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Christian Chronicles, January 2003 - Volume 6, Issue 85
| The
Editor's Pen | Perspectives | Mid-East Update | Fruit of the Vine |
Eternity in Our Hearts |
| Dwelling
in Time & Dwelling in Eternity, Simultaneously | Man's
Temporal Existence | About Out of Time | Three
Days in Eternity |
Eternity is an ethereal notion. We can understand the concept well enough, but when we attempt to wrap our minds around it, so to speak, we find that we cannot get the whole of it in our heads. Being time-bound, finite creatures, everything in our realm of existence has both a beginning and an end. We can conceive of the universe being billions of years old, and it causes no mental stretch at all. Even the thought of stars and galaxies being as vastly distant from us as they are — billions and billions of light years in some cases — does not especially trouble the mind, although we begin there to experience that same slight bit of mental confusion that is compounded when we try to grasp eternity. Slight is the confusion caused by vast spaces; profound, that caused by eternity.
The problem is that we attempt to attach a measure of time to eternity. Time is a dimensional sort of thing. There is a beginning and an end. A thing lasts from here to there, and it was not before that, and will not be after. Future, present and past, all very neat and orderly, with beginnings and ends. It makes life very comfortable for us. Eternity makes us feel like we’re standing on the very edge of something, about to fall off into, well, into nothing. God has placed eternity, not in our minds, but in our hearts.
When we get right down to it, time is like a parentheses in eternity. It is like a bubble. There really is no eternity past or eternity future, for eternity has neither a beginning nor an end. If eternity were made of water, time would be a bubble of air, floating, drifting, neither enlarging nor diminishing. It is also unlike a bubble of air in water, insofar as it does not rise to the “top” of eternity. Time is as binding to every finite creature on earth as any other dimension. Things go up and they go down and they may move laterally, but those are the bounds of movement in a three dimensional world. Time is that fourth “dimension” by which we are bound. In time, however, we can only move forward. When we are “clothed upon,” we shall also be freed from time.
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal”
(2 Cor 4:17-18 — NKJV)
Where are you looking? We all spend far too much time with our eyes on the things of the world, and not nearly enough time with our eyes on the things that matter, the things that are eternal. Our hearts are there most of the time too, aren’t they? “The leech has two daughters — Give and Give” (Prov 30:15 — NKJV). And how do we pray? For most of us anyway, our prayers are generally “me-oriented.” Self-centered. Petitions.
Why do you suppose that is so? Do we not pray the way we do because our eyes are on earthly things, and our concerns are mostly wrapped around the axle of temporal issues? They were throwing rocks at Stephen. Hitting him in the head. In the ribs. Ouch! Where were his eyes? “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! ” (Acts 7:55 — NKJV). He didn’t say, “Ouch!” He said, “Look!”
Of course, we all know that we should look at the things which are above rather than the things that are on the earth (see Col 3:2). We think the reason is because the things above are so much better than the things on the earth. And they surely are. But Paul had a more practical reason for saying what he said. Think about Stephen again. There he was, being killed by men with rocks in their hands. A bloodthirsty mob. Was he worried? Was he concerned that his bones were being broken? Stephen’s treasure was in heaven, so his heart was also in heaven (see Mt 6: 19-21). If that fervent young Christian had any thoughts at all about the mortal injuries he was sustaining, they were thoughts of joy, knowing that Jesus had before been seated at the right hand of God, but now had stood to welcome him home. The last words he uttered were a request that their sin not be laid to their charge, for they had done him a great favor, even though they did not know it. Stephen’s mind and heart were at perfect peace, even in that extremity, for the simple reason that he was looking at things above and not at things on the earth. His affections were rightly placed.
There is something to all of this; something wonderful and sublime for the child of God. What Paul is saying in the opening verses of this article is that there is a repose available to all of us. Even in the midst of all our trials and the persecutions with which the devil afflicts us, we can have that same emotional equanimity that Stephen had. We can face our trials without losing our equilibrium. The issue is not whether or not we will have troubles in our lives. All who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12). The real issue is whether we shall face our troubles with unflappable hearts, or lose our spiritual balance and get caught up in those awful clouds of darkness, wandering blindly because we have taken our eyes off the Light.
