The finished work of Christ

Now I have come to believe that Christ accomplished everything for the redemption of the believer. I believe our labor (work) is to believe to a rest by faith in His finished work.

Hebrews 4:8-11 (KJV)
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

This is how I want to begin this thread and would like for others to contribute with any view you may understand because I desire to understand the scriptures more fully.

I believe there are many godly christian brothers and sisters on SI, even though we may see things in a different perspective, who can bring some insight to this discussion.

All I ask is that we be cordial to one another so we can make this a prosperous journey!

Blessings...from brother rbanks

"All Christian service is based on the finished work of Christ. The early Apostles did not go around preaching a Gospel of works or a message of believers needing to do so much to enter heaven but rather all godly living was out of appreciation of the mercy of God. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

They had the Good News message of the resurrection of Christ and the hope of trusting in Him for eternal life. This message of God’s love is open to all humanity and is not to be a message of condemnation.
Quote-Greg

Thanks Greg! I believe the gospel must be presented as good news because of the finish work of Christ as the sinners great hope of everlasting life.

I'm also wondering how people interpret this:

Hebrews 4:11 (KJV)
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Is this not a continue laboring to enter into His rest for the present to the future as going from rest to rest, faith to faith, and glory to glory.

It's seems that we are always to labor or strive in the Lord to go from faith to faith as the only way to enjoy a continued rest in the Lord because if we don't we will fall back into unbelief or disobedience.

Paul says we are not to be of them who draw back unto perdition but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul. The Lord also says not to be lukewarm or complacent nor to lose our first love. We must be continually striving and seeking the Lord in order to please Him and to enjoy a continue rest in the Lord or else we will fall back into sin.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

Dear bro's,Greg and rbanks,

I have considered about contributing,because of bro.Greg,...but please,..I am not trying to be offensive I believe I have a differing thought on this subject,..and in respect of him,..being owner of this forum / website.,..I do hope it's alright ?

Bro.rbanks,I have been studying Hebrews from chapter (1),since you
posted,...and find so many things,.....

First though,bro's rbanks and bro.Greg,....please ?...I am not saying this
harshly,but I hear ones continuely saying "The finished work of Christ "
Does the Word say it like that,or does that phrase come from where
Jesus says " It is finished " ?...

When Jesus said, "It is finished" ,...to me He is saying, He has made an entrance for us to enter in,..through His Blood sacrifice.and the Good
News is,...,He has made " a Way" for us,that we didnot have before,...through Grace,drawing us unto the Holy Spirits will.... ( Blood,Grace,Holy Spirit )
( "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,THEY ARE the children
of God." )

* Heb.3,..( I believe starts out saying that The Lord must build the house,through His Spirit,...and in the Pslams it says "except God build the house,they labor in vain that build it." and He builds it by being " Led by the Spirit of God " in vs.(6) I believe it to be saying,..If we hold firm our confidence rejoiceing and hope that He is building it to the end...

Then he says, vs.(7) Wherefore,...( why does he say "wherefore" ) ?
* as the Holy Spirit saith,Today if ye will hear my voice,vs.(8)Harden not your heart...( for instant: "Oh ,that is not The Lord talking to me,..and harden my heart against His Voice,..yeld to my temptation to not listen to His leading / voice,..then I could not have / enter into rest / peace with Him.

And that " Today,is today,and tomorrow,is Today,..and on and on is Today
when He wants us to " Hear His voice",and not go into the temptation to not listen to His voice...Harden our hearts.

And Hebrews speaks about:

(2:16), ..." But He took on Him the seed of Abraham,"...what is the seed of Abraham ?..would it be Abraham 's faith,..belief in God speaking ?
If so,What did both these men do when God spoke ?..Didn't they do,..
although it was VERY HARD things that He commanded them both to do.
* Abraham,...to take his son's life.
* Jesus,..To die for us

they both,..not my will, but yours Lord,..Hearing God' voice,....obeying.

Doesn't hear His voice / obey = faith / believe ?

I know this is some hard sayings,..and thank you so much for letting
me share.

Blessings,
elizabeth

I will not call it the finished work of Jesus as I find it unscriptural. To me the term appears that the work is finished. No it is not finished (I can prove it with scripture). I would rather call 'accomplishment of Jesus to redeem us'.

I agree to certain extent with Greg, though I do not agree with the term 'Finished work' used in his post. I believe we should avoid using unscriptural terms as much as possible, especially when you are writing a book to guide others or teaching others. One can hardly point out Brother Zac Poonen using such terms.

I agree with Greg in Spirit that Jesus should be our foundation. No matter what spiritual height we reach Jesus should always be the center. It is because of what Jesus has accomplished for us we are qualified to have this spiritual life.

