Did Christ finish His work?

I found this while perusing Bible.org this morning. It’s worth sharing.

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.

– John Flavel

Source unknown

It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ alone for righteousness. As a former Catholic I can attest to that Church’s faithful having nothing to cement their hope in. You are saved, but upon the act of any sin you are lost. You restore your salvation only to repeat the process. Where is the hope that Christ died for your sins and that you are redeemed? For if your salvation is shipwrecked with every sin then you have no hope. The best you have to cling to is a crapshoot of faith.

It is not Catholicism alone* that has a practice of adding man’s works to Christ’s as part of salvation. Plenty of other Churches do so as well, it’s just that I’m familiar with the Catholic Church because I was part of it. Christians speak of liberty, redemption, trust and such, but if you allow your pride to attach your works to those of the Almighty then you have no liberty or redemption and your trust is as much in yourself as it is in Christ. Think about that.

Jesus had to die in order to atone for our sins because we were incapable of doing it ourselves. Had we been able to redeem ourselves then millions would have been saved through the Law of Moses. Yet Paul teaches us that this did not happen

17But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God,

18and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,

19and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

20a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,

21you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?

22You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

23You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

24For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written. {Romans 2:17-24}

19Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

20because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. {Romans 3:19-20}

* It’s been my experience that the majority of Catholics I know don’t necessarily agree with all of their church’s teachings, nor do they practice them. My disagreements with Catholicism are doctrinal, and thus with the institution of the Catholic Church, not with Catholics themselves.

Kid-speak

My youngest son, Noah, only turned 4 last month. As small kids are prone to do he sometimes says funny things. Here are a few of the most recent:

“Daddy, look how pounds I am!” (after stepping onto the bathroom scale)

“Daddy, look how monies I have.” (after pulling a $1 bill from his pocket)

This past weekend our sons’ cousins, who are twins, spent the night. They are a bit older than my oldest, Devin (who is eight) and so when they visit Noah tends to get left out. I had worked until 3 a.m. so in the morning my wife had stressed to the kids to keep the noise down while I was sleeping. After I woke up she took a nap and so I again stressed to the kids to keep the noise down. Shortly afterward, Noah descended the stairs, crying.

“Daddy, is ‘ticked’ a bad word?”
I said it was not, and that it meant being angry
“Well Mom’s gonna’ be ticked at the kids for singing so loud!”

When Devin was about a year-and-a-half old he pronounced kitchen as “chicken”. My wife, Lisa, tried to get him to say it properly.
Lisa: “Ki-ki-kitchen”
Devin: “Ki-ki-chicken”

Noah used to pronounce the color yellow as “ye-yo”. Both boys finally figured out how to say the words correctly. These little incidents not only bring laughter to the household, they help us remember how blessed we are. In a similar way, we were once “kids” in the kingdom of God when we first believed. As we nurture and raise our own biological children, God nurtures and raises His spiritual children in the faith. The joy that our own children can bring is wonderful, and we count the good with the bad as a blessing. Sometimes it does us well to remember how pleased we are with our own children when they do as taught, and behave as instructed. Simply put, we are thrilled when it happens, and we wish it happened all the time, right? In the same way, God is pleased with us when we do as taught and behave as instructed, and He desires that we do so all the time. I realize that kids won’t be perfect, and God knows we won’t be either. But the next time one of my children warms my heart by doing what he has been taught to do I hope it jars my brain and reminds me to do likewise for my Lord and Savior.