Bibles, if you will please, to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. We’re continuing our studies on the Bible’s story of salvation and the Bible’s description of salvation, working our way toward the various doctrines that make up salvation. Today the subject is the two ages: salvation now and not yet. And I might as well say it now, part one.
I love, and I hope you do, but I love big-picture things. I love seeing broad perspective from the Scripture on various subjects, and this one is just huge. The frustration with it and preparing to preach to you about it is trying to contain it all. I want you to be able to see the big picture all at once, but then to cover it all is impossible in one message, and so, well, this time at least we’ve got to split it up. So, the two ages, salvation now and not yet.
Romans chapter 13. Let’s begin our reading with verse eight:
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and any other commandments are summed up in this word, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness and sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
We’ll focus primarily on verse 11, so let’s look at that again. “Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Let’s bow together for prayer.
Our Father, we are thankful for this great salvation that you have given to us. We’re thankful for your grace in bestowing it, and we’re thankful for the way that you have told us all about it in your Word so that we may exalt and rejoice in it. We ask that you would bless us to that end this morning, that you would, by your Spirit, pursue your Word to our hearts, that we may rejoice in Christ more fully and we may trust him more firmly. In his name we ask, amen.
As you will remember in this section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he is giving a series of exhortations to them and then to us as to how we ought to live. In the first eight chapters of his letter, he spends time expounding the gospel and God’s plan of salvation. In chapters 9 through 11, he relates that to the big picture of God’s purpose for the ages, particularly as it results to Israel and then the Gentiles. And now in chapter 12, verses 1 and following, he turns a corner with that word, “therefore.” “I beseech you, therefore…” Because all of this is true, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And then, in verses 3 and following, he begins to itemize some specific applications of that broad principle. Chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, he says simply that this gospel that you have embraced, this gospel by which you have been saved, this gospel which both demands and empowers transformed living, now must work its way out in the way you live and behave and relate to one another. Beginning in verse 3, he starts to give an application and then on through the passage it goes. Verses 3 and following, he applies it more to, first of all, a haughty spirit and the humility that ought to mark those who are in Christ, particularly as that applies to relationships within the church. Verses 9 and following, he gives us a series of quick exhortations as to how we should live.
Chapter 13, he begins by applying how it should look in our relationship to the government. Verses 8 and following of chapter 13, which we have read, again give some specific applications as to how we ought to live, but also again couched in more general terms in verses 11 and following. You know the time, the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. All of that is to say we must live in keeping with this renewal that we have experienced in Jesus Christ. The gospel demands and the gospel empowers for transformed living, and we must show that in the way that we behave and relate to one another.
So the perspective here is looking back to what Christ has done, and looking to what we ourselves have experienced in coming to Christ. Here is how you behave. And we may sum it up in what we’ve said here so many times: we must be what we are. We have become new people in Christ, and we must behave and act accordingly in all of these specific ways.
And the same is true in verse 11 here of chapter 13. The text for today is a broad exhortation in verses 11 and 12. Don’t live as though you’re still in darkness. Don’t live as though you are still in that evil age. Don’t live as though you are still sleeping spiritually. Put on Christ and wake up and live accordingly.
But what’s curious about verse 11 is that there’s a change in perspective that is given. Up through this point, primarily, the perspective has been: look back to what Christ has done, look to what has happened in your own experience, and behave accordingly. But you’ll notice that perspective changes in verse 11. “Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep,” and here’s the explanation: “for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”
He does not say here that you should live in this holy and godly kind of way because you have been saved. That’s what he’s been saying all along. But here he is saying you should live in a godly way because you are not yet saved. Salvation is nearer than when you first believed. Now I suspect that when you read through that, it immediately clicks what’s in mind. But when you stop to think about it, you think, “Well, that’s confusing. Am I not already saved? What is all of this about my salvation being nearer than when I first believed? Have I not been saved?” And doesn’t the same apostle, in fact, talk that way too? “By grace you have been saved through faith.” And so what is this about salvation yet to come?
Well, again, I think it’s immediately obvious when we read through it, and we probably understand it without missing a beat as we read through, that Paul here is speaking in big terms, big-picture terms. He’s speaking of salvation in its consummate sense, salvation in its finalized form, when finally we are completely delivered from sin. And this is a common emphasis in the Apostle Paul as well, even in the book of Romans here. You might remember seeing it. In chapter five: if we have been reconciled while we were enemies, then certainly we will be saved through him. Salvation, looking forward. We find it in chapter eight with adoption. It is something we’re waiting for yet, and yet we are sons of God. We are saved in hope.
