We're not Done

February 22

It Is Not Finished

Real faith is not only getting beyond our past: it’s recognizing that faith is an ongoing process. None of us “have arrived.” At best, we can say we’re “on the way.”

A big mistake many make is the notion that at any given moment we’re going to be complete and thus relieved from the prospect of additional construction. That is not and will never be the case.

While I’m not everything I want to be, I’m not all the things I once was. Our lives are filled with pressure and stress. This is not necessarily bad. Stress and tension, properly balanced, actually give us strength.

Faith involves having something in the distance to motivate us and keep us moving, as the apostle Paul admonished in his Epistle to the Philippians. We should “press on toward the goal.”

Faith gives us a focus for our future, helps us move in the direction of our destiny, and gives us the capacity to continue working toward a worthy legacy. -- Mike Huckabee, from Living Beyond Your Lifetime



Governor Huckabee has taken the words of Jesus as He expired on the cross, “It is finished,” John 19:20, and applied them to the unfinished work of our lives. While Jesus could affirm that the work of salvation was indeed done, we cannot make such claims where the work of our own lives are concerned.

Indeed, we cannot even know our mission to the degree that Jesus knew His, for His was purposed “before the foundation of the earth,” Revelation 13:8. In order to accomplish the mission set before Him, in order to redeem the souls of men from eternal damnation, Jesus accepted the role of Redeemer before man existed on the planet.

As Philippians 2:6 states very clearly, “He, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the fashion of a man. Being found in the likeness of men, He became obedient unto death—even the humiliating death on the cross.”

When that redemptive work was done, Jesus did not remain in the tomb. No! “He arose on the third day,” I Corinthians 15:4, “according to the scriptures.” Jesus spoke of His resurrection in numerous places in the gospels, among which is Matthew 16:21.

When mortal men appropriate the truth of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, they are set on the path of life eternal. They are promised that in all the trials they face, they will be “more than conquerors,” Romans 8:37, and that they will judge angels (see I Corinthians 6:3) and that they will reign with the Lord (see II Timothy 2:12).

As we can readily see, what Jesus completed on the cross and what He proclaimed to all men through His resurrection, we have only begun to proclaim when we lay our lives at His feet. Our service will continue until we slip this mortal coil and join Him in the heavenlies.