The Finished Work of Christ as Decreed in Eternity and Revealed Through the Plan of the Ages
The Finished Work of Christ: AUTHOR
By Carl Timothy Wray
Carl Timothy Wray is a teacher and writer devoted to unveiling the finished work of Christ as revealed from Genesis to Revelation. His writings focus on the eternal counsel of God, the reconciliation of all things, and the distinction between what was settled in heaven and what is revealed through time. With clarity and precision, he calls believers out of mixture and striving and into rest, faith, and alignment with what Christ has already accomplished.
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The Finished Work of Christ: INTRODUCTION
Before anything was created, before time began to unfold, before sin appeared or redemption was needed, God settled His works within Himself. Scripture does not present God as reacting to history, but as declaring it—speaking from completion long before manifestation. What Christ accomplished in time did not originate in time; it flowed from an eternal decree already finished in the heavens.
The finished work of Christ is often misunderstood not because Scripture is unclear, but because realms are confused. What was settled in heaven is frequently judged by what has not yet fully appeared in the earth. Eternal decree is mistaken for delay, and manifestation is mistaken for uncertainty. This confusion has left many believers divided in mind—affirming that something is finished while struggling to understand why it is still being revealed.
This book exists to make a clear and necessary distinction: between what was legally settled in God before the foundation of the world and how that settled work is revealed through the plan of the ages. God framed time not to negotiate outcomes, but to manifest what He had already decreed. The ages were ordered so that what was hidden in eternity could be expressed, experienced, and embodied in creation.
Until this distinction is seen, the finished work of Christ will always appear incomplete. But when eternal settlement is rightly understood, faith finds its foundation, patience finds its purpose, and revelation finds its order. What was settled in heaven is not undone by time—it is revealed through it, until God is all in all.
CHAPTER 1 — Known unto God Are All His Works from Eternity
Before God ever spoke light into darkness, before the heavens were stretched out or the earth was formed, God had already settled His works within Himself. Scripture does not present creation as the place where God decided what He would do. Creation is the place where what God had already decided began to appear.
“Known unto God are all His works from eternity.”
This single statement establishes the governing principle for understanding the finished work of Christ. God does not discover His works in time. He does not respond to events as they unfold. He does not adjust His purpose based on human failure or success. What God does in history flows from what He already knows and has already settled in eternity.
Eternity is not an endless extension of time. It is God’s own realm—where beginning and end are held together as one. From that realm, God speaks with certainty about things that have not yet appeared in the earth, because to Him they are already complete. This is why Scripture can speak of future manifestation in past tense. God speaks from completion, not from process.
This eternal vantage point is essential to understanding redemption. The finished work of Christ did not originate in response to Adam’s fall. It did not arise as a solution to a problem God failed to foresee. Christ was not introduced into history as a repair to a broken plan. He was the revelation of a plan that had always been complete.
This is why Scripture declares that Christ was “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” That statement is not poetic exaggeration. It is eternal language. It tells us that redemption was settled in God before creation was ever framed. Before sin entered the world, sin had already been addressed in the counsel of God. Before death appeared, death had already been judged. Before humanity was formed, reconciliation was already purposed.
God did not wait to see what man would do before deciding what He would do. He framed the ages according to His own will, ordering time so that what was settled in eternity could be revealed through history. The plan of the ages is not God improvising outcomes—it is God unveiling what He had already determined.
This is why the New Covenant speaks so confidently in past tense language:
He hath blessed us.
We have been reconciled.
We have been raised together.
We have been seated in heavenly places.
These are not aspirational statements. They are not conditional promises waiting to be activated. They are declarations spoken from God’s eternal perspective, grounded in what He has already accomplished in Christ.
Yet many struggle with these declarations because they judge eternal settlement by temporal appearance. They read Scripture as though God were speaking from the same limitations they experience. When manifestation has not yet appeared fully in the earth, they assume something must be unfinished in heaven. This assumption is the root of confusion.
Eternal settlement and temporal manifestation are not the same thing.
What God settles in eternity must be revealed in time, but revelation does not create reality—it unveils it. Time is not evidence of incompletion. Time is the medium through which what is complete becomes visible, experiential, and embodied.
This is why God created ages. The ages are not delays; they are ordered stages of revelation. Each age releases what the previous age prepared for, until the fullness of what was settled in God is expressed in creation. Law, grace, sonship, transformation, and glory are not competing truths—they are successive unveilings of one eternal purpose.
