Jesus' Finished Work & Our Unfinished Work

Yesterday Joe preached on "The Finished Work of Christ." What a difference it makes to understand this!

One of my favorite Christian artists is Keith Green. He was one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian music in the 1970s, he had a large heart for ministry, and a heart for the Lord that was evident in his lyrics. The music sounds dated now, but I still love it.

However, Keith Green's theology wasn't perfect. (Neither is mine.) One of his most famous songs is "Pledge My Head to Heaven," and the rumor is that Bob Dylan plays harmonica on the song. Not sure if that's true, by the way. Anyway, the refrain in this song is:

I'm your child, and I want to be in your family forever
I'm your child, and I'm going to follow you no matter whatever
The cost
I'm gonna count all things loss...

I'm not sure this was intentional, but Keith Green expresses more confidence in his following of God than in his relationship to God! He wants to be in God's family forever; he is going to follow him "no matter the cost."

Almost two decades later, another of my favorite Christian artists covered this Keith Green song. However, he changed the refrain to this:

I'm your child, I'm gonna be in your family forever
I'm your child, I want to follow you no matter whatever
The cost
I want to count all things lost.

Notice how Steve Camp reversed things. There is a confidence concerning his relationship to God, and a humility concerning his own performance.

What a difference this makes as we seek to follow the Lord. We need to know for certain we are in his family. Then, with humility, we seek to follow him - knowing that he's with us no matter what.

Keith Green died in the early 1980s in a plane crash. He died with imperfect theology and imperfect works. I expect the same will happen to each of us. Maybe a Steve Camp will come along to clean up some of our rough edges, or maybe not. But what we can know for a fact is that Jesus' work is finished, making up for our lack!

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(As a side note, did you ever notice that contemporary Christian music introduced the words "gonna" and "wanna" into the musical vocabulary? I don't think you find these words in the hymns of Charles Wesley. But I'm gonna keep listening anyway, no matter the cost!)