No Need For Additions
Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:30
Most Christians begin well, but finishing well—or even at all—is another matter entirely.
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Jesus was a finisher. He completed the work of redemption that he came to accomplish. He left nothing undone.
In the closing hours of his life he could pray to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).
John Flavel shares this thought on the completed work of Christ.
WALK WITH JOHN FLAVEL
“Did Christ finish his work? How dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ, in pursuit of justification before God! Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon his work dishonorably. He will be all, or none, in our justification.
“If he has finished the work, what need is there of our additions? And if not, to what purpose are they? Can we finish that which Christ himself could not complete?
“Did he finish the work, and will he ever divide the glory and praise of it with us? No, no; Christ is no half-Savior.
“It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ for righteousness. God humbles the proud by calling sinners wholly from their own righteousness to Christ for their justification.”
WALK CLOSER TO GOD
If these thoughts from the apostle Paul are the expression of your heart, pray them back to God
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death … I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10,13-14).
