God’s Future Shapes the Present
“To be a Christian, … is precisely to live as a person for whom God’s future shapes the present.”
Last night, I was sitting on my couch reading a book and came across the quote above (from Hope Against Hope: Christian Eschatology at the Turn of the Millenium, by Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart). It struck me as the perfect quote to share with you as it intersects precisely with our Sunday series on resurrection and what we’re starting tonight on the book of Revelation. To live as a Christian is to live in the present as shaped by God’s future.
On Sunday, in a way, we talked about this idea. What the resurrection of Jesus in the middle of history really does is brings God’s future ‘forward’ into the present, so that we can live ‘the age to come’ in ‘this present age’. As I put it on Sunday,
the resurrection is the dawn of new creation.
Resurrection is our future, that much is sure; but we are invited to live from it today. It’s what happens when we allow ‘God’s future’ to ‘shape the present’.
It’s really another way of saying what Jesus said in the title of the series:
“Because I live, you also will live.”
We’ll get into more of this as the Sunday morning series progresses, but just think about it for a moment. If it’s true that in the resurrection, we will live, then what do we have to worry about? If all things will be made new – doesn’t that give us a freedom from fear and anxiety in the present, and a license to live fully today? If tears will be wiped away, doesn’t that paradoxically allow us to go into the depths of pain with people to accompany them, knowing that all will be made well? If our labor, which feels so laborious today, will NOT be in vain, doesn’t that give us fuel for the work that God has given us to do? If, in spite of the crying out to God as we wait for God to show up, God is certain to show up in a big way, doesn’t that allow us to trust him in the meantime?
It is this hope that feeds our faith.
And that’s what Revelation is all about. As a preview of what we’ll talk about in the Revelation class tonight, it’s the same exact idea:
Revelation gives us a picture of God’s future that is meant to shape our present.
It’s meant to give us courage in a world that is sometimes scary. It’s meant to light a fire under us at a time where we may want to bury our heads in the sand. It’s meant to give us assurance for situations that can overwhelm us. It’s meant to inspire us to be light amidst a world filled with darkness.
Who among us could not use more of that? And – it’s what the world needs the church to be for it!
I’d love for you to come tonight to hear more about Revelation (starting at 7PM!), and come on Sunday morning to hear more about resurrection.