What remarkable resources are available to the child of God! What comfort. When one gets a proper grasp on these issues, it becomes easier to understand how it is that we are to rejoice in all things. When we begin at long, long last in our Christian experience to learn to look to God in every situation, that is when we start to become spiritually mature. The maturation process is just that. It is a process, not an event. We become progressively sanctified. That doesn’t mean that we become less sinful, but more faithful. It means that we see ourselves more and more as heavenly creatures, set apart by God to Himself, from the things of the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world (Jn 15:19; 17:14, 16). If our hearts are in heaven because we have begun laying up treasure in heaven, and if we are looking toward eternal things rather than temporal, then our eyes are in heaven too. And if our hearts and our eyes are in heaven, then we must be also; and then it is not such a difficult thing to look “down” on all our earthly trials from that more tranquil perspective, knowing that our eternal God is a Rock from which we cannot be moved, no matter what the world throws at us.
An old Rock song in the U.S. has a line that goes, “...Those drums keep pounding rhythm in my brain…” And so it goes in the Middle East. War drums are pounding a steady beat. Just as we tend to clinch our muscles when we see that we are about to be struck by something thrown at us, so is virtually every nation in the Middle East engaged in a visceral clinching and tightening of their national muscle as they watch the saber-rattling become louder and nearer. Already, bombs are dropped daily in Iraq, missiles shriek upward from radar-defense sites toward the jets of Britain and the United States, the staccato rattle of small arms fire disturbs the peace everywhere, and the ground is shaking still today from two deep, rumbling blasts that shook a pedestrian mall in Tel Aviv, Israel, over the weekend. Twenty-two are currently reported killed in those suicide bombings, and more than one hundred injured.
The natural tendency is to throw one’s hands in the air and say, “When will it ever end?” That may be happening in homes everywhere in the region, but the bloodlust among nations is growing strong again in Cabinet meetings and war councils. Certainly, the government of the United States can hardly contain its desire to flex its military as it pounds that drum called Iraq.
A month ago it appeared as if the doves might win in Israel’s upcoming elections. Now, with the latest bombings, the hand of the hard-liners is strengthened and Labor is leaning slightly to starboard in spite of the leftward lean of its leader, Amram Mitzna. One might expect Likud to become increasingly hostile to any peace overtures as long as the bombings continue.
The world is not watching in anticipation to see if there will be war in the Middle East. It knows the answer. Neither is it particularly concerned with what the outcome of the war might be. Desert Storm was a pretty fair indicator of how a new war might end. There will probably be some gaseous surprises on the battlefield, but the end was written before the first troop was deployed. What the world is watching is tiny Israel. Doesn’t the world always keep her eyes on that little state, in order to find something that it can criticize? The general consensus is that Saddam Hussein will have no compunction about a strike against Israel. In the eyes of the world, that question is not “if,” but “when.” What is not resolved firmly in the minds of pundits and politicians is the measure of Israel’s retaliation. That is what the world is watching. If Hussein slings the devil’s fiery darts, in the form of conventionally-armed Scud missiles into the heart of Israel, the consensus is that Israel will accept those blows without much of a response. But if Hussein, in a desperate final blow, strikes Israeli soil with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the response is expected to be massive. There are elements in the world who would love to see just such a course in this war. They would like to see Israel struck hard, with non-conventional weapons, so that she would strike back in some massive way that could be all the more loudly castigated. Most of that sort believe that, if Israel responds to a WMD attack with her own nuclear forces, or with chemicals or bugs, the Arab states would unite against her. The reality is, they might.
Really, it is a shame that the world is so easily disposed to hate Israel. A shame, perhaps, but no surprise. In all her history, the world has hated her. It does not seem to matter that Israel has been attacked in some way large or small every day of her national existence. The world press will not be critical of Islamic Jihad or Hamas or Aksa Martyr’s Brigade or any of the other terrorist groups that dance in the streets after such an attack as was perpetrated on Sunday. Let Israel retaliate, and she is portrayed as a bully.
