It Is Finished

4/15/13              Andre                25

At the Post Office a young man named Andre was waiting for a letup in the rain before leaving, so I used a “million dollar” gospel tract as a conversation starter. Like so many people, he said he believes he is not perfect but “good enough to go to heaven.”  I used a “good person test” – based on the Ten Commandments – to show him his true condition as a sinner in need of forgiveness.  At the end I asked if he still thought he would go to heaven by the standard of God’s law.  “Yes, because I believe in Jesus” he said.  “But you just said you think you will go to heaven because you are good enough.  Now you say you believe in Jesus.  Which do you really trust in, your own goodness or Jesus?”  “Both,” he said, “we need both to be saved”  This was a good “teachable moment” for me to explain that what Jesus did on the cross was the perfect and complete sacrifice for our sins – that we can’t add anything to what Jesus did.  “To say that Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t enough to pay for our sin is actually very insulting, like His worth is limited.”  No, “It is finished” Jesus said right before He breathed His last.  Paid in full.  “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”     Colossians 2:13-14