In fact, this salvation in its full sense and complete sense still coming is what he has in mind in the famous verses of Romans 8:28 and 29. It is the good to which God is working all things for us: that we will be conformed to the image of Christ and we will be glorified. This is the wonderful prospect of every believer—that salvation in its fullest and most complete and comprehensive sense will come to us. And Paul here uses it as the basis of exhortation: live like you ought to live because salvation is nearer than when you first believed.
And that kind of perspective we find elsewhere in the New Testament. Peter tells us and speaks about salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last times. In Hebrews chapter 9, verse 28, it speaks of Jesus who will come to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Salvation in its consummate sense, finally and fully realized. And that really is what we looked at last week, isn’t it? In Ephesians chapter one and verse 10: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, God will unite all things together in Christ. And his saving purpose will have come to full realization.
This Age And The Age To Come
Now I want to come back to Romans chapter 13, and I won’t say I promise to, but I really intend to come back here to Romans 13 this morning. But what I want to do first is explore this concept itself a little bit further. Salvation, as we mentioned last time, is in its first instance future-oriented. It is future-oriented; it’s regularly viewed in connection with the climax of history and the consummation of God’s saving purpose. And just to drive that a little, I don’t want to just mention it; I want you to see it on the pages of Scripture yourself. So keep your Bibles handy; we’re going to go through a few passages, several passages this morning, quickly.
If you would, look back at Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, chapter two. Isaiah chapter 2, and let’s just read verses 1 through 4:
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of mountains, and shall be lifted up above all the hills, and all the nations shall flow into it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, he shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
And as the song goes, they will study war no more, no more, no more.
Now, whether you have studied a lot about biblical eschatology and the teaching of the end times and all of that, I suspect that when you read through a passage like this, you already conclude that whatever it’s describing and however symbolic the language may be, it’s describing a state of affairs that isn’t yet true of today. Now, if you’ve put a little more study into it, you might say, “Well, this is what they’re talking about in that thousand years passage in Revelation 20.” Or you might say, “No, this is what’s being described in Revelation 21 and 22 in the eternal state.” Or you might say it’s both. And to resolve all of that is not my concern this morning at all. My point is to point out that this is looking forward to a state of affairs that’s not yet our experience. It pictures the Davidic king exalted, recognized by the nations, reigning in peace and in righteousness. And in fact, there’s no more war. Neither shall they learn war anymore.
All right. Another thing I want you to notice here is in verse 2, one expression here that’s important for us. “It shall come to pass,” what? “In the latter days.” In the latter days. Now again, I suspect if you have read through the prophets of the Old Testament very much at all, that rings a bell. And even if we don’t know how to sort out all the details of what’s going to happen and when and in what order and all of that in the latter days, this phrase is something that we’re familiar with. Just reading through the prophets, you see it over and over again. The latter days, the last days, in the time to come, in those days, and in that day—all kinds of related expressions looking forward to an age to come when all of these purposes of God in salvation will be brought to full climax. In that day, in that time, in the latter days, in that age, looking ahead to another age, another day, another time when all of this will be true.
Look at another one. Look at Daniel, chapter 12. Another very famous passage, verses 1 and 2:
At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. (It’s Daniel 12, verse 1.) In that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Now notice again here the prophet Daniel is looking ahead to a latter time. “In that time”—and there’s another familiar expression from the prophets, isn’t it? In that time, in that day, in the latter days, in that age, looking ahead. And what he emphasizes here will be characteristic of that time to come is that dead people will rise. Those in the dust of the earth will come out of their graves. And the result of that is one of two things. They come out of the graves, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Now here’s this picture of the end times. Here it comes: a resurrection, and God’s people will be blessed with eternal life, and God’s enemies will be condemned. But again here, you see that this expression, “in that time,” speaks of a coming age of blessing. Specifically here, a time of resurrection, a time of eternal life, a time when God’s purposes are finally achieved in full, in that time.
Now that’s all the time we’ll take going back to the Old Testament like that, but I want you to see then, even with this, we can already sketch out the broad perspective of the biblical writers with regard to God’s purpose and the purpose of the ages. There’s two ages. There’s this age and there’s the age to come. That’s it. This age and the age to come.
