Hi Mungo
If you've been reading my follow up posts you will see that I have explained my position, however. But for your pleasure, I will do so again and with a bit more depth. Here goes:
There was a day in which God called a man by the name of Abram of Ur and made a number of commitments to him, for Abram's faithfulness. He told Abram, and I'll go now with Abraham, that He, God, would make his descendants into a great nation. A people that would eventually be innumerable. So, for the next thousand years or so, God worked through the future descendants of Abraham and raised them up to be just such a nation. But there was a purpose for God having stopped to call Abraham in the first place. God had a plan and purpose for working through Abraham and his descendants that would culminate in what God had promised to Adam and Eve. That one would come who would crush the head of the Serpent.
Throughout those thousand or so years, God also sprinkled liberally throughout His Scriptures, His revelation of Himself to us, His created, prophecies concerning this coming Messiah, Anointed One. God honored Daniel with a particularly spectacular prophecy that told us the exact time that the Anointed One would be with us. God's word tells us that this Anointed One would be born of a virgin and that his birth would be Bethlehem. That he would be God's servant and not a smoldering wick or a swaying reed would he harm. Jesus even read to the people gathered in the synagogue on one particular day the prophecy of Isaiah's writing that spoke of him and declared before all of them that they were witnessing the fulfillment of that prophecy before their very eyes.
All of this came to pass because one day God called a man by the name of Abram of Ur, and made a number of promises to him as to his future descendants and their responsibility in doing God's bidding upon the earth. Finally, after the Scriptures were written that foretold of how we would know God's Anointed One...Jesus came to us. He was born in Bethlehem of a virgin woman. He did go down into Egypt where God then called him to return to His people. He did preach the righteousness of God and healed the lame and the blind and deaf. He did arrive in Jerusalem at exactly the time that Daniel's writings foretold that he would. He was hung on a cross with the dogs baying at his heels. He did give his life as the blood sacrifice required for our sin.
All of that was laid out throughout the old covenant Scriptures as God's 'plan' of salvation that He had been telling us about since the days of Adam's sin in the garden. It was a perfect plan that only God could accomplish because only God could raise up a servant who would be that sinless sacrifice. On the day that Jesus gave up his last breath on this earth, he looked up to his Father and proclaimed to Him, "It is finished!" When Jesus died on that cross that day on a hillside called Golgotha, he completed the plan of salvation that God had begun on the day that He called Abram of Ur. He even used His own people, although they were clueless that they were being used in the hands of a mighty God, to accomplish the task, just as Daniel had also told us would be the case.
That is what was finished. God's great plan of salvation. Today we live in the days of God's mercy and grace, as the new covenant writings tell us. Where the servant's sacrifice, that was too great to only be of value to the Jew, was laid out before the whole world as their only way of salvation. God then used the disciples of His Son to continue to carry on that message and to work in building, with Jesus and the Spirit, the church, the gathering of those called out by the gospel. The body of those who would believe God's great message. Today, as Peter writes to us, God is sitting back being patient with us and allowing all who will to come to the knowledge of God's salvation. But the plan of God's 'way' of salvation was 'finished' on that hillside in Jerusalem called Golgotha.
Hopefully that answers any questions that you might have. Now, I'm fully able to accept that some might not agree with my understanding, but then the question must be asked, "What did Jesus mean when he looked up to his Father and said, 'It is finished!'" What is your explanation for those words that Jesus spoke? I'm perfectly happy and willing to read, and prayerfully study, your position on the matter.
God bless,
Ted
Evidence? You mean is there a sentence in the Scriptures where we are told that Jesus' words as he died upon the cross as to 'something' being 'finished' was saying that God's great plan of salvation was finished? No, but then there are very, very few places in the Scriptures where God gives some secondary explanation for something found written in the Scriptures. I know that Jesus did, on one or two occasions, sit down with his disciples and explain something that he had previously said, but that's really about it.
If you've been reading my follow up posts you will see that I have explained my position, however. But for your pleasure, I will do so again and with a bit more depth. Here goes:
There was a day in which God called a man by the name of Abram of Ur and made a number of commitments to him, for Abram's faithfulness. He told Abram, and I'll go now with Abraham, that He, God, would make his descendants into a great nation. A people that would eventually be innumerable. So, for the next thousand years or so, God worked through the future descendants of Abraham and raised them up to be just such a nation. But there was a purpose for God having stopped to call Abraham in the first place. God had a plan and purpose for working through Abraham and his descendants that would culminate in what God had promised to Adam and Eve. That one would come who would crush the head of the Serpent.
Throughout those thousand or so years, God also sprinkled liberally throughout His Scriptures, His revelation of Himself to us, His created, prophecies concerning this coming Messiah, Anointed One. God honored Daniel with a particularly spectacular prophecy that told us the exact time that the Anointed One would be with us. God's word tells us that this Anointed One would be born of a virgin and that his birth would be Bethlehem. That he would be God's servant and not a smoldering wick or a swaying reed would he harm. Jesus even read to the people gathered in the synagogue on one particular day the prophecy of Isaiah's writing that spoke of him and declared before all of them that they were witnessing the fulfillment of that prophecy before their very eyes.
All of this came to pass because one day God called a man by the name of Abram of Ur, and made a number of promises to him as to his future descendants and their responsibility in doing God's bidding upon the earth. Finally, after the Scriptures were written that foretold of how we would know God's Anointed One...Jesus came to us. He was born in Bethlehem of a virgin woman. He did go down into Egypt where God then called him to return to His people. He did preach the righteousness of God and healed the lame and the blind and deaf. He did arrive in Jerusalem at exactly the time that Daniel's writings foretold that he would. He was hung on a cross with the dogs baying at his heels. He did give his life as the blood sacrifice required for our sin.
All of that was laid out throughout the old covenant Scriptures as God's 'plan' of salvation that He had been telling us about since the days of Adam's sin in the garden. It was a perfect plan that only God could accomplish because only God could raise up a servant who would be that sinless sacrifice. On the day that Jesus gave up his last breath on this earth, he looked up to his Father and proclaimed to Him, "It is finished!" When Jesus died on that cross that day on a hillside called Golgotha, he completed the plan of salvation that God had begun on the day that He called Abram of Ur. He even used His own people, although they were clueless that they were being used in the hands of a mighty God, to accomplish the task, just as Daniel had also told us would be the case.
That is what was finished. God's great plan of salvation. Today we live in the days of God's mercy and grace, as the new covenant writings tell us. Where the servant's sacrifice, that was too great to only be of value to the Jew, was laid out before the whole world as their only way of salvation. God then used the disciples of His Son to continue to carry on that message and to work in building, with Jesus and the Spirit, the church, the gathering of those called out by the gospel. The body of those who would believe God's great message. Today, as Peter writes to us, God is sitting back being patient with us and allowing all who will to come to the knowledge of God's salvation. But the plan of God's 'way' of salvation was 'finished' on that hillside in Jerusalem called Golgotha.
Hopefully that answers any questions that you might have. Now, I'm fully able to accept that some might not agree with my understanding, but then the question must be asked, "What did Jesus mean when he looked up to his Father and said, 'It is finished!'" What is your explanation for those words that Jesus spoke? I'm perfectly happy and willing to read, and prayerfully study, your position on the matter.
God bless,
Ted