Well, the elections are coming. Right now, Ariel Sharon seems to be the front-runner. If he is reelected, he will almost surely consider his reelection a mandate for an all-out war with the Palestinians. It is difficult to predict the outcome of Israel’s election, but the world is watching with bated breath for any opportunity to attack Israel politically. The duplicitous heart of man is braying loudly about its search for peace, even as it foments all the unrest it can generate. It is not peace that the world seeks or wants, but blood. Israel’s blood.
Despite the lack of any significant findings on the part of the U.N. Inspectors, the U.S. has begun its deployment of armed masses, preparatory to the next war with Iraq. The world holds it collective breath, not out of fear, but excitement.
Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you,
and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain
(Jn 15:16)
Your fruit should remain. When a Christian goes out into the sin-darkened world with the brilliant light of the Gospel of God’s grace, and casts its saving glow into the hearts of the blind and the lost, and is fruitful in his ministry, the fruit that is borne is fruit for eternal life (Jn 4:36 — NKJV). What a remarkable thing it is to be used by God in such a dramatic process as leading the lost to a saving knowledge of Christ. Every time we are successful in that enterprise, a new creature is born. A living soul steps from time into eternity, a child of God forever.
Is it any wonder that the reward for such varied ministries as God has given to each of His saints is likened to gold, silver and precious stones? Is it any wonder that Paul was so very preoccupied, so staunchly motivated, by the thought of the treasure he was laying up in heaven?
You do not have to be a world-renowned evangelist in order to lay up treasure in heaven. Your ministry may be teaching, or ministering to the saints, or giving, or church administration. Whatever. If you are involved in a ministry in a real way, you are laying up treasure against that Day. Still, nothing is as gratifying as watching the Light enter the hearts and eyes of the lost.
“He hath made
everything beautiful in its time:
also he hath set eternity in their heart,
yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done
from the beginning even to the end.” (Eccl 3:11)
Paul said,
“… because
what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse.” (Rom 1:19-20 — NKJV)
Isaiah wrote,
“For thus saith
the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy...” (Isa 57:15)
“Whose name is Holy.” What does that mean? Does it mean that God’s name is especially “moral?” Does it mean that we should not say His name because it is too holy? No, it means that God’s name is “Holy.” The word itself means “sanctified,” or “set apart.” It also means “saint.” Saints are not holy because we are “good,” but because God has set us apart unto Himself, from everything temporal and earthly. God’s name is Holy because He is holy. He is separate and apart from everything that His hand has made.
Eternity sets God apart from everything temporal, and even from those creatures that now live in eternity, but were created at some point in time. The angels, for example, are not bound by the cords of time. They are already eternal creatures, though they had a beginning. God has had no beginning. He is holy. His name is Holy. There is nothing other than God that is eternal in the sense of having had no beginning. Our new natures, the ones in which we were regenerated, are eternal, but even though we were in Christ from before the foundation of the world, we had a beginning, else we would also be God. Only God is holy in the sense in which “Holy” is used in this context.
“Inhabits eternity.” It’s another unusual statement. Close your eyes and reach as far back into the dim, distant and receding reaches of time as you can go. Slip the chains of time then, and step out briefly into eternity. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, isn’t it? How far back will you go? How far away from time can you stand to be? Nothing to stand on. Nothing to hold onto. Way back. Way beyond back. God was there, and He was the Ancient of Days then, too. It goes forever back and forever forward, a vast continuum of infinite distance, and always, everywhere, God was there. He inhabits eternity. How small must we be in comparison to such a God, eh? How great must we be that such a God as ours should love us? What does it say of us that a God like ours should choose us, out of all of creation, and make us His children? We inhabit eternity with God now, though we are yet caught in a cage of time.
Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20 — NKJV). There are those who teach that “saints” are only those few who are not sinful, and who have performed miracles, as if they became saints through their own efforts and by their own godliness. The Apostle Paul said in his inspired writings that there has not been a single living human being who has not been sinful (Rom 3: 10, 12, 19, 23). He did not say, “Except those people who aren’t sinners.” Christ alone has been sinless.
