This morning I want us to think about something.
It is common for us to set our selves goals and targets. Things we want to achieve today, this week or even in the next few years.
Sometimes we have lifetime ambitions or the kind of things we would put on a bucket list of things we feel we have (or want) to achieve before we die.
And we can often translate this performance element into our spiritual lives.
There can be a subtle sense of anxiety attached to our walk with God, or our approach to holiness.
Many of us simply want to break out of sin/confess cycles. But the words of Jesus, here in Revelation, of the completion of the age and the finishing of time, echo his words on the Cross from John 19.
When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
These words are well visited, especially if you are of the evangelical persuasion. I want to reiterate them.
There is nothing you can do to add to the finished work of the cross.
The price is paid in full.
The debt is clear.
You do not need to earn forgiveness, to come into a relationship with God.
In Jesus, all the requirements are met.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, that in him we might become the very righteousness of God.
This is the outrageousness of grace and the beauty of the divine exchange.
It is not only 'just as if I've never sinned '....
It is also, by God's grace, 'just as if I have always obeyed'.
That is the extent to which Jesus work is finished.
But it is an affront to our pride.
We often want to earn our value.
But the transformative power of grace means that understanding we ARE loved helps us act like we are loved.
Jesus said, 'my yoke is easy and my burden is light'.
It is easy because he has done all the work.
It is light because it is a pleasure to reciprocate the love that Jesus has shown us, from grateful and thankful hearts.
It is done.
That gives you the freedom to not strive, but to be still and know that he is God
This day,
And all days,
Amen.
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