Jesus defeated Satan on the cross and redeemed us from the grip of Satan. But we should still continue the fight. This is why Paul is asking Timothy to fight the good fight. If the Battle is over already then what fight is Paul asking Timothy?

To rest with Jesus means to continue the fight not by our own strength but by God's grace. In both case the fight has to continue. The good work need to be produced. We need to workout. But the Good news is God is working inside us to clean us from Inside and we need to workout and cooperate with him. Without our cooperation we will only be hindering the Holy Spirit and Grieving him.

I would give a picture of a man being rescued from Fire by a fire fighter. The fighter throws a rope and pulls the man out of fire. The man caught in fire still needs to keep holding the rope, to come up. At any stage he can hinder the firefighter's efforts by dropping the rope. Now when the man is rescued, he gets no credit for holding the rope. But will give all the glory and honor to the firefighter who rescued him.

since the bible is the standard ,,does the bible say we cant uses expressions or words that are not in the bible,,iv not read that

what else can we have our hope based upon except god and his expression of mercy in his chosen method of redeeming substatusanary atonement involving expiation among other principals and wording for appeasing gods wrath propitiation

I think we can also rest upon more then this ,,his intercessory office in heaven ,his own prayers on the earth ,his own promises in his word ,,the seal of the spirit,the witness of the spirit

but realy its all his work , his words are also his work

our endurance till the end wont come from us thinking we must add to gods works , by thinking WE MUST DO THIS OR THAT OR WE MUST COOPERAT AND HOLD ON TO THE ROPE

or faith must be on him and what came out of his mouth and what still comes out from god

faith in future grace and the finished work will keep our weak hands attached to the rope

our strength wont come from thinking i must trust in my self to cooperate ,, we need not focas on us but only him ,,lets have a godly bias and be dead to our self's

and trust in the one who can be trusted

we will fail if we hold trust in our selfs ,,god will make sure of that ,if we are his

who could rest in peace if any of this was up to us to accomplish

there is no assurance in that

blessings

4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

hi brother rbanks

i would personally keep that verses in context the with whole chapter ,and the verse 4;10 seems to me to indicate the reality of a true believer is that he is entered in to the rest spoken of and an evidence of that is he has givern up of him working his way into the grace of god ,but the grace of god has worked his way into the believers heart

he has ceased works in that sense

labour spoken of here is what jesus spok about

he this is the work or labour of god that you believe in me the one whom god sent ,paraqoute ,,

faith is the only way that one will have any real rest
of course it will produce works ,,,,for it is god who works in you both to will and do do for his good pleasure

much blessings

amen brother Andrew

jesus did say some thing like i have finished the works my father gave me in the gospel of john

you know brother im also under the impression that jesus also did a redemptive atonmic work in the heavenlys according to what i read in in Hebrews ,he entered the heavens with his own blood ,,some how i think when he acended heaven it was then that his atonmic work was finished ,when he eneterd in to the thrown room with his own blood and then offered him self in the spiritual sense

blessings brother

Thanks everyone for your contributions to this thread!

Your views are really appreciated and May God bless you richly with the Love of Christ!

Elizabeth you made some good points as well as Sree!

Brenda I didn't realize how much we agree on things, your post is a blessing with truth I have come to believe also!

Andrew thanks for your insight and further truth to this thread you are a blessing!

Gary you have brought a lot to think about even further and I appreciate you doing this, you are a blessing!

Gary your last post I believe is right on and here is some scripture:

Hebrews 1:2-3 (KJV)
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Revelation 3:21 (KJV)
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

I believe the finish work of Christ is consummated by Him sitting down on the right hand of the Father, meaning His sacrifice was accepted and He ever lives to make intercession for us.

Notice how in rev. 3:21 he says to him that overcomes will He grant to sit with Him is His throne even as He also overcame and am sat down with His Father in His throne.

Jesus is the forerunner so to speak and the Author and finisher of our faith. Everything that we are to do, He has already done for us. We are overcomers by faith in Christ who has already overcame everything that we need to overcome in this life.

The is why I believe that our faith must completely rest in Christ completely to receive everything we need for life and godliness because He has given us everything in Christ's finished work for us.

2 Peter 1:1-4 (KJV)
1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

The Finished Work

It makes my skin crawl to hear these words.

Why?

Immediately after Durham’s Pentecostal Baptism at Azusa Street in February, 1907, he ceased preaching the doctrine of crisis sanctification: “From the day the Holy Spirit fell on me and filled me I could never preach the second work theory again.” He still held to it in theory but could not publicly proclaim it any longer.