Christian, if God has set you apart unto Himself, you are a saint. If God has set you apart unto Himself, it is not because you deserved it, but because He loves you and is a merciful God. If you have been set apart by God, your real dwelling-place is heavenly, not earthly, and you are here but to do a job and earn some reward. Our God chose us, and was wise enough to find a way to justly execute complete judgment upon our sin, and yet gracious enough at the same time to save us. If we could reach our present lofty position through our own efforts, Christ would not have had to die for us. But, because flesh is weak, Christ had to die, paying the penalty that justice demands for our every sin at Calvary. We are not sinners because we sin, but because we are sinners.
Those who believe that only people who are sinless, and miracle-workers, are saints are not saints themselves. And how can they then adjudicate such things? It is a bizarre notion. God’s name is Holy because He inhabits eternity. Since your rebirth, you have been a member of His eternal home. You are family, children of the living God. You are holy because He has set you apart unto Himself and He is holy. Your citizenship is not an earthly honor, but it is a present heavenly reality. How very ironic that the very ones who believe themselves and others (accusing or else excusing one another Rom 2:15) to be holy are the ones who are the most unholy. They glorify themselves more than God, making themselves as righteous as God. They worship and serve the creature more than the Creator.
The Law was not given as a means of getting to heaven, but as a means of revealing the sin that is in man (Rom 3:19). It was not given to save, but to condemn. Those who are attempting to gain eternal life by means of their own goodness or service shall not inherit the eternity that they seek, but one they will not enjoy. We are saved by grace, through faith, and because of our faith, we receive the gift of eternal life (Eph 2:8-9). How gracious is our God? Infinitely. For He has given us eternal life.
As vast as eternity is, it inhabits only a tiny portion of our hearts most of the time. We are constantly diverted by earthly things. The devil is the same devil that tempted Eve so long ago. He has been studying man all that time, and he knows our every hot button. He is a past master at tempting us. What is more, his tactics have not changed in all the millennia since Eden. We are such a simple-minded creation that we may be tempted over and over and over again by the same deceptions he has always used. All that is required is for us to become diverted so that our hopes and dreams become temporal, and not eternal. Sometimes it is as though Satan has put a basket over the blessed eternity that God has put in our hearts, and we become troubled and worried and desirous of every new thing. Our lusts come to the fore, our pride, and we are again walking in temporal darkness.
You will never be more eternal than you are today. The difference between our “translation” into heaven and now is that we are now bound by the tight strictures of time and place. But the life that inhabits and animates our flesh today is the very life of Christ Himself, and it is eternal (Gal 2:20). We may leave these bodies one day (or be spared that by being “clothed upon” at the rapture of the Church), but if we should “die,” we will experience only a conscious stepping from time into eternity, a deliverance from a cursed world into all the glory of heaven. Though we will not have bodies, we will still be ourselves, still conscious (absent from the body, present with the Lord — 2 Cor 5:8). We are not conscious today of eternity, but it lies in our hearts, and we may tap into the vast power of God by walking in the Spirit. We do not hope to reach eternity some day, but we are eternal creatures now.
Many conservatives teach that the sermon on the mount is the platform for the Kingdom Age. They say that the things Jesus said in those early chapters of Matthew do not apply to Christians, but will be the “rule” that we shall enforce when we reign with Christ in the Millennial Kingdom. Well, it is that. When Jesus made those lofty pronouncements, it was in the context of His offer of Himself as the King. He was laying before the Jews the principles by which He would rule over them. The Sermon on the Mount will indeed be the platform for Christ’s government. But it is also the character of that “new man” that we are already. While the Day is coming in which we shall receive our places in Christ’s kingdom, and shall be kings and princes and governors and mayors and other heavenly “bureaucrats,” that new man that God made of us in the moment we first believed is characterized by all of the attributes expressed and espoused in the sermon on the mount.
It is somewhat uncomfortable to think of that as true, but it is true nevertheless. Uncomfortable, because when we examine ourselves, we find that, if we are honest with ourselves, we spend a very tiny proportion of our time walking in that new man. Even when we pray, we are often not in the Spirit, but in the flesh, praying over things that worry us, when nothing on this cursed earth should worry us at all. What peace — that peace that passes understanding — is ours in those fleeting moments when we are most heavily pressed by earthly cares, but rather than worrying we simply trust God.
