Accomplished

 

“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

—Isaiah 40:1-2 NKJV

“Hold on,” you say. “That’s a Scripture passage that we heard preached during Advent!” Or even, “Isn’t that passage referring to the exiled Jews in Babylon? Are you saying they could now come home to Israel? And, are you saying this is an Easter passage?”

Think about it. Couldn’t this announcement refer even more to the work Christ accomplished on the cross? And, couldn’t this be the rightful message He could proclaim to His disciples on that Resurrection Sunday? Jesus ended the warfare that has come against us because of our sin. He died in our place and God brought Him back to life.

Jesus’ last words from the cross can be heard in this passage when He spoke, “It is finished.” To respond, we need only to accept that pronouncement over our sins and accept the work that He has already accomplished for us. We can stand in the wonderful position of peace with God through Jesus. Romans 5:1-2 tells us:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

This Easter, may we bask in the glory of the accomplished work of Christ, and sing with thanksgiving this now-accomplished Advent hymn:¹

Comfort, comfort ye my people,
  speak ye peace, thus saith our God.
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
  mourning ’neath their sorrow’s load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
  of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
  and her warfare now is over.

Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
  blotting out each dark misdeed.
All that well deserved his anger
  he no more will see or heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
  now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
  into ever-springing gladness.

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1 Olearius, Johannes (1671). Tr. by Winkworth, Catherine. Comfort, Comfort Ye My People. Public Domain.