Understanding this restores clarity to the finished work of Christ. The work was finished in God before it was ever fulfilled in Christ. It was fulfilled in Christ before it was ever experienced in humanity. And it is being experienced in humanity according to the same plan of the ages that God framed from the beginning.
When this order is seen, faith finds solid ground. Faith no longer strives to make something true. Faith rests in what God has already declared true. Patience no longer feels like delay. Patience becomes agreement with God’s order of manifestation.
The finished work of Christ begins in eternity, not in history. And until Scripture is read from that vantage point, the gospel will always appear fragmented. But when eternal settlement is understood, the plan of the ages comes into focus, and the finished work of Christ is seen for what it truly is—complete, ordered, and unfolding exactly as God intended.
What was known unto God from eternity is now being revealed through time. And nothing—neither sin, nor death, nor delay—has the power to undo what God has already settled within Himself.
CHAPTER 2 — The Lamb Slain Before the Foundation of the World
Scripture does not say the Lamb was slain at the cross.
It says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
This statement immediately removes redemption from the realm of reaction and places it in the realm of eternal purpose. The cross did not introduce something new into God’s mind—it revealed something that had already been settled within Him. What appeared in history was not the beginning of redemption, but the unveiling of a decision already made.
The phrase “before the foundation of the world” is not symbolic language. It is positional language. It tells us where redemption was established and when it was settled—before time, before creation, before the ages were framed. The Lamb was not slain in response to sin; He was slain according to the counsel of God.
This is why Christ is never presented as Plan B.
If the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, then the fall of man did not surprise God, and redemption was not devised after failure occurred. The Lamb was already slain in God’s heart before Adam ever drew breath. Before sin entered creation, sin had already been addressed in eternity.
This does not diminish the cross—it magnifies it.
The cross is not the origin of redemption; it is the manifestation of it. What was settled in heaven had to be fulfilled in time. God did not merely decree redemption—He brought it into the realm of flesh, blood, suffering, obedience, and death. The eternal decree had to be walked out vitally, visibly, and historically.
This is why Jesus had to come.
He did not come to persuade God to forgive.
He did not come to negotiate redemption.
He did not come to create a new outcome.
He came to fulfill what had already been settled.
The incarnation was the point where eternal purpose entered time. The Word did not become flesh to change God’s mind; the Word became flesh to reveal God’s mind. Christ lived in perfect obedience not to earn righteousness, but to express righteousness already decreed. He suffered not to appease wrath, but to exhaust death’s authority. He died not to complete redemption, but to manifest its finality in the realm where death reigned.
When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” He was not announcing the beginning of redemption. He was declaring that what had been settled before the foundation of the world had now been fulfilled in time. The eternal decree had reached its appointed expression.
This is why Scripture can speak of redemption with absolute certainty. The finished work of Christ rests on something far stronger than human response—it rests on God’s eternal decision. Redemption is secure not because man believes, but because God decreed.
Yet this is also where confusion often arises.
Many read “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” and assume that if redemption was settled then, it must automatically appear everywhere immediately. But settlement does not bypass order. God does not collapse eternity into time; He unfolds eternity through time.
The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
The Lamb was manifested in history.
The Lamb is now revealed through the Spirit.
And the effects of that slaying continue to be manifested through the ages.
Each phase is ordered. None contradict the other.
What was settled before creation had to pass through creation to be experienced within it. Eternal life had to enter mortality. Victory over death had to walk through death. Reconciliation had to be embodied in flesh. This is not delay—it is design.
Understanding this preserves both sides of the finished work of Christ. It guards us from reducing redemption to abstract decree, and it guards us from treating manifestation as uncertainty. The Lamb was truly slain before the foundation of the world—and that slaying truly entered time, history, suffering, and death.
Nothing was added at the cross.
Nothing was altered.
Nothing was renegotiated.
The cross revealed what eternity had already declared.
When this is seen, the gospel is no longer fragile. Salvation no longer feels conditional. Faith no longer strains to make something real. Faith rests in what God has already finished and trusts His order for how it is revealed.
The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
The work was settled before time began.
And everything that follows unfolds from that eternal certainty.
CHAPTER 3 — The Legal Side of Redemption: What Was Settled
The finished work of Christ cannot be understood without first understanding the legal side of redemption. Until this foundation is laid, faith has no solid ground, assurance remains fragile, and manifestation is misunderstood as uncertainty. The legal side is not cold, abstract, or mechanical—it is the certainty of God’s eternal decision.