Here’s the thing: We go through our lives worrying if what we are doing is God’s will. We pray, “Heavenly Father, please let me know what your will is in…” whatever it is that we’re worried about. We ask Him to work His will in our lives, and then worry that we might not be wise enough to recognize it. How very silly. As if our God is not wise enough to reveal His will to us. We think from moment to moment. We think timely thoughts. We look at the present and worry about the future. We look at the past and are ashamed. My friend, if you ask your heavenly Father to work His will in your life, you may be assured that He is both wise enough and powerful enough to do so. He, unlike us, is not bound in cords of time. He knows that, if we are fleshly today, He will chasten us and bring us back to spirituality “in time” to accomplish His purposes in us while we are still caught up in time. God is able to work His will in our lives in spite of our reticence or self will. In fact, He is not watching for us to be spiritual from moment to moment. He is outside of time, and already has seen and forgotten all the “moments” when we are not spiritual. When our Father looks upon His children, He sees the finished work that He has appointed for us. Ours is not to worry from day to day, trying to be good enough to please God, but ours is to live by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38). A life of faith does not imply that we ought to spend our days worrying about God, but serving Him in spite of the worldly affairs that swirl around us. It implies trust, not anxiety.
Consider the Apostle Paul. In last month’s issue of CC we established that Paul was indeed as great a sinner as he claimed to be. Either he was a great sinner, or God is a Liar. You choose. Yet, in two (and possibly three) of the four places where the expression, “the just shall live by faith,” is found, Paul was the author of those words. He gives us a clue as to how one goes about living by faith in another passage where he does not use that phrase. He wrote to the church at Philippi,
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. (Phil 3:7-16 NKJV)
The original KJV doesn’t use the word rubbish, as the NKJV does. It uses a much stronger word: “dung.” For the sake of those not thoroughly familiar with the English language (we have many international subscribers), the word means “feces,” or “manure.” That is what Paul thought of everything earthly. Well, except as fertilizer, it has little value indeed. Paul’s perspective was consistently eternal. Heavenly. Earthly riches. Money was no more than a tool, a necessity for certain purposes, but with no inherent value in and of itself. He’d been there, done that. It is doubtful that he bought the tee shirt. There is nothing temporal that has any value outside the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is a difficult concept to make real in people’s lives. But let us not get too far afield. We are talking about time and eternity.
Paul gave us a very revealing glimpse into his character in this passage. He also gave us the key to living our lives from an eternal perspective. He had already proven himself to be a great sinner. But what did he say? “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” The Scofield Bible declares that the theme of the Epistle to the Philippians is “Christian Experience.” It is also in this letter that Paul reveals our heavenly citizenship, in which passage we are said to be awaiting the rapture of the Church and our translation into bodies that are conformed to Christ’s heavenly body.
“Forgetting those things which are behind,” he said. Surely, Paul was ashamed of his sins. But he did not waste time worrying about things that were done in time and could never be undone. Forgetting them. The things that happened thirty years before, he forgot. The things that happened thirty minutes before, he forgot. The things that happened thirty seconds ago, he forgot. Paul was constantly looking ahead. He had his mind constantly affixed on the prize. He was always mindful of the reward that awaited him, and if he were ever in the flesh, as he surely must have been, like we also are frequently, he did not waste time worrying about it. He simply turned his thoughts to his eternal estate and sought to enlarge that estate. The prize comes at the upward call of God. The upward call of God comes at the rapture, when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
Paul did not waste his time trying to reform that old nature that was incorrigibly sinful. It cannot be done, and he knew it. Rather, he spent his time in active service to God. Surely, no saint of the Church Age served God more faithfully than Paul. No pastor worked as hard, no missionary endured the privations and persecutions that he endured. When did he find time to be sinful? All day long. Just like you and me. Sitting around the campfire at night, begrudging the stinginess of the Corinthians or the persecutions he endured at Ephesus. We tend to think of the man as somehow much more moral than we are, as of a superior sanctity, a higher morality. Well, perhaps he was. He would never have admitted it. Paul was different, but not in any higher moral state. Paul differed from us in that he seems to have had the ability to think in eternal terms more than we do.
