It is still finished

0:08 Think about the last time you celebrated something, like you

0:11 really celebrated something. Let's say your birthday, for

0:14 example. With that day you posted, you

0:17 called people, people called you, sent you sweet messages,

0:20 and you just felt so full that day.

0:22 Now think about a week after your birthday or two weeks after

0:26 your birthday, how much of that energy that you had on your

0:31 birthday is still there? I knew my Ling out two days,

0:34 three days, but basically how much of that energy was there

0:38 one week or two weeks after your birthday?

0:43 So there's this thing where we're good at celebrating things

0:46 in the moment, but they were not always as good at carrying the

0:49 width of what it is that we're celebrating past that moment or

0:54 well past that moment. And I think the same thing

0:57 happens with Easter. It's like the services are full,

1:00 the worship hits difference, you know, there's this collective

1:04 acknowledgement that something great has happened.

1:07 I particularly, I saw someone make a post about it and I

1:10 genuinely agree. I think this year people were

1:12 really loud about Easter. I didn't see star eggs or Easter

1:15 bunnies anyway, very good. But people were really loud

1:20 about Easter. But in Easter Sunday ends.

1:24 Monday came the week, you know, was in full flow.

1:29 Life basically picked back up some people that were happy

1:31 about the public holiday back at work, looking towards the next

1:34 public holiday. And the thing that we spend the

1:37 whole season talking about, the cross, the resurrection of

1:40 Jesus, the finished work of Jesus essentially quietly goes

1:43 into the background for some people until next day anyway.

1:47 And I'm thinking about it and I'm saying I don't think that's

1:51 how it's supposed to be. But are we back to that or I'll

1:55 come back to that? Hi, welcome.

1:58 Welcome back to Rooted with me. For me, this is where biblical

2:02 truth is brought you in a way that's sincere, simple,

2:05 heartfelt, and hopefully it leaves your loving good more

2:08 than before. So yeah, this episode's actually

2:13 after Easter intentionally. So I want to talk about what

2:16 happens after Easter. So we have a calendar that, you

2:20 know, kind of, you know, revolves around our fit all has

2:24 elements of our faith included in it.

2:25 So yes, Christmas, Easter, some people celebrate Pentecost,

2:29 things like that. And I think those are awesome

2:32 traditions. I think it gives good space for

2:34 reflection. But I think somewhere along the

2:37 way, it's like we allow the times or the seasons to do the

2:41 work that our hearts are supposed to do.

2:43 So it's like we start waiting for a special service to feel

2:47 the weight of the cross. We start needing a church

2:50 program to remind us that the resurrection actually happened.

2:54 And the downside to this is when the program ends, that feeling

2:57 that we might get from the program, and that's a might

3:01 begins to dim or begins to die down.

3:03 And like I said, for that's a problem, not because the feeling

3:06 is bad, but because what we're celebrating is not a feeling.

3:09 It's a fact. Sometimes we don't realize this

3:11 ball. It's a fact like historically

3:14 proving, you know, textually everything, everything,

3:18 everything. Point is, we no need to then

3:20 separate a particular season aside to celebrate a fact any

3:24 day we think about any day they remain true on that day.

3:29 Like let's think of Jesus Christ.

3:32 Now I'm thinking of Jesus Christ.

3:33 I don't know during the Easter period, I'm digressing it, but

3:35 during the Easter period, I wanted to watch passion for

3:38 Christ. But then I saw a clip and I was

3:40 just like, no, I can't do it. I don't have the I don't have

3:43 the gods yet. Like I saw my last time I

3:45 watched it, I was. I was boiling my eyes that I was

3:47 crying too much. I'm not sure my heart can take

3:51 it. Maybe I'll try again next year.

3:53 Yeah, but after the arrest, the trial, the beatings, snails,

3:59 crown of thorns, everything. Before he died, finally he said

4:03 3 words. It is finished.

4:05 The Greek Ranger. That phrase or word is Tetelus

4:09 style. During those days when the debts

4:13 had been paid off completely, the so I'm thinking debits

4:17 credits. So debtor, creditor.

4:19 I don't know when the creditor this clearance was, you know,

4:25 documented stuff. You would write a telesty

4:27 meaning that the debt had been cleared or it had been settled.

4:31 When the priests examine sacrifice, I found that it was

4:34 without blemish. You would say the telesty, the

4:37 offering is complete. I'm listening to them.

4:38 I necessarily said about like that was the idea the offering

4:41 is complete, fully acceptable before God.

4:43 So essentially when a task is fully accomplished to tell a

4:47 style, the work is done. So when Jesus said those 3 words

4:50 on the cross, he wasn't saying, oh, I give up.