Legal does not mean impersonal.
Legal means settled, decided, final, irreversible.
Before anything was experienced in time, redemption was established in God. God did not hope redemption would work; He decreed that it would. The legal side of redemption refers to what God settled within Himself—unchangeable, complete, lacking nothing—before it ever appeared in creation.
This is why the New Covenant is saturated with past-tense language.
Scripture does not say God will bless us.
It says He hath blessed us.
It does not say we will be reconciled.
It says we have been reconciled.
It does not say we will one day be joined to Christ.
It says we have been joined together.
These statements are not written from human perception. They are written from God’s eternal vantage point. They are legal declarations flowing from a settled decree, not emotional encouragements meant to inspire hope.
The legal side of redemption establishes truth before experience.
This is critical. Faith cannot exist without legal certainty. Faith is not optimism; faith is agreement with what God has already declared true. Without the legal side, faith becomes wishful thinking. With the legal side, faith becomes rest.
God did not wait for humanity to respond before declaring redemption complete. Redemption was not conditioned on belief, obedience, or understanding. It was grounded entirely in Christ and decreed apart from human participation.
This is why Scripture can say:
“While we were enemies, we were reconciled.”
Reconciliation did not begin when hostility ended. Hostility ended because reconciliation had already been decreed. The legal side does not respond to behavior—it establishes reality.
Much confusion arises when people equate legal with “unreal” and vital with “real.” In truth, the legal is more real than the vital, because the legal establishes what the vital must eventually reveal. Experience does not define truth; truth defines experience.
This is where many stumble.
They affirm that something is finished legally, but then look to experience to validate it. When manifestation does not appear immediately, they assume something must be incomplete. But manifestation was never meant to prove settlement. Manifestation flows from settlement according to order.
The legal side of redemption answers the question:
Is this secure?
And the answer is yes—because it rests on God’s decree, not human performance.
Nothing in the legal side of redemption can be undone. It is not maintained by effort. It is not threatened by failure. It does not fluctuate with understanding. It stands because God stands behind it.
This is why the finished work of Christ produces rest when rightly understood. Rest does not come from seeing everything manifested; rest comes from knowing everything has been settled. When legal certainty is absent, striving takes its place. When legal certainty is present, patience becomes possible.
The legal side of redemption does not deny manifestation. It makes manifestation inevitable.
What God has settled must appear.
What God has decreed must be revealed.
What God has finished must be expressed.
But it will be expressed according to His order, not human urgency.
The legal side is the foundation upon which the plan of the ages unfolds. Without it, the ages appear chaotic. With it, the ages reveal precision, purpose, and progression. Law, grace, sonship, transformation, and glory are not attempts to complete redemption—they are stages in revealing what was already complete.
Until the legal side is clearly seen, the finished work of Christ will always feel partial. But when it is understood, faith finds its footing, assurance becomes unshakable, and patience is no longer confused with delay.
The finished work of Christ was settled legally before it was ever experienced vitally. And because it was settled in God, it cannot fail in creation.
What was decreed in eternity stands secure.
What stands secure will be revealed.
And nothing—neither time nor resistance—can overturn what God has already settled within Himself.
CHAPTER 4 — Why Settlement Is Not Manifestation
One of the greatest causes of confusion surrounding the finished work of Christ is the failure to distinguish between settlement and manifestation. When these two are blended without order, believers are left trying to reconcile eternal declarations with temporal experience, often concluding that something must be unfinished or delayed. In reality, nothing is unfinished—only unrevealed.
Settlement establishes reality.
Manifestation reveals reality.
They are not the same, and they were never meant to be.
What God settles in eternity does not instantly appear in creation. Not because God lacks power, but because God has order. Eternity does not collapse into time; eternity unfolds through time. The finished work of Christ was settled before the foundation of the world, fulfilled in Christ, and is now being revealed through the plan of the ages.
This distinction is essential.
If settlement automatically equaled manifestation, there would be no need for time, no need for ages, and no need for patience. But God created time as a delivery system—not as evidence of delay, but as the means by which what was settled could be expressed, embodied, and experienced within creation.
Manifestation does not determine truth.
Truth determines manifestation.
Yet many reverse this order. They judge what God has settled by what they can currently see, feel, or experience. When manifestation does not immediately appear, they assume the work must be incomplete. This is not faith—it is sense-based interpretation.
