But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
As we pondered this verse, we came to realize that whether it was our own sins or someone else’s, everything was forgivable, and nothing was a secret to God. All wrongs could be forgiven and thus, all minds could be made whole. Since God promised He would cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness, we were relieved to confess what we knew to be true about ourselves, no matter how distasteful.
We also felt liberated by the fact that we would be cleansed of whatever else was wrong with us. This was our troublesome state of unrighteousness, which in essence, were our damaged psyches. If our minds were to be cleansed of ALL unrighteousness, even the things we had forgotten or buried, we knew we could be completely clean and completely whole. We were safely positioned under the waterfall, jagged edges and all.
Tetelestai Recovery 2: Our New Normal; Chapter Three – Brainwashed
We needed a new mind, a new purpose, and a new sense of identity. It was in this prison of despair, we found the key to our freedom.
From this verdict of our King, emerged an energy which annihilated the grief of guilt, the harassment of hopelessness, and the agony of addiction. We noticed that Jesus’ final word, “Tetelestai,” translated into the English phrase,“It is finished,” seemed to imply a sense of giving up. We found this to be an unfortunate language barrier.
As it turns out, in the original Greek language of the New Testament, Tetelestai is a declaration of victory, completion, and success.
We needed a new mind, a new purpose, and a new sense of identity. It was in this prison of despair, we found the key to our freedom.
From this verdict of our King, emerged an energy which annihilated the grief of guilt, the harassment of hopelessness, and the agony of addiction.We noticed that Jesus’ final word tetelestai, translated into the English phrase, it is finished, seemed to imply a sense of giving up. We found this to be an unfortunate language barrier.
Tetelestai is the comment an artist might whisper after completing his final brush stroke on a masterpiece.
Tetelestai is the report a soldier would bring to his commanding officer when a battle was over, and victory had been secured.
We believe our Savior used His final breath on the cross to declare for all time, to all creation, in every dimension, that there is nothing left undone: It is finished; Tetelestai.
There is no more drudgery to sobriety and no more anguish to recovery. There is no self-effort which must be added to what has been declared, Tetelestai.
IT IS FINISHED
In matters of our recovery from substance addiction and the mental dysfunction which accompanied it, we were completely helpless. We had no thought which could heal our thoughts. We had no disclosure which could remove our secret shame. We had no detour which would lead us out of the darkness. We were lost. We were alone. We were afraid.
But suddenly, in a random, unexplainable moment, the gift of Tetelestai was revealed. We had run out of options, yet in that barren wasteland of emptiness, we stumbled upon a treasure trove of truth.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
Tetelestai Recovery: Finding Total Recovery in the Words of Christ, “It is Finished” https://a.co/d/bDUe2X7
There is an overpowering conflict which occurs within the mind of anyone who has encountered the desperation of addiction. The struggle to escape one’s own mind by flooding it with toxic levels of mood-altering chemicals is the true definition of insanity. Yet, many of us suffered from this fatal and debilitating disease, consenting to the madness as if there were no other option.
In search of total recovery, we discovered we were not only seeking to be delivered from our dependency on mind or mood-altering substances, but we also searched for freedom from our thought processes, our twisted perceptions, and our obsessive fears.
In this emotional state of chronic crisis, we were exhausted.
We struggled to be free from a mind which plotted its own demise. Our thoughts quite literally tormented us to the point of insanity. We needed a way to manage our feelings and silence our sickness.
Our problem was not that we felt guilty. The problem was that we were guilty.
We were damaged and we had caused damage.
We were hopeless and infused hopelessness into everything we touched.
We were in a death march toward nothingness and our lives had no direction.
Our primary purpose was to find a reprieve from ourselves.
Our public self was known by our private self as a fraud.
Tetelestai Recovery: Finding Total Recovery in the Words of Christ, “It is Finished”
The writer Mark tells us that this group of women went to that tomb expecting to find a corpse, but they still went. I suggest to you that Jesus works this way, even today. If you have just enough faith to seek Him in your despair, in your darkness, in your doubt, even if you don’t expect much, He’s going to give you more than you bargained for. He did for those women, and He still does it today. Marks’ gospel is more concise that the other 3, but it does reveal to us that where they laid Jesus is now a bare spot on the floor. He is GONE. The tomb is an empty place.
For centuries after this event, scholars have wrestled with this problem. In the first century, the Jews thought the disciples stole the body to promote their hoax. The disciples thought the Jews or the Romans had taken the body. The Romans weren’t sure because they had stationed a guard over the tomb. But NOBODY was saying that the body of Jesus was still in there.
Death and despair have been emptied of their power. Destructive forces do not have the final word. The empty tomb is the historical evidence for believing in the truth of the resurrection.
Look for Jesus in the last place you saw Him. It may have even been an unpleasant or traumatic experience, like it was for the women who went to the tomb that first Easter morning. Even if you have low expectations, give it one last shot. This may be the time you find new hope.
Finding Total Recovery in the Words of Christ, "It is Finished!" 