And throughout the Old Testament, you have that. You have it in the intertestamental literature of the Jews and things like that as well. There’s this age, and then there’s the coming age or the age to come. And when we come to the New Testament, we find that same language carried through. And let’s take the time to look at some of them. Look at Matthew chapter 12, where we see the same language carried over into the New Testament.
Now this is perhaps, in Matthew 12, the clearest statement, expression of this concept in the New Testament. I hesitate turning to this passage because it’s a passage that has all kinds of other questions that you’re going to want me to stop and chase. It is when Jesus casts out demons, they accuse him of doing it by the devil, and then Jesus responds by talking about this sin that can never be forgiven. And you’re going to say, “What is that sin?” And that’s not what I’m here to talk about this morning, okay? I’ll give you the short answer the way I see it. It’s got to be something like rejecting Jesus despite how evident the Holy Spirit has made it that he is the Savior. Something like that. Okay, is that enough?
Coming to our point again, Matthew chapter 12, verse 32. At the end of that whole passage: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,” and here’s our expression, “either in this age or in the age to come.” And there’s the broad perspective of the biblical writers carried over into the New Testament as well. This age and the age to come. Pretty simple.
Turn over a few pages to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, we have the rich young ruler who has come to Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus says, “You’ve heard the law, do it.” “Well, I’ve done that.” And Jesus said, “Well, go sell all you have then and give it to the poor and follow me,” making the claims of Jesus’ Lordship on him. And the man goes away sorrowful because he had a whole lot of stuff and he didn’t want to sell. And Jesus responds by saying it’s really difficult for a rich man to be saved. He’s got too much to give up.
And then in response to all of that, the disciples said, “Well, wait a minute. We’ve given up everything for you. What do we get out of it?” Jesus does not respond in a scolding tone at all, but rather in verse 29, he says (Mark 10:29): “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel.” Now that describes the experience of a lot of Christians, doesn’t it? The cost of following Jesus. Often it has cost them not just money; often it has cost relationships, and often even it has cost them family relationships. And Jesus says there’s no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time—or we might say in this age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and land, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life.
Now here we have that broad perspective as well. There’s this time and there’s the age to come. This present time and the age to come. In this present time, you have persecutions. But in following Jesus, there is such reward that whatever you’ve given up to follow Jesus, you’re rewarded a hundred times over in this time, but that ain’t nothing compared to what you get in the age to come. In eternity to come, in the age to come, there is eternal life that we will receive in full. So here are these two ages: this age and the age to come. This age with all of its characteristics that mark it out as this age, and the age to come as the time of the fullness of God’s blessing.
You have a reference to this, if you want to jot it down (we won’t turn), but Ephesians chapter 1, verse 21, a famous verse, speaks of Christ having been exalted far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He’s Lord over it all, both this age and the age to come.
All right, I think that’s enough where we’ve seen it with our own eyes that there is this age and the age to come. You find related kinds of expressions in the New Testament. There’s not only this age and that age or the age to come, but you find expressions like the time of the end, the last days, the latter days, the end. And by contrast, you find like Romans 8, verse 18, the sufferings of this “now” time. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And then in contrast to all of that, you have other expressions like Ephesians chapter three and verse nine that speak of “before the ages.” So you’ve got before the ages, you’ve got this age, and you’ve got the age to come. And there’s the broad picture, the broad outlook of God’s purpose of the ages.
Characterization Of Each Age
Now again, before we can go much further, I want to stop again and look at a few verses and show the broad characterization of each of these ages to help us understand God’s purpose. What is this age like? And what is that age like?
Well, this present age, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, who is the god of this age? Remember? Satan, the god of this age. Now whatever else that says, it doesn’t say much good about this age, does it? Its god is the devil. And that sounds a whole lot like what Jesus says: the prince of this world. Or Ephesians chapter 2: the prince and the power of the air, the god of this age. Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4: “He’s delivered us out of this present evil age.” This age is marked by evil. Or as I’ve already mentioned, Romans 8:18: the sufferings of the now time, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
So the present age is marked by evil, it’s marked by suffering, it’s marked by a curse, it’s marked by death and fallenness and brokenness, and it’s marked by sin. In Luke chapter 16 and verse 8, Jesus refers to the unregenerate as the children of this age. Not the children of God; they’re the children of this age. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 22, in Jesus’ parable of the sower, he speaks of the wayside hearer where the gospel seed comes and falls on the wayside and the birds come and take it away and it’s gone. And the wayside hearer, he gives the interpretation, is those who, having heard the word, the cares of this age choke it out. There’s something of a competitiveness going on in these kinds of passages where you have this age competing against the gospel, the gospel of that age.