Scripture never asks believers to validate God’s word by experience. It asks believers to walk by faith, not by sight. Faith agrees with what is settled even when manifestation has not yet appeared.
This is why Scripture can say in one place that death hath been abolished, and in another that death shall be destroyed. These statements are not contradictory—they are positional. One speaks from settlement; the other speaks from manifestation.
Death is abolished legally.
Death is being abolished vitally.
Both are true. Both are necessary. Neither cancels the other.
Legal settlement declares the end from God’s perspective. Vital manifestation reveals that end through ordered experience. To deny either side is to lose balance. To confuse them is to become double-minded.
God does not speak in confusion. He speaks from perspective.
When God speaks from eternity, He speaks from completion.
When God speaks through time, He speaks through process.
Understanding where God is speaking from is the key to rightly dividing the word of truth. Without this discernment, Scripture appears inconsistent. With it, Scripture becomes precise.
The plan of the ages exists because manifestation requires order. God did not intend for what was settled in heaven to appear all at once in the earth. He designed stages of revelation—each age unveiling what the previous age prepared for. This does not weaken the finished work; it honors it.
If manifestation were instant, faith would be unnecessary.
If manifestation were instant, patience would be meaningless.
If manifestation were instant, sonship would never mature.
God is not merely interested in outcomes—He is interested in expression. He desires what was settled in Him to be lived, embodied, and revealed through a people. That requires time, growth, and ordered unveiling.
Settlement gives faith its foundation.
Manifestation gives faith its expression.
When this distinction is not seen, believers either retreat into abstract theology that never touches life, or they chase experiences without foundation. Both extremes produce instability. The finished work of Christ was never meant to be frozen in eternity or rushed into manifestation. It was meant to be revealed according to God’s wisdom.
Settlement guarantees manifestation.
Manifestation does not create settlement.
Once this order is understood, the believer is freed from anxiety. Time no longer feels like resistance. Process no longer feels like denial. What God has settled cannot fail to appear. It will be revealed exactly as He designed—through the unfolding of the ages, until what was hidden in heaven is fully expressed in earth.
The finished work of Christ is not delayed.
It is being revealed.
And revelation always follows order.
CHAPTER 5 — The Plan of the Ages: How God Gets It Out
Once it is understood that the finished work of Christ was settled in eternity and fulfilled in Christ, the next question becomes unavoidable: How does what was settled get revealed in creation? Scripture answers this question with clarity—through the plan of the ages.
God did not create time because He needed it.
He created time because manifestation requires order.
The ages are not random historical periods. They are not human classifications imposed on Scripture. They are divine administrations—carefully framed stages through which what was settled in God is revealed, expressed, and embodied in creation.
“By whom also He made the ages.”
This statement tells us that God did not merely create the universe; He framed the ages themselves. Time was designed with purpose. Each age carries a specific function, revealing a particular aspect of what was already complete in God.
The plan of the ages exists because God chose revelation over instant appearance. What was finished in heaven was never meant to bypass experience in the earth. It was meant to pass through experience—law, promise, incarnation, death, resurrection, Spirit, sonship—until the fullness of what was settled is made visible.
This is why Scripture speaks in stages:
Law prepared the ground.
Grace revealed the gift.
Sonship manifests the life.
Glory completes the expression.
These are not competing messages. They are progressive unveilings of one finished work.
The law did not fail; it served.
Grace did not replace the law; it fulfilled it.
Sonship does not cancel grace; it reveals its purpose.
Each age releases what the previous age concealed.
This is also why Scripture speaks of increase—increase of light, increase of glory, increase of revelation. Increase does not mean God is changing His mind. It means creation is catching up to what God has always known.
God speaks from the end.
Creation experiences from the beginning.
The ages are the bridge between those two perspectives.
Without understanding the plan of the ages, people assume that present limitation means unfinished work. They interpret delay where God intended development. But the ages were never meant to measure God’s progress—they were meant to govern ours.
The plan of the ages explains why Scripture can say both:
“He hath abolished death,” and
“Death shall be destroyed.”
One speaks from decree.
The other speaks from manifestation.
Both belong to the same plan.
God is not waiting to decide what He will do next. He is unveiling what He decided before the foundation of the world. Each age releases a greater measure of what was already settled, until the fullness of the finished work is expressed in creation.
