great News! He left nothing undone (like kneeling on broken glass, doing penances for our sins, forcing ourselves to do something to please God and help pay for our sins, etc.). He solved the sin question forever. He didn't entrust this to anyone else except to His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. He did it all! He died as the payment for our sins! He wiped the slate clean. And on the third day He rose again, and then ascended back into heaven.
So over and over the scriptures tell us that It Is Finished! Jesus alone completed the work that He set out to do. Therefore there remains no more sacrifice for sin, for Jesus was the sin offering. Note, I say "was" because He paid the price to save us by going to the cross 2,000 years ago. The Father accepted His payment; and will only accept His work, as "Payment In Full" for our sins, and that His death is not effectual until the person believes wholly on Him.
So, spiritually speaking, It Is Finished! The work to save us has been completed. What this obviously means is that we either believe that the work that God did to save us and forgive us of our sins has been completed, or we don't and go about trying to establish our own saving works (with Jesus thrown in, here a little, there a little). That choice is ours! We're free to make it, and have always been free to make it. The choice that we make will either bring us the promise of our being forgiven of our sins through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, or we will remain in unbelief until the day we die.
I can hear someone say - "But who or what determines when and if a man is forgiven of sin and saved?" The answer is as simple as it is obvious...
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
YOU BECOME A NEW CREATURE! This "Miracle" happens when you receive Christ, and you'll know it the moment there is a "change" in you like this...
These are a few of the things that prove that you have passed from death to life!
One of the things about "Faith" is where you have nothing in you to repay God with. Otherwise faith would no longer be faith! All we can do is Accept His offering for our sins and thank Him for dying for... "ME"! Then to make our forgiveness of sins real and alive, we must repent of (turn away from) them, as we turn to God to help us.
If we are sincere here (God knows each heart) He will send us the Holy Spirit who will prepare a room (in our heart) for receiving the Son of the living God! And when He comes, all things become new!
When a person HEARS the Gospel and believes it (i.e. "Understands it") then it (their understanding of it) starts them on their way to having a new life in Christ. The moment they come to realize that He has died for them, and that there's nothing they can do to repay Him for it, is the same moment (because the Holy Spirit is fast at work in them) they reach out to Him to save them and receive Him as the Lord of their lives (and they as His servants forever), regardless of what that present and future cost may be in order to do so.
Only those who have seen Him as He really is (by the revelation of the Spirit), alive and seated in glory and in power, are the ones who will reach out to Him with their whole heart, mind and soul and become the "Good Ground" that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 13:23 that bears much fruit.
Now what about the ones who are still working to pay off the debt they owe God. Are they Saved? NO! If they were saved then they wouldn't be working to pay off their debt of sin owed God.
Doing so is nothing more than... Unbelief! It is precisely because they do not believe that Jesus has done it ALL where forgiving their sins is concerned once and for all, past, present, future. That's the Bottom Line! Simply by observing what they do will tell you what they believe! They consider it all "Foolishness" and they cannot know them anyway. Jesus said, "By their fruits shall you know them!" Here the fruit of their Unbelief is self-evident and reeks to high heaven! Their only chance is to HEAR and respond to the Gospel of Grace through faith in the Son of the living God!
Until each of us have been Born Again, through a new and living way (i.e. through Christ), and end up being a New Creature in Christ, where all things become brand spanking new, then we have nothing, and outside of Christ we are nothing! And all those who have been Born Again say...
- You love Christ and deem Him most precious now as you never believed possible and want to live for Him, no matter what the costs, because you have received the promised Holy Spirit!
- You have inside of you a hunger and thirst for the word and The Word that was never there before!
- All things have become new to you (because now you are in Christ and He is in you), proving that the old, dead you (who and what you were before the operation of Grace in you) has passed away!
- You know Christ now as never before. He is alive and real and full of victory and glory, and you want to witness Him to others and tell them the Good News too!
- You now abhor your sins because you've come to realize that they were sins of unbelief and sins against God, the One you now deem most precious and love above all!
- You come to see that in yourself (i.e. in your flesh) is no good thing (nothing that will please God) - you see that only Christ and who's and what's in Him is Good and worthy of your all!
However, as long as a person feels that they must repay God and/or pay for their sins, then they don't know Him nor do they give Him alone the credit for what He's done. That is how deadly and blasphemous it is to die without Christ while going around trying to establish your own righteousness.
And when you know that your whole life (along with your new clarity of thinking - your new and resolute will - and your newfound love in your heart) has become changed and made anew by God, and you now know Him as never before possible (In Spirit and in Truth!), is the very moment you'll know that you have been delivered from the power of darkness, and have been translated into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13)
Simply put, they wouldn't be involved in doing penances for their sins, nor praying to Mary or the Saints or saying rosaries for their sins and for the sins of others, nor would they be involved in any of a million and one religious "duties" where they want to believe they can help God pay for their sins!
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Biff & Suzanne