Moses argued with God. Jonah ran from God. Hezekiah did not trust God to take him home when it was his time to go, and begged for fifteen more years. Gideon tested God’s Word. The Bible is a sad tapestry of the faithlessness of man and the faithfulness of God. Yet, the central theme of the Bible is that the just shall live by his faith. Faith is the antithesis of worry, the opposite of anxiety. It is impossible to look at our earthly circumstances from a temporal perspective and not worry. Conversely, it is also impossible to observe our temporal circumstances from a heavenly perspective and worry about anything. As we have said several times, we tend to view ourselves as temporal, with hopes of eternity; down here, looking up there. We need to spend our time in time as though we were “up there,” looking down here. Then our temporal woes and fears would take on a patina of faith. They would shrink to manageable proportions, and we would not worry. We would, like Paul, find ourselves able at last to forget that which is behind, and not worry about what is ahead, knowing that, as long as we are willing to serve, God will continue to use us, allowing us to lay up that heavenly treasure that we shall receive on that glad Day when we finally begin to walk by sight and not by faith. Only because we are caught in the cords of time do we see that Day as far off, and perhaps almost unreachable. We grow toward sanctification, not by becoming increasingly moral, but by realizing increasingly how eternal we really are. The Christian experience is growth toward eternity, not improvement in temporality. The Christian experience is not really about us at all. It is about God, and our relationship with Him. Faith does not come from improving ourselves, but from increasing in the knowledge of God.
Dwelling in Time & Dwelling in Eternity, Simultaneously
The hour is coming, and now is…
Jn 5:25
Jesus, when He walked the earth, dwelt both in time and eternity. He said, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (Jn. 3:13). He had indeed ascended to heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father in eternity, but in time, He was standing before Nicodemus seconds away from speaking those beloved words, “For God so loved the world that He gave…” Time and eternity are two different realms of existence and, although man lives in time, God “has put eternity in their hearts” (Ecc. 3:11). As we think our Father’s thoughts after Him, we understand that not only He, but we also, dwell in eternity because of our position in Christ. From our point of view, in time, we will someday live in eternity, but from God’s perspective, we already dwell there. He sees us in His Son and that is truly where we are.
Being firmly grounded in the reality of our existence in eternity will by no means give way to irresponsibility in time, but to wisdom in the knowledge of that which He has made sure by the blood of His cross. The response from those whom Christ has Himself forever secured will ever be, “Tetelestai!” or “It is finished!” These were our Lord’s last words on the cross and this completed work is the foundation upon which our faith is built. It is indeed finished, eternal life having been imparted to us, and we are to reckon it so, for “the just shall live by faith.” And it is that faith which springs from an eternal perspective that Paul spoke of when he said, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2). It is finished and we are now, in time, simply caught up in the doing of it. “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16b). When we see ourselves only as one “under the sun,” all is indeed vanity and grasping for the wind (Ecc. 1:14), but as soon as we look with the eyes of our eternal Father at all which is before us, and thus walk by faith, we lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12).
Our view of prayer can be misunderstood until we look at it from the position of eternity. God says, in Isaiah 65:24, “Before they called, I answered.” Initially, we might take that to mean simply that He foreknew their prayers and so answered them, but what He is saying is that the answer to prayer was provided before the prayer was even prayed. This might lead us, from the perspective of time, to believe that prayer is unnecessary, but according to God, who stands outside of time, our prayers are already answered because they are already prayed. Prayer is, therefore, powerful in time for it reaches into eternity
Concerning the death of a child of God, it is written that, “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25,26). These words are harmonized because of the existence of both time and eternity. Dr. Arthur Custance makes the following observation:
“As each child of God passes into glory, he therefore experiences no death nor the slightest pause in consciousness, nor even any sense of departure from the loved ones who remain. For him, the time that must elapse till they too ‘follow’ is completely absent [because time itself is absent]. They depart with him… Yet, for him, those who survive him must in his consciousness also have completed their journey home, and therefore he will not even experience any departing from them, but they with him rise to meet the Lord on His way for His second triumph with all other saints. Within the framework of time, this general resurrection is future, but to the ‘dying’ Christian, it is a present event. This is the meaning of the Lord's words ‘The hour is coming, and now is. . .’ (John 5:25).”
