8th November 2024

Many years ago, I tried my hand at songwriting. It was a song about Jesus, with the title, Teleo, a Greek word which means ‘finished’, so named not because it marked the end of my career as a lyricist (although it proved to be so), but because ‘Teleo’ is the Greek translation of what is thought by many to be the last word Jesus uttered before he died on the cross.

I was reminded both of my failure and Jesus’s success as I read the lectionary reading for this weekend: Hebrews 9:24-28. In this passage, as indeed in much of the rest of the book, the author reassures us that Jesus’s redemptive mission has been well and truly accomplished.

After it was finished on the cross, ‘he entered heaven itself’ (v.24). Unlike the human high priests who, generation after generation, entered the holy of holies that was but a copy of the true heavenly sanctuary. Jesus sat down at the right hand of God the Father having made purification for all our sins.

After it was finished on the cross, he ascended into heaven by his own blood, not the blood of bulls and rams sacrificed in his stead (v. 25).

It is finished because he appeared ‘once for all to do away with sin.’ (v.26) because only the Lamb of God’s sacrifice is worthy to deal with the sins of humanity in perpetuity. 

And yet in one sense, Christ’s work remains unfinished. It is unfinished because he will come back a second time, not to be sacrificed again, but to deliver all those who eagerly await his return (v.28).

Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Central Glasgow 
Garnethill Room
Conference Suite
St Andrews West
260 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 4JP

Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am

Local congregational contact:   
Peter Mill
Email: edinburgh@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church