Blog : Past and Present in You

6573 posts
10/20/2008 3:39 am

Past and Present in You

Jim Fowler

The Work of Christ - Past and Present

Many Christians seem to think that the work of Christ was completed and terminated when Jesus was historically crucified on the cross. If that were true, then Jesus was but another dead martyr to be remembered in history. From the cross Jesus exclaimed, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). That statement was not a cry of defeat or termination, but a declaration of victory. Jesus was declaring that redemption was accomplished by the remedial action of his death, as He vicariously and substitutionally submitted to the "power of death" (Heb. 2:14) and paid the price (cf. I Cor. 6:20; 7:23) of the death consequences of sin (cf. Gen. 2:17). Also inherent in His exclamation was the declaration that by His death He was setting in motion the inexorable completion of the full restoration of mankind to the intent for which God had created man. "It was impossible for Him to be held in death's power" (Acts 2:24), Peter explained, and God raised Him up in resurrection victorious over death. By His resurrection, the One Who is "resurrection and life" (John 11:25) made His risen life available to mankind in regeneration (I Peter 1:3).

The receipt of the life of the risen Lord Jesus in regeneration is not the completion of the work of Christ in the Christian, either. "Made both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36), and "declared the of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4), the living Lord Jesus seeks to administer His governance in the lives of Christians by continuing His saving work. His "saving death" was singularly and totally sufficient for redemption, but by His 'saving life" (cf. Rom. 5:10) the risen Lord and Savior continues to save Christians from the patterns of selfishness and sin that residually remain in the desires of their soul. The entirety of Christ's work in Christian experience, whether justification, regeneration, sanctification, or glorification, was encompassed in His declaration of the victory of His "finished work."

When the person and work of Jesus Christ are limited to historical and theological discussions of the incarnated person of Jesus and His redemptive mission within history, there is a great restriction to the fullness of the gospel. The studies of Christology (the study of the person of Jesus Christ) and soteriology (the study of the work of Christ in redemption and salvation) are often allowed to constrict the work of Christ by failing to consider the continuing function of the risen Lord and Savior after His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecostal return in Spirit form (cf. II Cor. 3:17,1

. Christianity was not intended to be just an historical society for the remembrance of the historical Jesus. Neither was the Christian community to be simply a theological society for the formulation of accurate explanations of the historical Christ event. Christianity cannot be properly understood apart from the eternal ongoing dynamic of the life of the risen Lord Jesus continuing His work as Lord and Savior of mankind.

The Truth (cf. John 8:32,36; 14:6) of the Christian gospel must not be entombed in static categories of ideological conceptions. "Salvation," for example, must not be regarded as a static commodity that is dispensed by Jesus as a benefit to those who will assent to His Being. Salvation is not a static "eternal life package" that is placed "on deposit" within the Christian believer or in a heavenly repository for future enjoyment. Jesus Christ is presently and forever the "eternal life" (cf. John 11:25; 14:6; I John 5:12,13) of God, and He functions dynamically in His work as eternal Savior to cause His "saving life" to overcome sin. In His function as Savior, He does not simply "make us safe" from erroneous spiritual thinking, or "make us safe" from a destiny in hell, but He continues to "make us safe" from the dysfunctional humanity that derives from a spiritual source other than Himself (cf. Eph. 2:2,3; I John 3:

, in order that we might function as God intended by the presence and expression of the divine life and character in human behavior. There is no salvation apart from the dynamic function of the living Savior, Jesus Christ.