This is why patience is essential to faith. Patience is not endurance of uncertainty; it is agreement with God’s order. Faith rests in what is settled. Patience walks with how it is revealed.
The plan of the ages protects the finished work of Christ from distortion. Without it, people either rush manifestation prematurely or deny it altogether. With it, manifestation is expected—just not forced.
What God has settled must appear.
But it will appear according to His order.
The ages move from shadow to substance, from promise to fulfillment, from declaration to embodiment. What began hidden in God is brought into expression through time, until creation fully reflects what was settled in heaven.
The plan of the ages is not God delaying fulfillment.
It is God faithfully revealing it.
And when this is understood, the finished work of Christ is no longer seen as partial or postponed. It is seen as complete, ordered, and unfolding exactly as God intended—until all things are gathered together in Christ and God is all in all.
CHAPTER 6 — The Word Became Flesh: Settlement Enters Time
What was settled in heaven could not remain hidden there. God’s purpose was never merely to decree redemption, but to express it. What was finished in eternity had to enter time, not to be decided again, but to be lived out. This is the meaning of incarnation.
“The Word became flesh.”
This statement does not describe God changing His mind. It describes God revealing His mind. The Word did not become flesh to create redemption; the Word became flesh to manifest redemption. What was settled before the foundation of the world stepped into the realm where it could be seen, touched, handled, and experienced.
Jesus did not come to negotiate outcomes.
He came to walk out conclusions.
Everything Christ lived, obeyed, suffered, and overcame was already settled in God. Yet settlement alone does not fulfill purpose. Purpose is fulfilled when what is settled is expressed. God desired sons who would not merely hear of redemption, but live from it. For that to happen, redemption had to be embodied.
This is why Jesus had to come in the flesh.
Eternal life had to enter mortality.
Righteousness had to walk among sinners.
Victory over death had to pass through death.
Christ did not bypass the human condition; He entered it fully. He did not stand outside humanity fixing it from a distance. He joined humanity from within, carrying what was settled in heaven through every aspect of human experience.
Jesus did not live by improvisation. He lived by alignment. Every step of obedience, every word spoken, every act of love flowed from agreement with what the Father had already declared. He did not seek to discover God’s will—He expressed it.
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
This statement reveals something critical: the work Jesus finished was not His own invention. It was the work the Father had already given Him. Jesus did not finish a plan that began at His birth; He finished a work that existed before time began.
In Christ, eternal settlement met human experience.
He did not suffer to persuade God.
He suffered to exhaust death’s authority.
He did not obey to earn righteousness.
He obeyed to reveal righteousness.
He did not die to complete redemption.
He died to manifest its finality in the realm where death ruled.
This is why Scripture says that through death He destroyed the one who had the power of death. Death could not be defeated by decree alone; it had to be entered and overcome from the inside. Christ walked through what humanity feared most and emerged victorious—not changing the decree, but proving it.
The incarnation teaches us that God does not shortcut expression. What He settles, He walks out. What He decrees, He embodies. Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God—not revealing a new intention, but revealing an eternal one.
This also explains why Christ’s life matters as much as His death. His obedience was not incidental. His suffering was not symbolic. His resurrection was not merely confirmation. Each phase revealed what was already settled and carried it further into manifestation.
The Word became flesh so that what was settled in heaven could be experienced in earth.
And in doing so, Christ became the pattern—not just the payment, not just the substitute, but the forerunner. He showed what it looks like when eternal life fully enters the human condition.
This is why the finished work of Christ cannot stop at legal settlement or historical fulfillment. It moves toward embodiment. What was settled in God and fulfilled in Christ is now being revealed through humanity according to the same plan of the ages.
The incarnation was not the end of revelation.
It was the beginning of manifestation.
The Word became flesh—not to change what was settled, but to bring it into experience. And because Christ walked it out faithfully, what was settled in heaven now has a living witness in the earth.
The finished work of Christ did not remain distant.
It drew near.
It took on flesh.
And it entered time—so that what was settled eternally could be lived vitally.
CHAPTER 7 — “It Is Finished” Spoken from Fulfillment, Not Origin
When Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” He was not announcing the beginning of redemption. He was declaring the completion of what had already been settled before the foundation of the world. The cross did not originate the finished work of Christ—it fulfilled it in time.
This distinction is essential.
If “It is finished” is treated as the starting point of redemption, the gospel becomes reactive and fragile. But when it is understood as a declaration spoken from fulfillment, the gospel becomes anchored, ordered, and unshakable. Jesus did not finish something that had just begun; He finished what the Father had already given Him to do.
