6.1 It Is Finished
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit (John 19:28-30).
All things are now accomplished. – It is finished. At no point would we ever limit these words or box them in by any human understanding. In regard to every question of our reality, we take these words as absolute and all-embracing. We do that, because these words contain no limit inside of God. They are infinite in their totality.
God’s Pro-Knowing. You must now consider the ruling verse of the Bible in order to understand how “It is finished” fits inside of God in His Being and then, how it works in your own life.
These who are summoned out from God’s Pro-knowing, knowing God’s knowing of them, God Pro-Determined them, with all the passion of His Being, to be symmorphosed with, merged together with, sharing one form with the image of His Son, the revelation of Father, into the reality of Christ Jesus being the firstborn among and in many brethren, the first one of our kind (Romans 8:29 – expanded).
The only real substance is that which God knows inside Himself, inside the story He tells Himself about Himself, an infinite number of infinite numbers of specific thoughts.
God’s Thoughts. David said that God’s thoughts concerning you are more than you could count (Psalm 139). And God’s thoughts inside Himself, inside His own story, concerning you, though unending, are just one set of an infinite number of infinite thoughts.
And all those thoughts are goodness.
Paul said it this way: I will know as I am known (1 Corinthians 13). In other words, “I will know God’s knowing of me.” And God’s thoughts concerning you do not “rule over” you, for God is not arrogant. Rather, your life is an unfolding of the knowledge of God showing itself as you.
Already Glorified. Then Paul gives us the rule regarding all of God’s thoughts towards each one of us inside Himself.
Even more than that, those whom God has seized in His Pro-Determination, God also first called them [out from His Pro-Knowing]; and those whom God called, God also first justified them, placing them into incorruptible sinlessness, that is, into Christ; and even more than that, those whom God justified and made pure and holy, God has also already glorified them, placing them out into His creation as His image and likeness, God revealed through them now (Romans 8:30 – Expanded).
You, dear reader, are already glorified in all the glory of Jesus inside of the knowing of God.
Word Already Complete. Let’s give an example of a simple word coming out from God concerning you, that it is already finished inside of God. Be perfect, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
Those remaining in the rebellion of Adam hear a word like this in one of two interconnected ways. Either, “I will perform this word,” or, “I can’t do anything like that, so let’s throw it out.” But you see this word as Christ entering into you, and so you respond with “Let it be to me according to Your word.” And then you KNOW that every Word God speaks is already finished inside of our Father. Thus, we rejoice in all confidence that this word is already complete inside of us.
Already Perfected. By [God’s] desire, we are already made holy [belonging only to God] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. – This One, moreover, having offered one unbroken [bearing of all sin] sacrifice for sins, sat down inside of the right hand of God; from now on waiting expectantly for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering, He has already perfected those who are continuously being made holy [by God] (Hebrews 10:10 & 12-14).
The sacrifice of Jesus did not “change” God’s thoughts towards you, for God is unchangeable. Rather, the sacrifice of Jesus is for you, enabling you to know what is already true. The sacrifice of Jesus is your passage out from not knowing into knowing God’s complete and perfect knowing of you.
Placed into Christ. Now, Paul said in Romans 8:30 that God has already fully justified you inside of Himself. God did that by placing you into Christ. But you cannot know what that means until you give up on being able to please God.
The first three chapters of Romans are Paul’s attempt to persuade you and me just how lost we are and just how much we cannot redeem or save or change ourselves. Then Paul says this. Indeed all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God—being justified, made pure and righteous, utterly without sin or any falling short of God, by His grace and favor through the redemption that is inside of Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as the Mercy Seat through faith inside of His blood (Romans 3:23-25).
Inside of Christ Jesus. Because you are incapable of fixing yourself, God has placed you into Christ. Out of Him [out of God – out of His Pro-Knowing], moreover, you are inside of Christ Jesus, who has become as us wisdom from God and righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). You see, Jesus said in John 17 that you belonged to God, inside His own thoughts, before God ever gave you to Jesus.
You can see that if we were to try to fix ourselves, we would have no place for God’s knowing of us to come into us through our faith. It’s not that God’s knowing of us would not be true; it’s that we could not know it. And you are made complete, already brought to full maturity and perfection, inside of Christ (Colossians 2:19).
Already Just Like Jesus. As far as God is concerned, the only thing He knows is that you are already just like Jesus in all completion right now. And God made you weak, just as He made Jesus weak – of Myself I can do nothing (John 5). That’s why He embedded you entirely inside of His love, that you would no longer worry about your human inabilities designed by God for glory.
By placing all that you are into Christ, God placed you into sinless perfection, that is, Jesus. Yet you are also free in Christ, for God places no one under obligation. You are free to live in God’s knowledge of you as your own story of self OR you are free to continue in your own made-up story of always falling short of God.
The same two options are before you as were before Adam.
Two Options.
Option 1: Jesus alone is my connection with God; He is God speaking me out from Himself and inside of me. Jesus’ story is my story, and my story, including all my failure, is His. I rest utterly inside of Him; Jesus is fully responsible for me. I, as I find myself to be, am only what God already knows coming into me as the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfills all that God speaks in all that is me.
Option 2: Jesus did something for me way back when; now it’s my turn to prove myself before God. I am responsible for myself; it’s up to me to “obey.” Yet I am always falling short; yet I will try again. Yet I fall short. Yet I try again. Yet I fall short. Someday, God’s word will be true, someday.
Option 2 is for those who prefer to boast in their flesh before God, even though they have nothing to boast about.
See Jesus Alone. But you are not of Option 2, for even your choice of where to live in your own story of self is coming, every moment, out of the One who lives in your heart. Believe in Him.
And so Paul said, [I am] persuaded of this, that the [One] having begun a good work inside of you, will complete and accomplish [that work] until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). And the writer of Hebrews said, Looking into Jesus, the source and the completion of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Or as God said to Moses, “Stand still and SEE the Salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13). To “see Jesus” means to know with all certainty that what God speaks into you IS the only thing true.
Believe in Jesus. The exceeding greatness of His power penetrating with purpose into us who believe, down to the finest details of the energeia of the dominion of His ability to subdue which He energeoed in Christ when He raised Him out from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20 – expanded). The word energeia/energeo is one of the most incredible words in the New Testament. It is a description of the life energy, the continuous swirling action that is Jesus living inside your heart, causing you to be all that God already knows inside Himself regarding you.
You cannot be “fallen short of God.” Such a condition cannot exist. It is finished. You are already complete inside of Christ; Christ already performs all that God speaks inside of you.
Believe in Jesus.