4:51 It was saying that the work is complete.

4:53 Everything that needed to happen for you to have access to the

4:56 Father had been done fully, perfectly and once.

5:00 And my point is this why I'm saying that of this is that that

5:05 declaration to tell a style did not expire on Insta Sunday.

5:09 It is not a seasonal announcement.

5:11 It's it's it's eternal. It's an eternal 1 essentially.

5:15 And when something is truly finished, when the work is

5:17 genuinely complete, you don't have to keep doing it.

5:20 You get to rest in it. So I'm not going to I was about

5:23 to say when your big sister, but I might seem to, you know,

5:26 targeted. So I'm just going to say when

5:27 your elder sibling and maybe you need to order and maybe your mom

5:31 again, I might feel targeted. So maybe your guardian, they

5:34 they just keep it clean, you know, but maybe, for example,

5:37 you had chores and you've gone to go and do your chores.

5:40 Maybe you wanted to watch a particular show that starts by

5:42 4:30 PMI don't know why that seems really specific for

5:46 random. You want to get there on time.

5:50 You want to get to the TV on time to watch that show.

5:51 And it's like you're rushing to deal with him and then you go,

5:54 you sit down and then you're sorry.

5:55 That's that guardian or that big signal, that person.

5:59 And how come I tell you you're not done?

6:03 Oh, gosh, this is well, this is well, thank God for goods.

6:06 The quantity. You're not done and you're so

6:08 annoyed. Then you have to go back.

6:09 You rush and you come back again and it just seems like you're

6:12 never done. There's always something.

6:14 Maybe we've done our assignments.

6:16 I feel like, oh, I'm done with everything.

6:17 All of a sudden your mom's like, no, you're not done.

6:19 Brings out another nose from your bag or something like that.

6:22 Maybe even walking throughout the whole day.

6:24 It's like, oh, no, why not? Don't you?

6:26 Yeah, that's not the case with Jesus.

6:29 With the work that he did. It's done, everything is

6:33 complete. It's complete and you don't have

6:34 to live your life constantly trying to validate what was

6:39 already done like it's already done.

6:40 Rather, you live from that place of the finished works of Christ.

6:44 Like Hebrews 10 verse 14 was telling us about how like 1

6:47 sacrifice was made. That's Jesus Christ's life and

6:50 because of that sacrifice he has made perfect.

6:52 Whoever believes all of us who are being made holy, like all of

6:55 us who believe in the work of Jesus Christ have made perfect

6:58 forever, not for a season, not while inside decorations are up.

7:03 So point is the ground does not shift even when we feel bad,

7:07 Let's say we fall back into sin. Let's say we go through a dry

7:10 season. Let's say we feel forgotten.

7:11 Maybe we don't pray enough, we don't study our Bible enough.

7:14 Maybe we just feel like we're not doing enough generally.

7:16 Again, there's there's there's an expert, there's an aspect to

7:19 it where, yeah, we have to be disciplined like Paul tells us

7:22 to exercise ourselves onto righteousness.

7:24 It gives you the idea that you have a role to play.

7:26 Paul tells us to yield ourselves, our members, our body

7:30 as instrumental righteousness. So you have a part to play.

7:33 Yes. Well, point is, in all of this,

7:36 the work is still finished. It doesn't change the fact that

7:39 you've been reconciled to God. The finished work is not

7:41 contingent on how well we're doing.

7:43 I think you already know this book.

7:45 It was finished before you woke up this morning.

7:47 It was finished before you. I don't know.

7:53 I don't know. It will still be finished when

7:55 you go to sleep tonight. And on your worst day, the day

7:58 you feel furthest from God, the day you feel most ashamed, the

8:02 day I don't know, the day you feel somehow it is still

8:07 finished. It is still finished, right?

8:10 And you, you need to remember that.

8:12 You need to remember that it will always remain finished.

8:14 So what is it now look like to actually live in the finished

8:18 works of Christ? I don't want you to just be an

8:20 idea. I want to do something I can

8:22 actually practice. I think there's this one that I

8:24 love so much and I'll say it like this.

8:26 It looks like waking up and remembering the gospel.

8:28 First time I heard someone say this, I don't really blew my

8:30 mind. It's just like you wake up and

8:31 the first thing that you think about.

8:33 I know there's the whole work and everything, but if you just

8:35 wake up and you take 5 minutes, I know sometimes even 5 minutes

8:38 might not seem because maybe sometimes you're already late.

8:40 Like when you're waking up, you're already behind your

8:42 schedule. But I'm like, if you're already

8:44 behind your schedule, an extra 5 minutes change much.

