COMPLETED
FORGIVENESS
By Pastor
Dick
Time as we know it here
on earth is winding down fast and there is a lot of work to do. The Final
Harvest is starting to come in and the Last Great Revival has already begun. The
Final Harvest is when the unsaved repent (turn) to receive Jesus and are born
again into the family of God. The Last Great Revival is when the family of God
is revived by repenting (turning) from their own works and resting in the
finished work of Christ. True revival is when God’s people enter the New
Covenant Rest. All this great work that is to be done does not belong to us; it
is the Lord’s, not ours. It is not our responsibility; it is His. We really
should stop trying to take control of the Lord’s work and just be happy to be
able to work with our Heavenly Father as He allows. Our main work is to believe
in the One whom He has sent (Jn.6:29). It is our responsibility to choose to
live in His Perfect Love.
How serious are you about
taking this more excellent way? Are you one who prefers to camp out near the
border line and keep stepping in and out of the Promised Land of the New
Covenant Rest? Or are you willing to go deeper into it? The deeper you go shows
by the more you believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross of
Calvary.
Want to go a little
deeper into it now? Let me give you a little nudge with this question: Do you
believe the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross of Calvary was enough to wipe out
all your sins? I mean ALL your sins--past, present and future?!
If you really totally believe that the finished work on the cross abolished all
your sins, past, present and future, why, then, do you keep asking God to
forgive you when you sin? When you ask God for forgiveness, don’t you get a
gentle check in your spirit and hear Him speak in your heart, "My child, why do
you ask? Don’t you believe what I have done for you on the cross?"
This is the point I am
trying to make: It takes more faith and is more pleasing to God when after we
sin, instead of saying, "God, forgive me," to say, "God, thank You for what You
have done for me on the cross! Thank You that You have already forgiven me!"
Don’t you see how much better it is to be conscious of the wondrous grace of
Christ rather than asking Jesus to do for us what He has already done? It is
another way of being more Christ conscious and less self conscious. Saying we
are sorry to God is a little different than asking forgiveness; it doesn’t take
away from the cross, but asking forgiveness does. It is like asking God to love
us after Him demonstrating His love for us on the cross of Calvary.
It is a lot different
when we sin against people. Of course, we need to ask them for forgiveness, for
they did not die on the cross and take away our sin! But as for the Lord, we
never need to ask. Just believe in His finished work and give thanks.
I love it when someone
gets their first glimpse of what it means to live in the Promised Land of the
New Covenant Rest. Recently, a man who has been working in the gospel field of
evangelism for at least a dozen years called me on the telephone and asked me to
pray that he would have more love, and I said, "No! I will not pray for that!"
He replied "Oh?" I went on to tell him he was like a multi-billionaire asking
for money. Again he replied, "Oh?" I then said, "You already have more love than
you can ever handle! You have the Unlimited, Unending, Perfect Love of God! Why
are you asking for more love?!" This time his reply went from, "Oh . . . oh . .
." to "OH!" Our conversation then ended, for neither of us could say much more
except, "God bless you" and "Good- bye."
Because of the
sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus, we do not need to trudge through
the desert with Moses for forty years before we enter the New Covenant Land of
Rest. It is given to us in the inheritance of Christ. We enter by believing in
the finished work of Christ. That is all it takes. If we really believe that, we
will be willing to stop trying to perform and work to please God; we will be
willing to stop molding self images; and we will be willing to live in our new
creation (2 Cor.5:17).
As we cease from our own
works and enter into the Rest of God by believing in the finished work of the
cross (Heb.4:10), we will be REST ASSURED that our salvation and our
righteousness are completely bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. This is
the entrance to the ". . . joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1
Pet.1:8). It is entering the joy of the Lord.
Entering into the Rest is
where we experience the fulfillment of our great calling in life. This is our
inheritance; this is our strength: to enjoy living in the Perfect Love of
God--which includes His total forgiveness--and to realize the joy it gives our
Heavenly Father when we let Him love us unconditionally.
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