(http://custance.org/Library/Volume6/Part_I/chapter4.html)
Time is separate from eternity, the two being altogether different realms of existence. Although, in our experience, we dwell in time, it is also said of us that we are “in Christ,” who dwells in eternity. Christians, alone of all the people who have ever lived, both can and do exist in two places at the same “time.”
A tailor measures the height, the breadth and the width of a customer. To make a well-fitting suit of clothes, each type of measurement must be coordinated with each other kind of measurement. One must measure in both inches and time. The width at the waist is different from that at the shoulders, so, in order to make pants that fit, the tailor needs to measure the width at a certain height from the feet. In measuring the waistline for a properly fitting pair of pants, it is necessary to coordinate the measurement in inches with time also, another direction along which things need to be measured. Although the tailor may have measured his customer for a well-fitting pair of pants a year ago, now that customer may have gained or lost around the waist, reflecting its change along time.
What is different about time from other directions of measurement is our awareness of its range. The tailor gets his tape, and measures across the shoulders. He then bends down to measure the length of the legs, but the customer says, "You may not measure my legs, but I will let you do it eventually." Although the tailor may wish to know what his young customer's leg length will be in a year, so that he may go ahead and tailor a pair of pants for him, the customer’s measurements that far along in time may not be seen yet.
Our existence along time is divided into two portions: that part which we have been directly aware of, and that part which we do not yet know. Imagine a gentleman and many of his friends bathing in the ocean. The ocean is dark, cold and frothy, and no one can see or feel themselves below the waterline. They can see themselves above the water, but they are most sentient of themselves at the level of the water, where the water transitions to the air. Along the direction of time, the future is like that region below the water, where we cannot see or feel, and the past is what emerges from the water through sentience.
At the level of the water, the people play, splashing water on one another and throwing a beach ball. As the tide is going out, the ebbing waterline lowers, revealing more of the bodies of the bathers, which were previously obscured. Likewise, the “level” of the future changes in such a way as to reveal more of our existence along the direction of time. Some of the ocean bathers are closer to shore than others, and for those closest to the shore, they will soon be completely out of the water. Although those still in the water are sad that their playmates can no longer splash amongst them, those left high and dry are no longer immersed in obscurity -- their complete existence along their full height is revealed and unencumbered, free to walk the beach. Likewise, in time, eventually our complete existence along the direction of time is left high and dry from the receding level of the future.
To the bathers there is danger inherent in playing in the dark, tumultuous water because they cannot see what is beneath them, and they could step on a sharp shell or a stingray. Rather than staring cautiously down into the dark water to try and see the hazards, the swimmers should keep their eyes looking upwards to the lifeguard, perched on a high chair. Able to see directly down into the water, to him, all is visible, and he can warn them of any danger.
As we traverse time in our brief journey toward eternity, our eyes as well should ever be focused upon that eternal Beacon that is able to light our way and direct us away from the hazards and pitfalls of worldliness and faithlessness. The light that emanates from our God is able to penetrate any darkness or any tumult, and can direct our every step in such a way as to give us that peace that surpasses all understanding, contentment in every trial. Our new man is perfectly “fitted” to wear that suit of Light in a dark and threatening world.
To continue the analogy, as we approach the “shore” of this Age, not only the focus of our eyes, but also, and more importantly, the focus of our hearts and minds must be heavenward. We are rushing headlong toward eternity, and yet most of us are floating serenely on our backs. Great swelling waves of time are washing us rapidly onto the beaches of eternity, and it is probably time to turn around and begin swimming and running toward the shore so that when we arrive upon it, we shall arrive there doing the things that we are in the water to do in the first place. The tide of time is diminishing for the Church. Let us all be found doing the work of ministers of the word of reconciliation when our Lifeguard brings us to His shores.