8:47 I don't know, I'm just saying. But the point is if you wake up

8:50 early, you know, if you're that disciplined, which should be the

8:53 norm. I'm trying as well, but you wake

8:56 up early, 5 minutes, you just spend 5 minutes thinking about

9:01 the gospel. Like, take them to actually

9:02 think about it. I was talking with a friend of

9:04 mine recently and we're just reminiscing about our lives

9:07 before Jesus, you know, came and changed us.

9:09 And it's like, sometimes I cringe.

9:11 I'm like, thank you, Jesus, thank you.

9:14 Like, you know what? That song, thank you for saving

9:16 me. It's so real.

9:17 You know, when I was younger, I might have just sang it because

9:19 it's humor was nice. But now I'm like, Jesus, thank

9:21 you for saving me. Yeah.

9:23 You think about the gospel about how you were you were gone, you

9:27 were gone. It was guaranteed where you are

9:30 going, but then Jesus Christ came and changed all of that.

9:34 Alright. How we are no longer on that

9:35 condemnation, how we are no longer on that dominion of sin,

9:39 how we can yield ourselves as instruments of righteousness.

9:44 I think it's so beautiful. Alright, I'm thinking or living

9:47 in the finished works of Christ also looks like going back to

9:50 God when you fall into sin, right?

9:53 So instead of you wallowing in shame or self pity, right, which

9:57 is I think I've said this for an episode, but it's a form of

9:59 pride. But instead of doing all of

10:01 that, you go back to God, you run back to God because you know

10:03 that the work is still finished, right?

10:06 So it looks like whenever you see him for sure do anything,

10:09 right, you just you come back to tell the side the work is

10:12 finished. So it looks like gratitude as

10:15 well. It looks like gratitude that is

10:16 not dependent on your prompts. Like basically, you do not need

10:21 something to prompt you to feel gratitude.

10:24 It's just this daily awareness that something was done for you

10:27 that you could never have done yourself and was done freely,

10:30 completely. And it is still standing right

10:32 now. So it's a daily like reality,

10:34 sort of. So yeah, yeah.

10:37 Point is, don't get used to what Jesus Christ has done.

10:40 Don't let the cross become background noise.

10:43 Don't let the resurrection become a theological factor you

10:46 acknowledge every now and then. Let it be something that

10:48 actively moves you. Let it be something that

10:50 steadies you when you're like a shaky.

10:53 Yeah, right. It's like when you go through

10:56 the toughest, toughest of moments, when you feel you're

10:58 too broken. Remember that the cross has

11:00 already answered or solved that problem a long time ago, and the

11:04 solution is still standing today.

11:06 It is finished. Not was finished is present

11:09 tense right now, like right now as I listen to this.

11:12 Yeah. So every ordinary day, the

11:16 resurrection is still real. Every normal day, every time you

11:19 go to God in prayer, you have access because of what is slash

11:23 wars finished. Every time guilt tries to pile

11:27 up and you remember the work is finished.

11:31 All right, so Kai is with you. Not just on Sunday.

11:34 It's not just on Easter Sunday, not just on Easter season, Every

11:39 Wednesday morning that you wake up and you don't feel any mood.

11:42 Every Monday, see that Monday is very serious, but every Monday,

11:47 remember, it's right. Every quiet and ordinary day,

11:50 remember, is because it is still finished.

11:52 That's the whole point of this episode.

11:53 It is still finished. And that's right for the

11:55 episode. Yeah.

11:57 Thank you for listening, Ian. I just want to say I'm really

12:00 happy that you're here. Thank you for listening.

12:02 Sometimes I'm like, I recorded something for this long and you

12:05 listened. You made it to this point.

12:07 Much love. Much love.

12:09 And I think I want to start like maybe taking like topics or

12:12 maybe there's something that you come across like, Oh, this came

12:15 to mind. How does someone navigate this

12:16 or what is the Christian perspective of of this or on

12:19 this? How do you answer this question?

12:21 Different things like that. Like I'm also, I have something

12:23 I want to talk about, but I'm also open to accepting things

12:26 like that. Genuinely want to hear what you

12:29 might want me to talk about or give me an idea of something

12:32 that you want to hear about. Or are they particular things as

12:36 well as the Bible that confuse you, that get you scared or that

12:38 give you doubt basically, right. Very, very open to giving a take

12:43 on that. And yeah, so please, like, no,

12:46 sorry, that's YouTube. You can leave a rating.

12:49 Sadly, you can't comments, Spotify disable that, but you

12:52 can leave a rating and the other things share, yes, share this

12:55 with someone. Buy.

12:58 Stay rooted.