So, Gorgeous…

The Word for today:
Hebrews 10:1-18

mark this: Hebrews 10:11-12
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

When Jesus finished his work of re-creation, he sat down. A Bible line like that is meant to ring a bell.

It’s meant, of course, to bring us back to the time when God finished his work of creation and rested (Genesis 2:3).

God wants us to draw these parallels for many reasons. First of all, he wants us to rest assured that (as Jesus triumphantly declared from the cross) It is finished, complete. There is nothing we have to do and nothing we can do to improve on what he’s done.

Think of yourself as a master work of art. If you don’t, you’d better start thinking that way because the Word of God says you are:

For we are God's workmanship (Greek "poema") created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

The Greek word “poema,” here rendered as “workmanship,” is the word from which we get the English word “poem.” Literally, it means that those who trust in Christ are God’s masterpieces, written (or fashioned) by the very hand of God.

I like to think of myself as something akin to the perfect “David” by the great Michelangelo! You may scoff, but that’s scriptural and—here’s the point—anything less is unscriptural. God sees us complete and perfect in Jesus.

While we still see ourselves in process but not yet there, God sees what we shall be. Time does not obstruct his view. And this, of course, is what we shall be:

We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

So many of the mysteries of scripture are cleared up when we see the ultimate, through the eternal eyes of God; when we understand that the Kingdom of God is both now and not yet; and that heaven is all the way from here to there.

In an ultimate realm that is more real than the shadows we can see, we already are who we shall be. The poema is finished, and we, too, are at rest:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6)

God saw that physical creation was good (1), even very good (2), and he said so. But he sees you as his masterpiece, and says so. We ought to stop trying so hard to get where we are.

So, Gorgeous, you can call me David if you want to.

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(1) Genesis 1:25; (2) Genesis 1:31