It Is Finished

On the cross, as Jesus breathed his last, he proclaimed, “It is finished.”

What was finished?

Many believe it was the law that was finished.  But is that true?  If so, why did his followers, even after the giving of the Holy Spirit that illuminated the Scriptures for them, still practice Judaism?

So I had to ask, what exactly was finished?

If we go back to Genesis, we see the curse that was brought about by Adam and Eve’s disobedience to a direct command.  God said do not eat, and they ate.  So death and the separation from God, the penalty for disobedience, came into the world.  

God had a simple standard in the garden: be fruitful and multiply, and do not eat from the one tree.  Adam and Eve enjoyed face to face fellowship with the Creator of all things.  But that wasn’t enough for them.  (And before we go pointing our fingers at them, we need to look in the mirror and see that we would do the same thing given the same choice.)

Paul says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death.  Sin has been defined as missing the mark – not completely living up to God’s standard of right living.  But Jesus, the perfect, spotless Lamb of God, lived out a perfect, righteous life that hit the mark of God’s standard of righteousness, of right living.

So what was finished? The curse separating man from God was finished. 

Great song - See His Love, performed by Jesus Culture

In the Beginning

I’ve been wrestling with God over starting this blog, because quite frankly, I didn’t know where to start.  To go all the way back to when I became a Christian at the age of 13 in a charismatic prayer meeting at a Catholic Church seemed kind of silly.  To include my whole crazy on again, off again walk with the Lord over the span of 40 years seemed boring and oftentimes embarrassing.  To include the visit of Jews for Jesus while at an Episcopal Church or the first Passover I hosted with the youth at that church and all the ensuing years, seemed too much to hash over.  

So instead, I will simply pick up where I am now, filling in background along the way.  Most of what I will share are lessons I am learning - questions I’ve asked the Father and the answers he’s given; Jewish insights to the Old Testament and the Jewishness of Jesus the Messiah that I am picking up along the way, and how it all adds up to a better understanding of what the Messiah has to say.  I will also share some of what I am reading and recommend some resources for your own search.

I hope that you too, will come to see Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, in a new light…the light of who he really is, and the faithfulness he has to the children of Israel and all his promises – which include blessings for us – the nations.