The Finished Work of Christ …

The last words of Christ on the cross were; “Father, it is finished, thy will is done” and with these words he yielded up the ghost and died for all mankind. In his great High Priestly prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John he expressed to the Father; “I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross, where he bore our sins and absorbed God’s just wrath that was rightly reserved for each of us thus redeeming us, is his finished work. But what does the finished work of Christ mean for each of us in our daily lives? Our moment by moment reality must be based on his finished work, but do we fully comprehend how the finished work of Christ applies to our Christian life? In our day to day struggle, living the Christian life is living in light of Christ’s finished work. It is living in the reality of what Christ has already accomplished. It is living with a deep awareness that Christ’s finished work is the only thing sufficient for our salvation.

We also know that our baptisms (water and spirit) are a necessary condition of our salvation which the Book of Mormon teaches as “the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 13:32). There is a wonderful teaching in the Bible in Romans 6 that if we are baptized into Christ, then we are baptized into his death (verse 3), our old man is crucified with Christ (verse 6), we are freed from sin and live with Christ (verse 7) and we are dead to sin (verse 11). If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor 5:17). Whosoever is born of God does not repeatedly, continually commit sin, for his seed remains in him, and we cannot continue to sin, because we are born of God (1 John 3:9, a wonderful Inspired Version emendation and the literal translation of the Greek).  We are no longer servants of sin, but servants to righteousness (Rom 6:17-18).

In the light of Christ’s finished work (the gospel) and as a covenant people, this is how we should live and Paul does an excellent job in his letter to the Romans explaining how the just should live by faith. Throughout his letter, he systematically unpacks his monumental statement found in versus 16-17 of the first chapter: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed through faith on his name; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” eloquently explaining our dilemma, its solution and how to live.

A generation ago Romans was studied in American law schools in order to teach students the art of presenting an argument. Under the direction of the spirit, Paul addresses our relationship with God, giving real answers to real questions. Without the correction and reproof found in God’s word, we would inherit foolishness in all the central areas of life and this generally begins at the place of what we believe about God. There are many, many examples in our world today of foolishness based on incorrect views of God.

We are finishing a study of “that which is to come” and how we should prepare our lives for the day in which we live. To further our preparation for Christ’s eminent return, we will next study the first eight chapters of Romans as elucidated by the Book of Mormon and latter day revelation to understand how the just live by faith. It is critically important in our day that the finished work of Christ, accomplished on the cross, is rooted deeply in our souls and drives and motivates our choices and actions. Your own prayerful study and contemplation of these eight chapters will enhance our collective study of them.