Has Jesus Christ finished His work, or is He still finishing it?
Romans 10:4
For Christ is the end [“télos”] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
“Télos” refers to an “end-goal” or “purpose”, such as closure with all its results. It speaks of consummation, that is, the finishing and perfecting towards an end-goal or purpose .
Referencing HELPS Lexicon, the root (“tel-“) means “reaching the end (aim)” and is illustrated by an old pirate’s telescope – unfolding (extending) one stage at a time to reach full-capacity (effectiveness). Thus, “télos” refers to “consummation”, not “termination”. It conveys the various stages that are reached to go on to full development (eternal significance).
Hebrews 1:1-2
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Therefore, “Christ is the end (consummation) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes”. He brought all the components of the Law and the Prophets to their complete revelation and fulfilment by His perfect life and death.
However, does “the end (consummation) of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” end at the Cross? In other words, is the consummating work of Christ finished at the Cross, or will it only be finishing in these last days?
Matthew 24:14
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end [“télos”] will come.
1 Corinthians 1:7-8
…awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end [“télos”], blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The answer to the question is: It is finished, and it is finishing! Jesus Christ has brought all the components of the Old Testament to their complete fulfilment by His perfect (blameless or unblemished) life and death through His body at His first coming, and He will bring all the components in the heavens and on the earth to their eternal fulfilment through the perfect (blameless or unblemished) life and resurrection of His body, at His second coming.
Therefore, while Jesus Christ has consummated the “Law” for righteousness in His own body at the Cross, He is consummating the “law” for righteousness in everyone who believes and is grafted as members of His body, the church, in the last days. While Jesus Christ has consummated His testimonies by the Prophets at the Cross, He is still consummating the eternal purpose for which He designed, predestined, and foreshadowed from the foundation of the earth for the fullness of the times. While Jesus Christ has raised the temple of His body upon His resurrection, He is still building His church, and perfecting its stature, such that His body on earth can do the same works that He did – even greater works than He did – and subject all gates of hell – whether Satan, principalities, Anti-Christ, beasts, pestilences, or its enemies, etc. – under its feet in the last days.
Ephesians 1:8-10
…In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up [or consummation] of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.…
Looking through the “telos-cope” of the One who is the Beginning and the End (“télos”), the Author and Perfecter (“teleiōtēs”, or consummator) will continue to perfect and finish the work for His second coming through the finished work which He authored at creation and at His first coming since the Fall, using the perfect life of His body in the days of His incarnate flesh as the image of His body in the days of His incarnational flesh for the consummation of all things in Himself.
Therefore, just as He was at His death, so shall we conform to the image of His perfected body at His death; and just as He is in His resurrection, so shall we conform to the image of His perfect body at our resurrection.
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
Matthew 5:48
Therefore you are to be perfect [“téleios”, derived from “télos”], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
So, the outcome (“télos”) of our faith for the salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1:9) must be the image of the Son, so that the Son would be the firstborn among many brethren in the same image of the Father. It is this image of the Son that the Father seeks as the image of the Son’s bride; for the Pure and Spotless Bridegroom will only be joined to an equally pure and spotless bride as one body (c.f. 2 Corinthians 6:14).
Colossians 1:28
We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete [or perfect; “téleios”, derived from “télos”] in Christ.
Thus, the work of Christ is finished, and it will be finished, when we “attain to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13), such that we will be “an administration (or steward) suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth”; and then “the end (“télos”) will come”.
This is the eternal gospel of Christ’s “telos-cope” from the foundation of the world.
Are we viewing through the same “telos-cope” as Jesus Christ? Do we need to recalibrate our lenses to behold the required “télos” of our salvation?
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