In Ephesians chapter two and verse two, Paul gives the description of those who are yet unregenerate. And the description he gives is that they walk according to the course of this age. Satan is the great prince and power of the air, and those who are unregenerate walk according to the course of this age under the captivity of Satan. It’s marked by sin. This age is marked by evil and fallenness and rebellion and death and a curse and brokenness. In 2nd Timothy 4 and verse 10, Paul writes of Demas: “Demas has forsaken us, having loved this present age.” There’s something of that competitiveness going on, that this age is opposed to the gospel. It’s marked by rebellion and sin. In Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this age.” But there’s an age to come to which you should be conformed.
And so, closely associated with this idea of “this age” is the expression of “the world.” And it doesn’t always mean simply the globe, the planet. But it’s this society and its collective rebellion against God—this age. And so we have in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2 the blindness and the ignorance of this age. “Where’s the debater of this age?” And the brilliant and the educated of this age think the gospel is foolish. That’s what this age is like. In 1 John chapter 2, John uses the word “world,” not “age,” but same concept: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.” This is what makes up the world. This age, that’s what it’s like. And so this age is marked by fallenness. It is marked by sin and rebellion and a curse and judgment and opposition to all that is right and God’s. That’s what this age is about.
By contrast, you have the age to come. And the age to come is the day of salvation. In that age, in the day of salvation, you have, as we read in Isaiah chapter 2, a day of worldwide peace and blessing. The Davidic king is exalted. The nations show honor and reverence to him. In Isaiah chapter 22, we have again the day of the Davidic king who reigns in salvation. In Daniel chapter 12 that we read, the age to come is the day of resurrection, when they come out of the dust of the earth and they inherit eternal life. In Joel chapter 2, the age to come is the day of the outpouring of God’s Spirit. In that day, God’s Spirit will come in abundance upon his people.
And let me just read for you Isaiah 25, verses 6 through 9. This is right in the middle of what’s called Isaiah’s little apocalypse:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all of the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Now you might have noticed, just reading through it quickly, some of that wording used there is picked up in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Revelation. Speaking of the end time—Revelation 19, 20, 21, and 22—after our Lord’s return, he ushers in the fullness of blessing. And that age will come, and all tears will be wiped away, and there’ll be no more death and no more crying, and it’s the day of salvation finally come.
Oh, and you find the same thing in the Old Testament and the New. The New Covenant itself is couched in this “time to come” kind of language. It will be “in those days, in that age, in the age to come” that God will come in salvation. And associated with all of that is all of the teaching about resurrection, the coming of God, the coming of God’s kingdom, the outpouring of the Spirit. That’s the day of salvation yet to come. And the New Testament echoes the same with regard to the coming of Christ.
Let me look at one verse. Look at Matthew chapter 19. This is just a related expression. It’s not the same. I want you to see how Jesus describes that age to come. Matthew chapter 19, verse 28: “Truly I say to you, in the new world when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Notice that expression: “I say to you, in the new world.” I suspect with the various translations we have here, we’ve got some different renderings of that. “In the new world,” or “in the Messianic Age,” or if you have the King James Version, you have the literal translation, which is “in the regeneration.” Isn’t that a neat expression? In the regeneration. And here Jesus, speaking of the end times, speaks of it—that’s the regeneration.
Now it’s interesting because in Reformed soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, we have a rather complex and a wonderful doctrine of salvation. And I think it’s right; it can be defended elsewhere. But in Jesus’ use of the term “regeneration,” it has to do with what is to come. And that day is described as the day of regeneration in the new world, in the age to come, in the Messianic Age.
Well, enough of that then. I think you’ve seen enough with your own eyes how that works. There’s this age, and that is the age of trouble, the age of enemies, the age of suffering, the age of death, the age of curse and fallenness and brokenness, and the age of sin and evil and rebellion against God and rebellion against the gospel. All that is bound up with sin and its consequent curse and judgment and fallenness—that’s this age.
And by contrast, you have the age to come. And the age to come is described everywhere in the Scriptures as the age of safety, the age of peace, the age of righteousness from righting all wrong, the age of resurrection, the age of eternal life, the age of the presence of God and Messiah, the age of blessing. And those are the broad strokes, the broad perspective of the biblical writers. You have this age, and you have the age to come. And that is the context, the framework of the Bible’s teaching of salvation. It is future. It is a time to come in the consummation, in the day of God, in the day of Christ. It will come in its fullness, or as Paul says in Romans 13, your salvation is nearer than when you first believed.
