I think people are sometimes so caught up in doing that they lose track of all that is done. This relates to both sides of salvation, before man is saved and after he is saved. It is after all, all God.
It is all God for salvation; it is all God for living after salvation. Even believing is all God; it is a grace gift from Him to you. No one left alone could or would believe. Having said this, do I understand why some believe and some don’t? No!
The cross is the central thing in history. It is factual, it happened just as it was recorded. Christ died, then He was buried and then He was raised. When He died, I died, when He was buried, I was buried, when He was raised, I was raised in Him to walk in newness of life. I believe this because the Bible says it in Romans 6:4.
I have a question, “Is it so because I believe it or is it so because He said it?” It is so because He said it. Another question, “Is the cross eternal?” Yes! Those in the Old Testament looked toward the cross. They did not understand this, but that is what they were doing when they believed YHWH.
The cross is where the atonement took place, not in the tabernacle, not in the temple. The sprinkling of blood on the Mercy Seat in the Holy Of Holies was a picture of the shed blood of Christ on the cross. Christ Himself is our atonement. When Jesus said that it was finished, it was finished.
This is what is amazing; it was finished before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4-6 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be Holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” All this was done before the foundation of the world.
Ok, another question. What part is our part in gaining all that was done for us before the foundation of the world on the cross that IS eternal? Answer, we don’t have a part, we believe that he did His part which is everything. Then we receive and believe Him for the gift that has been freely given to us which is His life.
People struggle with doing or not doing. Non-believers want to do something to earn it. Believers also want to do something to earn it. Righteousness is a gift, holiness is a gift, forgiveness is a gift, and life is a gift. Ok, another question, “When was it given?” Answer, it was given at the cross which is eternal. In eternity past, before the foundation of the world, this gift was given.
The Day of Atonement in the Old Testament is a picture of what was accomplished in eternity, but was fleshed out on the cross in time when Jesus willingly became sin so that because of the death of the last Adam we would become the righteous of God in Him. He then declared in time and eternity, “It is finished.” My only part is to receive and believe it.
When did righteousness, holiness, and forgiveness become ours? Some say when we believe. That would mean that it was in fact not finished. That would be the hanging chad of God’s grace gift to us. More to come later on this matter of the finality of the Cross, stay tuned. 
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