“The work which You have given Me to do.”
That work did not begin in Bethlehem.
It did not begin at the Jordan.
It did not begin at Calvary.
It began in the eternal counsel of God.
When Jesus spoke “It is finished,” He was not speaking from pain, exhaustion, or relief. He was speaking from alignment. The eternal decree had now passed fully through obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection. What was settled in heaven had now been walked out completely in the earth.
The cross is not the place where God decided to redeem.
It is the place where God revealed that redemption was complete.
This is why Scripture never speaks of Christ’s work as provisional. It does not say redemption is awaiting confirmation, activation, or reinforcement. It says redemption has been obtained, reconciliation has been accomplished, and death has been defeated.
“It is finished” is not transactional language.
It is completion language.
Jesus did not say, “The price is paid,” as though an account were still being managed. He said, “It is finished,” because the work itself had reached its appointed end. The purpose of the ages up to that moment had been fulfilled.
This also explains why the veil was torn.
The tearing of the veil was not symbolic drama—it was legal revelation. Access was not being opened gradually; it was being declared fully available. The old order had reached its conclusion. The new had arrived, not as a promise, but as a reality.
Yet confusion arises when people expect the declaration of completion to mean the immediate appearance of every effect everywhere. They assume that if Christ finished the work, then nothing should remain to be revealed, experienced, or unfolded. But Scripture never equates fulfillment with universal manifestation.
Fulfillment confirms settlement.
Manifestation reveals fulfillment.
Jesus fulfilled the eternal decree in time. That fulfillment now stands as the unmovable foundation upon which all subsequent manifestation rests. What remains is not completion, but revelation.
This is why the apostles preached from accomplishment, not anticipation. They did not say, “God will reconcile the world.” They said, “God has reconciled the world.” Their message was not instruction on how to complete redemption, but proclamation of what had already been completed.
And yet, they also spoke of what shall be revealed.
Death hath been abolished.
Death shall be destroyed.
Both statements are true because they speak from different vantage points. “It is finished” speaks from fulfillment—where the eternal decree has now passed through history and stands complete in Christ. What follows is the unfolding of that fulfillment through the plan of the ages.
Jesus did not speak “It is finished” to end the story.
He spoke it to secure the ending.
Nothing remains undecided.
Nothing remains conditional.
Nothing remains fragile.
The work is finished in Christ.
The revelation of that work continues.
And because the work is finished, what is revealed cannot fail. What unfolds cannot contradict what was settled. The declaration of completion stands as the immovable anchor for everything that follows—sonship, transformation, glory, and God being all in all.
When “It is finished” is rightly understood, striving ceases. Faith no longer tries to add. Patience no longer doubts the outcome. The believer rests not because everything is already visible, but because everything has already been secured.
The work did not begin at the cross.
The work was fulfilled at the cross.
And because it was fulfilled there, it will be revealed everywhere it was intended to appear.
The finished work of Christ stands complete—not as an ending that halts God’s purpose, but as a fulfillment that guarantees it.
CHAPTER 8 — Death Hath Been Abolished vs Death Shall Be Destroyed
Few statements expose misunderstanding of the finished work of Christ more clearly than the way Scripture speaks about death. In one place, the Bible declares that death hath been abolished. In another, it proclaims that death shall be destroyed. To the natural mind, these statements appear contradictory. To the spiritual mind, they reveal order.
The contradiction is not in Scripture.
The contradiction is in perspective.
Death hath been abolished.
Death shall be destroyed.
Both statements are true because they speak from different realms and different vantage points. One speaks from eternal settlement and fulfilled decree. The other speaks from manifestation through the plan of the ages.
When Scripture says that Christ “hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” it is speaking from the legal and accomplished side of redemption. From God’s eternal perspective, death has already been judged, condemned, and stripped of authority. Its end is not uncertain. Its defeat is not in question.
Abolished does not mean ignored.
Abolished means rendered powerless.
Death no longer holds legal dominion. It no longer governs humanity’s destiny. It no longer defines the future of creation. Its authority ended when Christ fulfilled the eternal decree by passing through death and emerging victorious.
Yet Scripture also declares that death shall be destroyed, and even identifies death as the last enemy. This language speaks not from settlement, but from manifestation. An enemy can be legally defeated before it is fully removed from experience. Judgment can be pronounced before enforcement is complete.
