“So, when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” John 19:30
When the Lord Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit came and rested upon Him in visible fashion. Not only was this an important moment with regard to the mission that Jesus accepted from the Father, embracing it fully, but it was the moment when the Father provided the Holy Spirit in a specific manner so that Christ would be enabled to fulfill His mission, accomplishing His perfect work of redemption. Over three years would pass between the moment Christ was baptized and the moment when He died on Calvary. These were years being led by the Spirit, being filled by the Spirit, every day and every moment. His ministry was filled with good works, and gracious acts of God through Him, manifested by the healing of the sick, the delivering of those who were bound by Satan, or his demons, but primarily the saving of lost souls for which He came to save. However, His primary work or mission was to fulfill the law perfectly before the Father and sealing it with His blood shed on the cross. That perfect work whereby, not only the mercy and grace of God were revealed in greatest measure, but by which Christ presented to the Father a perfect righteousness which could be given to the seeking, lost soul, was finished. This is why in part, He would declare on the cross, after all had been accomplished, “It is finished.” Christ had finished His redemptive work to save mankind, specifically any single soul who would come to Him, and appeal to His mercy to be saved.
The finished work of Christ was the beginning of another work of God, not to accomplish a way of redemption for mankind, but to reach the untold multitudes of lost souls on this earth. This the living, exalted, and coming Christ would seek to do through His church, His living body on this earth. Though the “Great Commission” was given to a limited number of disciples before Christ’s ascension into heaven, every member of His body, since Pentecost, has received the provision, and promise by the Father and the Son, so that the Gospel should go forth to the ends of the earth. The reason for this is simple. Christ died to accomplish a perfect work of redemption, so that any and every lost soul could come to Him and be saved according to it. Now is the time, the “day of salvation,” the “acceptable time,” for the gospel to be spread to the ends of the earth. According to the truths of the Gospel, the power of God is available for all to be saved from sin and death, and to know the living Christ, the living God the Father, and this by the Spirit. So, what is the specific mission of the church, and how is it to be accomplished?
In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, and this after instructing Timothy how to conduct himself in the house of God, facing the different issues which would need to be addressed in his day, he specifically gives Timothy a charge, a command with the authority of Christ. He wrote: “I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: PREACH THE WORD! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4:1,2) Why did Paul specifically instruct Timothy to “Preach the word?” It was because there is power in the word of God, power by the Spirit of God which gives life to the helpless and hopeless soul.
Christ is working today in every member of His body to accomplish the work of reaching the world with the saving knowledge of the Gospel.
Dear Father, Accomplish Your work today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.