Bible Questions Answered: Finished Work Of Christ

Bible Questions Answered:
What is this verse speaking about (Colossians 1:24)? Was Christ's work, sufficient, or can we by our own merits, add to it?
Jerold/ Viterbo, Italy

Bible Answers:

Colossians 1:24 NLT
I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.

Colossians 1:24 NAS
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

Colossians 1:24 AMP
[Even] now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed [on our part] of Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church.

Colossians 1:24-27 J.B. Phillips
I myself have been made a minister of this same Gospel, and though it is true at this moment that I am suffering on behalf of you who have heard the Gospel, yet I am far from sorry about it. Indeed, I am glad, because it gives me a chance to complete in my own sufferings something of the untold pains for which Christ suffers on behalf of His body, the Church. For I am a minister of the Church by divine commission, a commission granted to me for your benefit and for a special purpose: that I might fully declare God's word - that sacred mystery which up to now has been hidden in every age and every generation, but which is now as clear as daylight to those who love God. They are those to whom God has planned to give a vision of the full wonder and splendour of His secret plan for the sons of men. And the secret is simply this: Christ in you! Yes, Christ in you bringing with Him the hope of all glorious things to come.

How “very clear, “ the Word of God is regarding the subject of “works.”

Ephesians 2:8,9 KJV
[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
[9] Not of works, lest any man should boast.

What part of that simple verse, can we not understand?
“For by Grace are ye saved through Faith:”

“AND THAT “NOT OF YOURSELVES:
IT IS THE “GIFT OF GOD:”
NOT OF WORKS,
LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST.”

There is no such thing as salvation by Works: Education, Ordination, Accreditation, Baptism, Consecration, Edification, Nobility, SUFFERING-albeit for ourselves, or for others!

Salvation is not an Earned Benefit.
Salvation is by the Grace of God, through our Faith, and Confession, of Jesus Christ!

Isaiah 64:6 KJV
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Titus 3:4-7 KJV
[4] But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
[5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
[6] Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
[7] That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:4-7 NLT
4 But—“When God our Savior revealed His kindness and love,
5 He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
7 Because of His grace He declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

Hebrews 10:8-18 NLT
8 First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses).
9 Then He said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect.
10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ,
once for all time.
11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.
12 But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
13 There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under His feet.
14 For by that one offering He forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For He says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day,says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then He says,“I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

Romans 3:24 KJV
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Romans 6:23 KJV
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Much more could be said.

Colossians 1:24 NLT
I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for His body, the church.

Christ, suffered and died for our salvation.
His sacrifice was “Perfect, and Complete.”

John 17:4 KJV
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou (God the Father) gavest Me to do.

John 19:30 KJV (At the cross.)
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.

Nothing, absolutely, nothing may be added to the “Finished -Salvation-Work,” of Jesus Christ!

Revelation 22:18,19 KJV
[18] For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
[19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

What was the Apostle Paul saying?
I am glad when I suffer for you in my body,
for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for His body, the church.

The Work of salvation was a perfect, and completed work of Christ.
But we who are His followers, often meet with sufferings, as we do His work.

John 15:18-21 KJV
[18] If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.
[19] If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
[20] Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.
[21] But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.

John 16:33 KJV
These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

II Timothy 2:12 KJV
If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He also will deny us:

Philippians 1:29 KJV
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him,
but also to suffer for His sake;

Romans 10:10 KJV (There is no such thing as a Closet Christian.)
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Matthew 10:32,33 KJV
[32] Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.
[33] But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.

II Corinthians 4:10,11 KJV
[10] Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
[11] For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

II Corinthians 4:8-11 NLT
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.

Jesus warned:

Luke 9:23KJV
And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross daily, and follow Me.

Luke 14:27 KJV
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.

The Apostle Paul,
1)Preached the Gospel, and
2)Suffered for the Gospel. (And Paul said..”Now I rejoice in my sufferings...” NAS)

Salvation, is the “Finished Work of Christ.”
Publishing the Gospel, and Suffering for it, is yet ongoing, and will be, till the day of salvation is forever closed.

As members of Christ's church, we too, will have our sufferings.

I Peter 5:6,7 KJV
[6] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:
[7] Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.
[8] Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
[9] Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
[10] But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Romans 8:18 KJV
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.