...nothing like a job well done!

Monday, September 11, 2006

...nothing like a job well done!

Quite a few years ago, a group of us missionary kids used to gather together to do music with one of the missionary moms. We learned alot of "Patch the Pirate" (Ron Hamilton) songs. The chorus of one that I still remember well goes something like this:

"It's good old fashioned, callous-makin' back-bone-breakin' work
That's the secret formula - it's plain, hard, work!
I work all day; I work all night; I'm up with the mornin' sun
'Cause nothin' brings me satisfaction like a job well done!

The other day the song was going through my head. When I got to the last line I started thinking... "Nothing brings me satisfaction like a job well done..." That is how I am. I love to start a task, whether sewing, cleaning, baking or writing, and finish it well. But there is one work that was better done than any job I've done. When it was done, the One who accomplished it said, "It is finished."

Whenever I think of that song now, I think of the finished work of Christ. His death on the cross for my sins and his resurrection for my justification, totally satisfied the justice of God. It should totally satisfy me. What can I do to make up for my sin? Nothing. "It is finished."

There at the cross of Christ, my salvation was worked, and worked perfectly. It was a job well done. Nothing should bring me greater satisfaction. I not only believe in this, I must satiate my soul-thirst with it.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." - Rom. 3:23-26 ESV

It is finished!