Finished - by James Newton

I heard a little story recently – a sort of parable that I found very encouraging...

There was once an old farmer who was a Christian. He was always wanting to share the Gospel with his neighbour who was a carpenter. But he encountered frustration, because this carpenter neighbour was quite religious and couldn’t get his head around the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. So the carpenter would always say something like “yes, I want to go to heaven but I’m trying as hard as I can to be good and I’m not sure I’m good enough”. And the farmer would say “but all you have to do is believe in what Jesus did for you on the cross – he’s done it all on the cross and provided total satisfaction to God for you on the cross – you can’t keep trying to satisfy God by your good works”. To which the carpenter would say something like “but that’s just too easy”.

Well, one day the farmer decided to teach the carpenter a lesson. So he commissioned the carpenter to build him a new gate for one of his paddocks. Now, the carpenter did a wonderful job. The gate swung perfectly on its hinges. It fitted perfectly in the jams of the fence so that there was a perfect gap all the way around. It latched smoothly. And it even looked good. The carpenter was proud of his work and brought the farmer out to show him. He said “Look here! I’ve given you a new gate and it works perfectly”. The farmer said “Thank you”. Then, picking up a couple of the carpenters tools, he said “but I’d just like to add a couple of finishing touches – a couple of final embellishments”. The carpenter stood in front of him and said “Wait, you don’t understand. It’s finished. To add to it would be to subtract from it.. To do one more thing to it would actually diminish it”. Then the farmer said “Think about what you just said. When Jesus died on the cross, he said “it is finished”. That means He has done everything there is to be done. You are completely satisfying to God – a sweet smelling fragrance to Him. Christ’s work is perfect like this gate. There is nothing you can do to add to it, and to try would be to subtract from it.”