The Finished Work of Christ and the End of Spiritual Striving
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. — John 19:30
The Greek is one word: tetelestai. Merchants wrote it across a bill when the debt was paid. Servants said it when a task was completed. Priests used it when a sacrifice had been examined and found without blemish. Jesus chose that word for His last breath, and He did not say it as a defeated man. He said it as one announcing that the work He came to do was done.
What was finished
- The debt of sin — paid in full, not reduced to instalments.
- The demands of the law — fulfilled by the only Man who ever kept it, on behalf of those who could not.
- The separation between God and man — the curtain torn from top to bottom, from God’s side.
- The old covenant of sacrifices — ended, because the sacrifice they pointed to had come.
Perfected for all time
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. — Hebrews 10:14
Hebrews puts the two halves of our experience in one sentence. As to our standing, we have been perfected — a completed act, for all time. As to our daily walk, we are being sanctified — an ongoing work. The mistake of religious striving is to reverse them: to treat our standing as something we are still working on, and our walk as something we can neglect. The Spirit is not perfecting your acceptance; that was done at the cross. He is working your acceptance out into your character.
What striving looks like, and what rest looks like
Striving is praying to get God’s attention when you already have it. It is fasting to earn a breakthrough that was purchased two thousand years ago. It is serving in the church to quiet a conscience the blood of Christ has already cleansed. It is not that these practices are wrong — they are gifts. It is that striving uses them as payments, and the account is already settled.
Rest is not passivity. The writer of Hebrews tells us to "strive to enter that rest" (4:11) — to fight our way out of the habit of self-salvation and into trust. A person at rest prays more, not less, because prayer has become fellowship instead of negotiation. He serves more, because he serves from fullness rather than for it.
If you are tired, it may not be because you are working too hard. It may be because you are working at something that is finished. Put it down. The Lord Himself said it: it is done.