Friday, April 22, 2011

Good Friday

John 19:30 (ESV)
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

It is finished. Jesus has finally done what he came to do. He died for our sins. Exhausted, he gives up the ghost, gives up his spirit, breaths his last and perishes. John writes on for a bit, but it is done.
It is finished.
You know, there isn’t supposed to be a sermon tonight in this service. I and many other pastors insert a place for it here. But the words of Christ are supposed to be the sermon, bare and naked, as he hangs on the cross, there for you to contemplate. I ask myself what does a man say more? It is finished. Your salvation is finished, your sins paid for, Christ’s life and purpose, finished. God became man for us men and for our salvation and now with his death, it is finished.
It is finished.

7 comments:

Steve Martin said...

That says it all.

Unless you're a Mormon, Catholic, Baptist, Calvinist, Muslim, Pentecostal, (some) Lutherans, Jew, etc...then you still have a little work to do.

Christy said...

Hey Steve, are you inferring that, except for select Lutherans, all other Christian denominations are equivalent to Mormons? I beg to differ. :) Not all the other protestant denominations beleive that salvation is dependent on works. I'll grant you, they have their problems but there is quite a difference between other Protestant Christian denominations and mormons. It seems to me you are lumping them all in with religious organizations that do honestly believe salvation is dependent on works. "(some) Lutherans".

mollo said...

What stuck me this Good Friday during the readings was Jesus' rejection of the wine mixed with myrrh. Wasn't this a poison to help them die faster on the cross? This speaks volumes to those in pain and looking to sucide as a solution.

Christy said...

Jesus chose to suffer and die for our sins. Maybe He refused to do more than taste it to quench His thirst. If it was actually a pain killer, He then chose to suffer completely. I don't think this necessarily means we are not to take medicine to relieve our pain. The same argument would apply if the myrrh or gall was used to hasten death. Jesus could have avoided the entire thing and not sacrificed Himself for us. His point was to suffer. This doesn't mean we are required to suffer. We aren't taking on the sins of the world every time we are sick.

Steve Martin said...

Christy,

ALMOST all denominations add something to Christ's finished work. Whether they explicitly say so, or not.

With many, you need to make a "decision for Christ".

With many you need to show how 'serious' you are about living the Christian life.

With many you need to speak in tongues, or have the 5th, 6th, or whatever annointing of the Holy Spirit.

With many you need to be immersed (only) in Baptism.

I could go on and on...

Christy said...

Yes, you are absolutely correct. :)
My objection was, and still is, the fact that "making a decision for Christ, showing how serious you are about living a Christian life, full immersion Baptism" , etc... does not negatively effect one's salvation and is actually biblically founded--depending on your own interpretation of the exact same words (not to be confused with the mormon bible or their doctrine and covenants or book of mormon "when translated correctly" mantra.) Not accepting the Trinity and honestly believing that people can somehow become gods (equivalent to Jesus Christ)..., etc, etc, is an entirely different matter. I just hate to see Protestant and Catholic denominations that are CHRISTIANS lumped in with the mormon religion.

Bror Erickson said...

don't know why I haven't seen this before. perhaps I'm not as diligent watching after the comments. But Christy, you write "making a decision for Christ, showing how serious you are about living a Christian life, full immersion Baptism" , etc... does not negatively effect one's salvation and is actually biblically founded."
I get that there are some major differences between Mormon's and other Christian "bible Believing Trinitarian" denominations. But I think you do go a bit too far when you say that these other things do not negatively effect one's salvation. They do. False Doctrine always does, that is why it is so awful and needs to be exposed. These things are not "biblicaly founded" they are massive distortions of the truth that torture and mislead thousands of souls away from Christ. Can you believe these things and still be Christian? sure. But they also have the effect of starving Christ's sheep of the pure gospel and terrorizing them in the name of Christ so once they burn out they no longer want to hear anything about Christ, and also take their children out of the church and run them away. So these things do have an adverse effect on the salvation of many.
On the other hand where the trinity is proclaimed there is atleast a chance for the Gospel to break through the rubbish. I don't hold out so much hope for the Mormon faith.