The Presence Of The Future
Now, with all of that in the background, with all of that charted out as the perspective of salvation in the Scriptures, you can see then—and here’s where I’ve been driving with all of that—the fascinating announcement of the New Testament is that the salvation of that day has been dragged back into this day in Christ. So that salvation today in Christ consists in nothing less than a foretaste, a preview, if you will, of the blessedness of that age. That age and the blessings of that age have been brought back into this age. There’s a sense in which the biblical New Testament writers speak of the “already coming” of that age.
And this is why we have that lingo that we use all the time. There’s the now and the not yet. There’s the already and the not yet. But what we mean by that is not just that there’s something now and something better later simply, although that’s true. What we mean by that is that that age has been pulled back, and the blessedness of that age has been pulled back so that we begin to experience it early.
And so the New Testament writers speak like this, and let me just run through some of these; maybe we’ll look up a couple. You remember, again, in Matthew chapter 12 that we talked about, they’re talking about Jesus and criticizing him, and they’re saying it’s by the devil that you’ve cast out demons. And Jesus says that logic doesn’t work and it’ll ruin your own argument, you remember that. “But if I, by the finger of God (or by the Spirit of God), have cast out demons, then…” And do you remember the conclusion he draws from it? “Then the kingdom of God is among you.” That is, that age to come, the kingdom of that day, has broken into this age, and you’ve seen it in the works that I’ve done. The kingdom of God is among you. That’s why, then, Paul’s ministry is described by going around preaching the kingdom of God.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I want you to see this one. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Very important statement. Paul here is referring back to the Old Testament and giving some exhortations from it for us today. And notice verse 11, how he winds up the discussion: “Now these things happened to them (it’s 1 Corinthians 10:11) as examples, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” Isn’t that fascinating? The age to come is still to come, isn’t it? But here Paul says, we are the people—not the rest of the world, but we are the people—on whom the end of the ages has already come.
Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4, Paul says, and through the work of Christ and our union with him, we have already been delivered from this present evil age. In Colossians chapter 1, Paul says we have already been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son.
Let’s look at another, look at 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10. Let’s start with verse 9: “He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who…” and here’s the important phrase I want you to see, “who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. Now clearly he’s speaking about Jesus’ resurrection and the great accomplishments of it, but he’s also speaking of our participation with Christ in this: that he has abolished death and brought life and immortality already to light.
Go over a few more pages, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” Now the odd thing about this expression is not “the last days.” We’re familiar with that already. What’s odd about this discussion is it’s “these” last days—that the last days have been brought forward.
Look again, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26: “For then he would have suffered repeatedly since the foundation of the world, but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Where do you get this language? All of this “ends of the ages” stuff, that waits for the age to come, right? And you see the perspective of the biblical writers is that age to come has been pulled back in the incarnation, and the death, and the resurrection of Christ, and in our experience with Christ in it all.
Oh, there’s so many more like that. There’s just one more I want you to see, and that’s back in the Gospel of John, John chapter 5. And I’m sure we’ll be back here again, probably even next week, but I want you to see it already. John chapter 5, verses 24 and 25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life.” Eternal life, you remember in Daniel? That’s for the age to come, the latter days. “But he who believes in me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment.” That judgment to come—why? Because he has already passed from death to life. And in case you don’t get it, verse 25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” Jesus here is plainly saying that the blessings of that age to come—namely, resurrection and eternal life—they’ve been pulled back into the experience of believers today in Jesus Christ.
And we have so much more of this. Paul’s speaking of the Holy Spirit coming as the down payment of our inheritance, or the Spirit being described as the first fruits of the Spirit. Looking forward to the outpouring of the Spirit in the end times has now been brought into our experience today. And we have this everywhere. Again, the startling announcement of the New Testament is that in Christ, that age has been pulled back into this age. The blessings of that age have been pulled back into our experience today.
Sort of a classic book that was written on this subject about 50 years ago by a man named George Eldon Ladd—and I love the title of it, it just captures it so well—the title of the book is “The Presence of the Future.” Now there have been other popular books that have been written with a takeoff on it, and they’ve even borrowed the title from the movies, “Back to the Future.” But “The Presence of the Future” captures this teaching exactly right, doesn’t it?
