Notes on reading

I'm currently reading To Live is Christ, Beth Moore's book about the life of Paul. I've heard wonderful things about her Bible studies, so I had to get this book when I saw it at Barnes & Noble. I read a couple of quotes today that I want to remember. They really hit home. This passage follows her discussion about how the Pharisees wanted to shut Jesus up and make sure things stayed "finished" after His crucifixion.

A few very important things were finished, all right. But the Lord Jesus was not one of them...The very thing He finished we can't seem to leave alone; and the very thing He hasn't finished, we try to hald. The work of Calvary is finished. No more payment for sin is necessary. He did it all by Himself on the cross. We can't earn it. We can't add to it. It is finished. Yet we try to add our good works to His salvation.

However, the work He is doing on behalf of everyone who has accepted Christ as Savior is not finished. Salvation is finished. Sanctification is not. Completion is not. Philippians 1:6 promises that "He who tbegan a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Yet we wish He'd stop picking on us and let us be the boss...Give this thought some consideration: sometimes more effort is required to keep rolling the stone back over the tomb than simply to cooperate with the work He seeks to finish in us.

...Do we want the cross without the resurrection? Are we trying to stuff the living, working Christ back intot he tomb so He'll just save us and then leave us alone?