What He has Done For Us

John 17:4

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

It came to mind today something that Pastor Chuck Smith had shared with us at this year's Sr. Pastors Conference. I thought of it in part because of the celebration we had this weekend of the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing.

President Kennedy, who had promised to take us to the moon within the decade (1960's), something we did accomplish, but that he did not live to see, started his term as President with a wonderful speech. In that inaugural address he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." What Chuck Smith had to say was very similar in tone, but with much farther reaching effects. Chuck said, "Going through all of scripture I find a biblical emphasis that is not what we can do for God. But rather, what he has already done for us."

His point was, I believe two fold. Firstly that the work of the cross is finished. There is nothing we can do for or against that work. It is simply a matter of accepting and receiving it, or denying it and rejecting it. Secondly, that we have a responsibility after accepting Christ to live for Him with all we are worth.

Jesus uttered the verse chosen for today's devotional right before He prayed for His disciples, and was then off to the Garden to be arrested. By the end of the next day, Jesus would have done all that He could do… for us. He had finished the work that the Father had Sent Him to do. It is at that point that OUR work began. It was at that point that the responsibility to do the will of the Father in order to further His Kingdom, fell on us.

Unlike the lunar landing was to the world, an impressive feat indeed, we cannot do anything to impress God. We cannot say that within the next decade you or I are going to do something so totally awesome that God will want to create a new section in heaven just for us. Anything we do in our lives, we ought to do out of love, respect and a heartfelt indebtedness for what God has already done for us. What we need to do is all that we can do in order to bring glory to God here on earth in the time that He has so wonderfully graced us with. This day is the day that the Lord has made. We must rejoice and be glad in it, knowing that His work is finished.

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