This is not inconsistency—it is precision.
Legal abolition declares the outcome.
Vital destruction reveals the outcome.
God does not speak from confusion. He speaks from position. When He speaks from eternity, He speaks from completion. When He speaks through time, He speaks through unfolding.
This is why Scripture freely moves between hath, is, and shall without apology. God is not bound by time; He speaks across it. What is settled in Him appears progressively in creation according to His order.
Many stumble here because they expect manifestation to validate settlement. They assume that if death still appears in experience, then death must not truly be abolished. This reverses God’s order. Manifestation does not prove settlement—settlement guarantees manifestation.
If death were not legally abolished, it could not be destroyed.
If death were not already judged, it could not be removed.
The legal verdict precedes the vital outcome.
This distinction also explains why Scripture speaks of believers as having already passed from death into life, while still living in a world where death appears active. The passage from death to life is not dependent on physical circumstances—it is dependent on legal reality. Life has been granted. Immortality has been brought to light. The authority of death has been broken.
What remains is not decision, but revelation.
Death’s destruction unfolds through the same plan of the ages that governs everything else God has settled. It does not happen randomly or instantly. It unfolds as what is true in heaven is revealed in earth—first in Christ, then in a people, and finally in all creation.
This is why creation groans—not because the outcome is uncertain, but because the manifestation is still in process. Creation does not groan in doubt; it groans in anticipation.
When these distinctions are not seen, believers become double-minded. They affirm that death is defeated, yet fear its power. They confess life, yet expect death as inevitable. They hear “It is finished,” yet live as though the outcome remains undecided.
But once the distinction is understood, clarity comes.
Death is abolished in decree.
Death is being abolished in manifestation.
One speaks from heaven.
The other speaks from earth.
Neither contradicts the other. Together, they reveal the full counsel of God.
The finished work of Christ does not deny present experience. It reinterprets it. It teaches us not to judge God’s word by appearances, but to interpret appearances by God’s word. What God has settled cannot fail to appear. What He has declared finished cannot remain unrealized forever.
Death hath been abolished.
Death shall be destroyed.
And because the first is true, the second is inevitable.
Understanding this frees the believer from confusion and fear. It restores confidence in God’s word and patience in God’s timing. The finished work of Christ is neither partial nor postponed. It is complete in decree and unfolding in manifestation.
What was settled in heaven is being revealed in earth.
And death’s end is not a possibility—it is a certainty.
CHAPTER 9 — Why Confusion Produces Double-Mindedness
Double-mindedness does not arise from rebellion or lack of sincerity. It arises from mixture—from hearing truth spoken from eternity and judging it by experience lived in time. When legal settlement and vital manifestation are not distinguished, the mind is pulled in two directions at once, affirming what God has said while doubting how it can be true.
Scripture does not describe the double-minded person as wicked.
It describes them as unstable.
Instability is not caused by evil intent; it is caused by unclear vision.
When believers hear that the work is finished, yet see unfinished conditions around them, they are forced to reconcile two realities without a framework. Without understanding where God is speaking from, they conclude that either Scripture exaggerates or experience has final authority. Both conclusions weaken faith.
This is why James speaks so directly:
“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Double-mindedness is not emotional fluctuation—it is interpretive confusion. It happens when the same person tries to read Scripture from eternity and time simultaneously, without knowing which realm is speaking.
God speaks from completion.
Man often listens from process.
Without distinction, certainty collapses.
This confusion often shows up in statements like:
“I know it’s finished, but…”
“I believe God has done it, yet…”
“I trust the Word, however my experience says…”
These are not statements of unbelief; they are symptoms of unresolved order. The mind has not been taught how to hold eternal decree and temporal unfolding together without contradiction.
When legal settlement is ignored, faith becomes fragile.
When manifestation is denied, theology becomes abstract.
Both extremes create instability.
God never intended believers to live suspended between hope and doubt. Faith was designed to rest on what is settled, while patience walks through how it is revealed. When these are separated, faith turns into effort. When they are confused, patience turns into frustration.
This is why Scripture calls for a “single eye.”
The single eye does not deny process.
It interprets process correctly.
The single eye sees from God’s vantage point first, then understands experience in light of that truth. It does not ask experience to explain Scripture; it allows Scripture to interpret experience.
Double-mindedness disappears the moment the distinction is seen.
