3-27-17<\/p>\n
The title I have given to our thoughts here is, on its face, presumptuous. I do not mean to dislodge anyone from their verse or passage of personal affection or wellsprings of faith and strength. Nor is there is there any reason to intrude on the essential symbolic and subjective value of a Bible passage any person holds dear.<\/p>\n
In a larger sense, objective rather than subjective, I have often held that Red-Letter Bibles contain unconscious irony. \u201cThe words of Jesus in red,\u201d the title page reads. But in a true sense the entire Bible should be printed in red type, no? Every word is inspired by God; dictated, as it were, by the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work\u201d (II Timothy 3:16 NLT).<\/p>\n
Another pitfall in addressing \u201cfavorite\u201d verses, or being too mechanical about them, is my recollection of a youth group getaway when I was young. A few of us snuck off to the chapel one night to read the Bible together. We had fervor, but we had nervousness too. We went around the circle, reading our favorite passages. I prayed for God to back me up, and trusted to share whatever page\u2019s verse I opened to. It turned out to be one of the interminable lists of \u201cbegats.\u201d Not only endless and, in that context, thin of relevance\u2026 but I scarcely could pronounce any of the ancient Hebrew names in the genealogy.<\/p>\n
There is the story, too, of the businessman who had escaped debts by declaring bankruptcy. He cited the Bible as his inspiration \u2013 that he opened the Book one night, pointed his finger at random, and saw it was on the words \u201cChapter 11.\u201d<\/p>\n
But to be serious, John 3:16 is often claimed as a favorite verse, and surely it is a foundation stone of our faith, or the essence of the gospel message. Other verses and passages sum up the law; or the doctrine of Grace; or the distinction between works and faith; or promises about healing, salvation, or eternal life. <\/p>\n
At one point in my life, enduring measures of distress, I heard the passage about God feeding even the sparrows; three times in one day, from three different sources \u2013 radio, TV, and a friend. That day I knew that God was shouting, not whispering, a reminder of that promise to me. And that has become a favorite passage.<\/p>\n
But my suggestion of a verse that could join every believer\u2019s list of favorite verses is what Jesus said on the cross as He breathed His last earthly breath:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
The verse demands more attention than most of us give; and it deserves more contemplation than most of us exercise. <\/p>\n
Some teachers explain that it was Jesus\u2019s way of saying was dying. Like, \u201cI am finished.\u201d To graft a Message sort of street-parlance contemporary version, \u201cI\u2019m outta here.\u201d Please forgive the unplugged spirituality \u2013 or in evitable worldly devolution of the Bible\u2019s sacred aspects. But, Jesus was not saying at that moment that He \u201cwas finished\u201d as a man, or even as Emmanuel, God-with-us. Neither was He saying that His earthly ministry was finished, although this is closer to the implications of His words.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was<\/em> \u201cit\u201d that was finished?<\/p>\n Especially, now, during Lent, as we should be looking forward to the significance of Holy Week, it helps if we think of the Easter season \u2013 the rejection, suffering, sacrifice, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord \u2013 as the nexus of history. Before then, everything looked forward to the Jesus moments. God\u2019s love; God\u2019s forbearance of His people\u2019s rebellion; God\u2019s commandments; God\u2019s wrath; God\u2019s forgiveness; God\u2019s laws and requirements of sacrifices; God\u2019s miracles; God\u2019s prophesies; God\u2019s promises, ultimately, of a Saviour.<\/p>\n Then came the events, foretold uncountable times in written and oral history by many and diverse writers in prose and poetry and song, looking toward the plan God always had \u2013 the salvation of humankind. The means to be reconciled to God. The only way to avoid damnation for our sins. The only path to communion with the Holy God. The plan of forgiveness. \u201cIt\u201d is the gospel message.<\/p>\n All of humankind\u2019s history turned during those days\u2026 centered, as it were, on the cross itself, literally where His heart was. All Heaven and Creation listened, and all of us, afterward, hang on those words, even as He hung on the cross.<\/p>\n Or\u2026 we should<\/em> hang on those words. Favorite Bible verse of ours or not, the meaning of \u201cIt is finished\u201d can be cherished as the perfect synopsis of the Bible\u2019s gospel message \u2013 the entire history of God and man in one phrase.<\/p>\n Because with His sacrificial death, \u201cIt\u201d was more than the ending of His ministry — No more healings? No more miracles for the Palestinian locals? His teachings were finished? All these things were true, but He had already promised that the Holy Spirit would come, enabling and empowering believers in Christ to do great things as He had done. However, none of those factors is the \u201cit\u201d Jesus meant.<\/p>\n Returning to Red Letter Bibles, I will note that older translations have verbs in italics, in many passages. This is because original texts wrote of events that HAD taken place, or WERE of earlier prophesies, but written in the present tense. Not \u201cwere,\u201d for instance, but \u201care.\u201d Or \u201cwill be.\u201d Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It could be confusing to readers, but the original texts spoke of spiritual matters of their times, or earlier times, in the present and future tenses.<\/p>\n In the same manner also, Jesus did not live<\/em> \u2013 He lives<\/em>. As my friend Rev Gary Adams of Kelham Baptist Church in Oklahoma City has pointed out, “tetelestai,” the word for “It is finished,” grammatically is the perfect tense. Completed action! Jesus dies for us every day\u2026 present tense. And we must die to self, and live for Him, every day.<\/p>\n When Christ said \u201cIt is finished,\u201d he was not referring to a chapter that closed when He breathed His last earthly breath. He means that at that moment that a new chapter begins. A chapter about each one of us, chapters in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life.<\/p>\n