Monday, August 8, 2011

Jesus Actually Accomplished Redemption

I am presently reading Michael Horton's The Gospel Commission: Recovering God's Strategy for Making Disciples. Though I am not far into this book, I find great sentences, paragraphs, and even pages that I'd love to quote! This particular paragraph contains a glorious truth!
Given the fact that we--and those to whom we are sent--are "dead in the trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), we do not have the authority or power to save ourselves or even to respond in faith apart from God's gracious liberation (Eph. 2:5, 8-9). The Great Commission would be a futile task if the ultimate power and authority lay in our hands or in the hands of those to whom we bring the gospel. Jesus Christ did not make it possible for us to be saved. He did not begin a work of redemption. He did not do "his part" so that we could do ours. Rather, Jesus Christ has accomplished everything. He has assumed our flesh. He has fulfilled all righteousness in our place and has borne the judgment for every one of our sins as our substitute. And he has been raised as the firstfruits of a whole harvest, the beginning of the resurrection from the dead. There is no more redeeming work to be done!
To this I say, Amen!

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