Once a believer understands that:
God speaks in past tense from eternity
God allows future tense in time for manifestation
the tension dissolves. What once felt contradictory becomes ordered. What once felt delayed becomes purposeful. What once felt uncertain becomes assured.
This clarity does not remove mystery, but it removes confusion.
Faith becomes grounded.
Patience becomes meaningful.
Hope becomes certain.
The finished work of Christ was never meant to produce mental strain. It was meant to produce rest. That rest cannot exist where realms are mixed and order is ignored. But when the legal foundation is honored and manifestation is expected according to God’s plan, the mind settles into peace.
Double-mindedness is not cured by stronger belief.
It is cured by clear distinction.
When the believer sees what was settled in heaven and understands how it is revealed in time, the heart no longer wavers. God’s word no longer feels exaggerated. Experience no longer feels threatening. The two finally align.
The finished work of Christ does not ask the believer to deny what they see. It asks the believer to see correctly.
And when sight is restored, instability gives way to confidence, striving gives way to rest, and confusion gives way to revelation.
CHAPTER 10 — Why This Distinction Must Be Seen First
Every revelation has an order, and every unveiling has a foundation. The distinction between what was settled in heaven and what is revealed through time is not a secondary insight—it is the starting point. Until this distinction is seen, the finished work of Christ will always appear partial, confusing, or contradictory, no matter how sincerely it is believed.
God does not begin with manifestation.
He begins with decree.
If decree is not understood, manifestation will always be misread.
This is why many stumble when they move too quickly to questions of experience, transformation, sonship, or glory. Without first seeing what was settled legally before the foundation of the world, believers attempt to build faith on outcomes instead of on certainty. The result is striving, frustration, and instability.
The legal side of redemption must be seen first because it establishes truth independent of experience. It gives faith a foundation that does not fluctuate. It answers the question of security before the question of manifestation is ever asked.
If what God has done is not settled, then nothing that appears can be trusted.
But if what God has done is settled, then everything that appears has meaning.
This distinction also protects the believer from misreading Scripture. Without it, past-tense declarations are dismissed as symbolic, future promises are treated as delay, and present realities are judged as contradiction. With it, Scripture becomes ordered, precise, and harmonious.
God speaks as:
- He who was — eternal settlement
- He who is — fulfillment in Christ
- He who shall be — manifestation through the ages
This is not poetic language. It is the full counsel of God.
Book One has focused intentionally on He who was—what was settled in heaven before the foundation of the world. Without this starting point, the present work of Christ and the future manifestation of His life cannot be rightly understood.
This is why this distinction must be seen first.
Manifestation without settlement produces striving.
Settlement without manifestation produces abstraction.
God’s purpose requires both—but in the right order.
The finished work of Christ is not static theology. It is living truth, moving from decree to fulfillment to expression. But it must move in sequence. God does not reveal sons before establishing sonship. He does not reveal glory before securing righteousness. He does not manifest life before abolishing death.
The order is intentional.
Once this distinction is understood, the next question arises naturally—not from confusion, but from clarity:
If the work was settled in heaven and fulfilled in Christ, how does it now appear in the earth?
Scripture answers that question plainly. Creation itself waits—not for redemption to be completed, but for redemption to be revealed. The manifestation of the sons of God is not an afterthought; it is the next stage in the same plan of the ages that began before time.
Book One has established the foundation.
Book Two will explore manifestation.
Not as uncertainty.
Not as effort.
But as the inevitable revealing of what was already settled.
The finished work of Christ does not end with decree.
It does not stop at fulfillment.
It moves toward expression—until what was hidden in God is fully revealed in creation.
What was settled in heaven stands secure.
What stands secure will be revealed.
And what is revealed will not fail.
This distinction must be seen first—because everything that follows depends on it.
The Finished Work of Christ: AUTHOR
By Carl Timothy Wray
Carl Timothy Wray is a teacher and writer devoted to unveiling the finished work of Christ through the full counsel of God. His writings focus on the eternal settlement of redemption in heaven and its ordered revelation through the plan of the ages. With clarity and precision, he distinguishes between the legal and vital dimensions of redemption, calling believers out of confusion, striving, and mixture into rest, faith, and alignment with what Christ has already accomplished.
Read The Finished Work of Christ Series:
- The Finished Work of Christ — The Ten Most Asked Questions Revealed
- The Finished Work of Christ — The Ten Most Asked Questions Answered
- The Finished Work of Christ — Settled in Eternity, Lived Out in Life Daily
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