Eternity

Recently I have been reading one of my textbooks for my Systematic Theology class and the Lord really began to grip my heart with some things. It seems like today most of the church is usually focused on this present evil age that we are living in and we loose site of what is coming. I noticed this so much that when I started to hear things about eternity I began to wonder if what I was hearing was even biblical. Yet, as I continue to dig in the word and read many top theologians, or any christian writers for that matter, I am seeing that this eternal perspective is not a new thing. In fact, the restoration of all things is the longing in Gods heart and the point of all of scripture. God wants to have His dwelling with man. Although it seems as if this stream of thinking has been limited to the elite and the theologians and is not very common among regular church attenders. I hate that and really want to change it!

In fact, this seems like a tragedy. This problem is not the fault of either the leaders of the regular church attender, but it is likely the fault of both of these groups. When you ask a christian what the Kingdom of God is the common answer is, “Love, Joy, Peace, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit.” And that is an incredible answer! But it is only one side of a two sided coin. We are living in what can be called the present evil age and are eagerly awaiting for the age to come. In this current age the primary manifestation of the Kingdom of God is love, joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit, but the point is that this expression is incomplete and fallen. We do experience this now to an extent, but if that is our end goal it is depressing! Because the reality is that there is an age coming where that will be the continual sense and emotion of what we are feeling.

I would continue to rant on this, but let me briefly discuss my point in all of this. I have not been doing this very long, but personally, as the Lord has given me the grace to have an eternal perspective it has strengthened me tons more than any other type of teaching or self-help message. It seems like we are so busy trying to help people in the temporal life (which I think is completely valid, and I am not discrediting) that we are not looking beyond to what is coming. My personal experience has shown that when I see the greater glory of the coming age then my pain in suffering in this age is minimized to an extent to where it hardly even matters. Ultimately, I want to start communicating to people the Coming Kingdom instead of trying to give them practical advice of how to live their lives, because if we could just have a vision of God and eternity everything in life would start to fall together.

In 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul is talking about the Resurrection from the dead and how Christ is only the first-fruits. It is evident through Paul’s life that He was waiting for the Immanent return of Jesus, but it did not happen in His life. When I think of this I want to live in the same way. Whether Jesus is coming back in 50 years or 500 I want to live with an urgency on my heart just as Paul did. Paul had a vision of heaven and was excitedly looking forward to the resurrection. In light of the easter season, lets rejoice that Jesus has conquered death, but more than that, that He is only the first-fruits of all of us who believe. Meaning that we will one day be raised with Him!