Why did Jesus’ death change everything forever? What did He mean when He said, “It is finished?”
Well, the answer glimmers all through scripture, but it’s packaged precisely in Romans 1:17, where the apostle Paul writes, “For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, 'the righteous will live by faith.' For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed.”
Well, from the outside, it doesn’t seem like much, that a Man died on a cross. I’ve heard the Gospel likened to a jalapeño pepper; it looks cold on the outside but when you bite into it, it will burn like no tomorrow. Ingest the Gospel, understand it down to the core of your being and it will burn its way down to every fiber of your being and have an impact on everything that you do and every decision that you make. How you spend your money. How you treat your wife. How you treat your ex-wife. How you discipline your children. Everything you do, this Man’s death on the cross wants to touch. Why? How?
If you understand the Gospel, and you really absorb it and you are taken to the emotional and psychological, the ontological cleaners with it, you can’t help but come away from this message and be changed by it.
There’s nothing more important than Jesus’ crying from the cross, “It is finished.”
Today's talk is by my friend Paul Walker, who spoke at our Good Friday Mens' Breakfast several years ago. I pray that it blesses your life!