Now the tag, the label they give it is “inaugurated eschatology.” If you want to sound educated, like you know it all, that’s the phrase you want: inaugurated eschatology. The future is still to come, but it’s been inaugurated in this age as well. And so in this age, already we experience the kingdom. Already we experience resurrection. Already we experience eternal life and the presence of God and the outpouring of God’s Spirit and glory and all of that. And so there is the now and there’s the not yet; the “already” experience and yet the future still to come. There has been an inbreaking into this age in Christ of the age to come.
Now I have to say this: the future blessedness that is promised is still future and is still coming. And this again is the problem of preterism that I mentioned last week, which sees all prophecy as fulfilled in the past. But we have to recognize—in fact, we can see it here in John chapter 5—that the same Jesus who spoke of the “now” also speaks of the “not yet.” If you like the “now” in verse 25, before you hold that up as though it’s the whole picture, look at verse 28: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and they will come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” So there is the now and there is the not yet. There is some kind of spiritualized realization, an inaugurated aspect of it in our experience today, with the fullness of it still to come. And not only Jesus, but the same apostles who spoke of the now-realization of that to come, speak still of the not-yet aspect of it as well. There is both. That age pulled back into this age.
Some Implications Of All Of This
Now, all of that, and I’m not done. This has massive implications that I am very eager to unpack. And I felt like we had to work through this so you see it with your own eyes to see how it works out. And they’re just massive implications. We will explore much more of it next week, and I think it’s just fascinating. I think it’s exciting. But just a couple of observations this morning before we go. Some implications of all of this:
Number one: as I’ve been stumbling all through this, this explains for us the glory that is ours already in Jesus Christ. This and nothing less explains for us the glory that is ours already in Christ. We are those on whom the end of the ages has come. God’s saving purpose awaits the culmination at the end time when Jesus returns, but already he has brought us into the experience of it. In Jesus Christ, we have begun to experience ahead of time the blessedness of that age.
And so we sing it rightly when we sing, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!” I don’t know if John W. Peterson knew this much theology. My suspicion is he was speaking simply from his own experience when he wrote it, but he was right on the money when he said, “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” That there is the experience ahead of time of a glory still to come—a foretaste and a preview, a beginning, inaugurated experience of the age to come. And this, and nothing less, explains for us the glory that we feel and we sense in our experience in Christ today.
This is what marks the Christian life as a life of joy, the kind of joy that’s unaffected by external circumstances—that God has begun a good work in us that he will indeed complete in the age to come, but begun it he has and we feel it. And we’ve begun to experience it, and the joy and the contentedness that we have today is simply a foretaste and a preview of a glory that is still to come. This and nothing less explains the glory that is ours in Christ today. All of this is not—it is not, and we’ll see more of it next week—it is not simply abstract theoretical theology. This is what explains Christian experience, and we’ll see more of that next time.
One more. I want you to look back again. I said I’d get back to Romans chapter 13. Let’s do it quickly. Romans chapter 13, verses 11 and 12 again. Paul here gives exhortation to faithful Christian living in just these terms. Paul couches his exhortation to faithful Christian living in just these terms. Verse 11: “You know the time.” Well, what time is it exactly, Paul? What do you have in mind here? What is the time? Answer: the hour has come. The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. The time is already here. We find it in verse 12 as well: “The night is gone, the day is at hand.”
All of this is informed from the Old Testament prophets with respect to the day of the Lord, the symbolism of the night as this present evil age. And that’s gone, and we’ve wakened to a new light, and we put on the armor of light in Christ, and we live according to what has dawned on us already. And what’s fascinating here is that Paul plays it both ways. All of that is true. We live in light of the age to come that has come in our experience. The hour is here. The time has already come. And at the same time, Paul can say in verse 11, “Our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” There is both the now and the not yet.
Now you see more, you probably have seen it more frequently in the New Testament, where we are exhorted to live in light of what has come about in our experience in Christ and entered into the new age and all of that. But here Paul says that, but he also says not only “be what you are,” but he also says “be what you will become.” Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. And the perspective is both: look back and see what God has done and the experience that he’s brought you into in this age, tasting of that age already, but don’t forget that age is still to come yet too in its fullness and its consummation, and live accordingly. And then we shall be where we would be, and then we shall be what we should be. Things that are not now nor could be, soon shall be our own.
