The Cross Was Not a Beginning — It Was a Completion
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. — Hebrews 10:14
There is a way of talking about the cross that makes it the start of something - the first step, after which the believer must take the rest. Scripture does not talk that way. From Genesis 3, where the seed of the woman is promised, through the lamb on Moriah, the Passover, the tabernacle, David's line and the prophets' longing, the story is moving toward one point, and at that point it says: done.
A long road to one moment
Every altar in the Old Testament was an unfinished sentence. The priests stood daily, Hebrews says, offering the same sacrifices that could never take away sins. Standing, because the work was never done; daily, because it never held. Then one Priest offered one sacrifice and sat down. Sitting is what you do when the work is over.
What completion means for you
- You are not at the start of your acceptance. You are at the end of it. Perfected for all time.
- Sanctification - the daily change - happens inside a completed standing, not toward one.
- Your obedience is not laying foundation stones. The foundation was laid; you are building on it.
- Your failures cannot undo the completion, because they were included in the debt it paid.
The rest that follows
A finished thing invites rest. Not idleness - the sanctified life is full of work - but the rest of a person who is no longer trying to accomplish what has been accomplished. Jesus sat down. The believer who understands the cross can sit down too: in prayer without anxiety, in service without striving, in death without fear. The cross was a completion. Live from the other side of it.