Durham’s teaching, which quickly gained the name “The Finished Work,” can be summarised in this way:

1. He alleged that there is no Scriptural basis for a “two-step” experience (i.e., justification and regeneration, followed by a separate experience of sanctification) leading up to Spirit baptism. Everything—forgiveness, salvation, new birth, and sanctification come to Christians in the atonement, the single “finished work” of Christ.

2. In that finished work, the “old man” was crucified, and Sin was eradicated from the believer’s heart. (This is an important point to which we will return later.) In other words, sanctification was immediate and contemporaneous with regeneration. The Christian received everything at the same time.

3. From regeneration moving forward, then, sanctification was progressive, that is, the believer could grow in grace, maturity, and the fruit of the Spirit.

4. Only the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (as Pentecostals understood the phrase) came as a subsequent experience.

The rancour caused by this new teaching escalated to the point where Pentecostal veteran Charles Parham (who never wavered from his strong support of Wesleyan sanctification) weighed into the fray in early January 1912. He prayed a remarkably rash — and (as it turned out) prophetic — prayer.

“If this man’s doctrine is true, let my life go out to prove it; but if our teaching on a definite grace of sanctification is true, let his life pay the forfeit.”

Friend or foe, it must have caught everyone off guard when Durham—in the prime of his life and just shy of his fortieth birthday—died suddenly on July 7th of that same year. Says James R. Goff, Jr., one of Parham’s biographers, “Parham felt that God had properly answered his prayer.” Foes of Durham and his “Finished Work” teaching were sobered, no doubt, but rejoiced because they felt their cause and doctrine were exonerated and vindicated. Durham’s supporters, if they gave the timing of Durham’s death any thought at all, didn’t admit to seeing anything ominous in it. They gave him a memorial service with glowing eulogies and ample tributes.

But in theology, as in war, the losers don’t get the last word and they certainly don’t write the histories. The “winners,” Durham’s spiritual heirs— the Assemblies of God, the Foursquare Church, and others—all continue to pay tribute to Durham as the spiritual and theological innovator and father of their belief system regarding sanctification. Once they clearly won the field of battle, they became more magnanimous toward their second-blessing brethren, and the issue now seems to garner little interest, except perhaps among historians. For the majority of Pentecostals, the three-step ordo salutis is dead, replaced by Durham’s two-step approach

http://www.finestofthewheat.org/Jim_Kerwin/The_Rejected_Blessing.php

And that is why the church is in such a mess......

Thanks for your contribution to this thread Colin!

I am familiar with the AOG and am a part of the IPHC.

I love what Christ did for me on the Cross and that He finished the work that His Father gave Him to do for our redemption.

We are to go from faith to faith and glory to glory as we behold Him to be conformed to His image. We are predestined to be conformed to His image and it is impossible for us to arrive without His finished work.

I would also say that those of the second blessing camp have created a mess also in creating plenty of self righteous religious people who love their own holiness more than the people Christ died for. They were more concerned with being holy enough to get to heaven that didn’t seem to care about compassion toward the loss and to minister to others.

There is so much more to be said but unless we understand the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and how He gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a treasured people zealous of good works, we will still be messed up.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

oh well, another thread gone astray just like many others.

It seems we just can't stay with the original post.

Anyway, God bless all who contributed!

I hope to continue to be a blessing and be blessed by others in the Lord, but I think I'm going to stop starting anymore threads for a while.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

what is the 2nd blessing ?

your very welcome brother rbanks your a blessings your self to sermon index

blessings

I never said in my post that it is a biblical command not to use unscriptural terms in teaching. I only said it is my conviction based on experience. One may agree or disagree. To me to use such terms sounds like using my own idea of truth instead of the way god presented the truth. Given an oppertunity to speak in church my payer is often not to speak out of my own wisdom but to speak by the wisdom given by god. Sticking to scriptural terms is a way to avoid self glory. Also like I already said the term finished work sounds more like the work is already finished pertaining to our salvation. But the truth is god still wants to work inside us.

I agree with the post of Greg and another brother who posted about the work done by Jesus is tearing of the veil in most holy place. The symbol here is because of what Jesus did for us, we now have access to most holy place where god dwells. Because of his work we are redeemed from the bondage to sin. This work can be compared to what god did to Israelites through Moses. He took them out of the slavery in Egypt.

But the god's promise to Israelites is not just freedom from slavery of Egypt. It is also to take them into promise land. God directed them into promise land by a cloud. This is the symbol of Holy Spirit who guides the believers into christlikeness through his sanctifying work. Many Israelites did not enter the promise land because they did not believe in 2nd part of Tod's promise. Same is the case of many believers who do not believe in scarifying work of the spirit. God's full purpose for their salvation will not be fulfilled.