We’ll see more of that as well, but Paul couches his exhortation in terms of the now and the not yet. All of this has been brought into our experience—live accordingly—and all of this is yet to come—live accordingly. Be what you are, be what you will become in Jesus Christ.
Unless you are sometimes discouraged—and I’ve heard this expressed by some Christians as well—it becomes discouraging trying to struggle against sin, knowing that I’ll never get over it. I understand that in this age. But that is not the New Testament perspective. The New Testament is: we struggle against sin knowing, knowing that in the age to come we’ll win. And that struggle will all be over. And we struggle against sin today with the fullness of blessing still in mind.
Again, much more of that next time. We’ll be able to have time next week to explore that in more detail in terms of the application of it all. But already you can see that this “now and not yet” stuff is not just abstract theology. But recognizing the true glory of our salvation now in Christ, one, ought to give us a kick in our step. This ought to inform our joy—that we’ve begun already to experience the blessings of the age to come. And two, it ought to drive us to persevere faithfully in joy and in the expectation of a fullness of joy that is still to come.
And let me take a minute to say something to any of you who might not know Christ. Surely all of this has to seem pretty foreign to you. From your perspective, a Christian is an odd sort of fellow. A Christian is one who’s had to give up so much. And from your perspective, being a Christian is trading in a good life now for a good life then. And from your perspective, being a Christian means trading in a happy life now for a happy life then.
I’m always struck at a point like this, that there’s so much about our salvation, there’s so much about the experience of our salvation that we just can’t make you see. There’s an experiential dimension of salvation that God gives that can’t be fully described until we’ve come to grips with this and see that it is a real experience with glory. Not a full experience yet—that’s still to come—but a real experience with a glory to come. It’s a joy that you as an unbeliever can only try to dream about. And the reason you don’t get it is because you just really can’t get it. You either see it or you don’t.
And all we can do is plead with you to believe that Jesus meant it when he said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Trust Jesus when he says, “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” There’s a satisfaction that you will find in him that you cannot find elsewhere. You drink water from any of these wells around here, you’ll be thirsty again, he says. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never be thirsty again, but there will be in him a well of living water springing up to eternal life.
There is a fullness of satisfaction, a fullness of joy, a fullness of peace and contentedness that we’ve already begun to experience, and the prospect of a full culmination of that experience excites our hearts and it keeps us. We love to live in the anticipation of the fullness of it. We don’t mean it to be haughty. We don’t mean to have superior airs. We don’t mean to be condescending. But we really want you, an unbeliever, to understand: you don’t have a clue what you’re missing. There’s an experience with glory that we have begun and entered into already that we wouldn’t look back from. There is nothing that this world could ever offer us that could make us want to trade in what we already have for whatever it is it has to offer.
We’ve seen the glory of the King. God has turned the lights on in our hearts and made us see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he’s made us see the glory of the kingdom, and we’ve begun to taste of its joys already. It’s like a pearl of great price, and we’ve already sold everything we have so we can have it. And when we sing, “I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world’s delights; things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight,” we mean it. And we feel it.
We are people on whom the end of the ages has come. And the prospect of glory in the presence of God forever has already captured our hearts. And there’s no looking back. And it frankly wonders us to see the people of the world settling for such a cheap, meager existence. The shallowness of it all, contenting themselves with such trivialities as if all there is to everything is right here and what I can touch and see. And we want to say, surely, surely you know that you’ve been created for more than that.
There is, in the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, the greatest truth offering the greatest joy that you could ever imagine. In his death, he took our place, he owned our debt, he owned the penalty of our sin, and he bore the judgment of God and bought our forgiveness. And in his resurrection, he brought life and immortality to light. And he has taken us along with him in it, and he’s seated us in the heavenlies. And while we can’t claim that we have always lived up to it—in fact we confess frankly that we don’t—it is nonetheless our sincerest testimony that we revel, we exalt in a glory that will only increase.
And this and nothing less is what it is to be in Christ today. Salvation now and salvation not yet. There is indeed a glory to come, and we will not miss out on it. But it is in that very glory that we have already begun to share in Jesus Christ. Salvation now and not yet. Amen.
Our Father, these are glorious truths, and we pray that you would grip our hearts with them, and we pray that it would indeed give us a kick in our step. We pray that you would increase our joy in a realization of the glory that you have yet in store for us, and yet we’ve already begun to experience today. We praise you for the great work of Christ; in his name, amen.