It’s a common phrase, isn’t it? But that is the state that the Church finds herself in. When the Lord returns for His bride, the Church will be out of time altogether. Jesus will carry His bride across the threshold of eternity, our home forever. As we draw near the end of the Church Age, the speed of things seems to be picking up. The world is in the toilet, and is fighting against the current that will eventually sweep it into the vortex at the bottom of the whirlpool. It is the fate of the Church to ride with the world part way down the swirling waters, but we have the assurance that we shall be “rescued” before the flush becomes final. Whether we shall be conscious of time during the millennial kingdom is an open question. We will have by then put on immortality, and will have ascended with Christ into heaven, to return with Him as He establishes His throne in Jerusalem. He is outside time today, so that He is no longer bound by its cords. Neither shall we be bound by time once we have been translated. Yet, like Christ, we shall return to a time-bound world, here to remain for a thousand years. One wonders if we will be out of time then, able to function in a “time environment,” but not bound by it in anyway. On thing is certain: We are almost out of time, and must be about the business we are on the earth to conduct. Let us not “shrug” our way into heaven, but get busy.
Based upon an article by Arthur Custance (http://custance.org/Library/Journey/Part_I/chapter5.html)
Christ spent roughly three hours on the cross. It is recorded in the Scriptures that way, so we know it is true. The Bible is not sloppy in its use of language. Here is a seeming paradox. If Christ was on the cross for three hours, how is it that Paul could speak in the present tense when he said, “I am crucified with Christ…” to the churches in Galatia (2:20)? He did not say that he considered himself to have been crucified with Christ, or that he lived as if he had been crucified with Christ. He said, “I AM crucified…” It is neither a figurative way of stating his point nor an error in speech. It was simply the truth, just as John also said, “The hour is coming, and now is,” when the “hour” he spoke of was yet at least two thousand years distant.
Things happen on an eternal basis, and they occur in time. When Jesus died on the cross, He stepped from time back into eternity. There, He suffered the full penalty for our sins. In terms of time, it was extremely brief. How could anyone pay for everyone’s sins in three hours, or even three days, if it requires eternity for everyone to pay their penalty themselves? It doesn’t make sense. But consider that Christ is infinite. He has an infinite capacity for suffering, and a single instant of eternity (as measured by time — eternity has no “moments” or “instants”) would be sufficient for an infinite Being to experience the full measure of eternal punishment. It was entirely possible for Christ to have descended into hell, remained there for what would have seemed three days on earth, but was (and is) eternity.
It is in this same light that John could say, “The hour is coming, and now is…” From the perspective of eternity, time is a connected whole. One can see the beginning of time, the middle of time, and its end. All of time is always happening. We are just caught up in the “doing” of it. In eternity, Christ is always being crucified.
When Paul understood the truth of the gospel on the Damascus Road, he stepped into eternity and “became” a part of Christ’s body on that cross. He died, and was reborn. What? Shall we suppose that the new birth is only “symbolic?” No, but just as Christ is always crucified, and us with Him, so is He also always being born and living and ministering. Every hour that is coming is already. For, outside of time, everything that happens in time is always happening. When the created realm, the physical part of it, has seen the earthly fulfillment of everything that happened when “He spoke and it was done… He commanded and it stood fast;” when everything that shall happen “in time” has happened, then time will cease and the “eternal” state shall begin.
Christ hung on that cross in time, but He also hung on it in eternity. Our poor minds cannot grasp all that we would like to grasp, but some things are certainly true. We are on the earth, but our citizenship is in heaven. Members of God’s household, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, though we cannot now fully see or understand the scope or magnitude of those blessings. Nevertheless, those blessings are not some future hope, but a present possession. In Christ, we stepped from time into eternity. We are in Him now, when He is not on earth, bound by time, but in heaven. Every Christian is as eternal now as he will ever be, though our bodies shall be changed so that they can accommodate the abilities we have as eternal creatures. Trapped, as it were, in time, we shall one day, perhaps very soon, step back out of time into eternity. Then, it will not be some scary sort of transition into a new place, but it will be a glorious homecoming. It is our blessed hope.
When Christ hung on that cross, and then lay in that tomb, the “time” was not sufficient for Him to pay the penalty for all our sins. The length of time fell far short of eternity. But it was not the length, but the depth of His suffering, all of eternity in three days. Did He suffer? Oh, did He! God loved us so very much that He laid every bit of the torment for all our sins upon His Son, who willingly bore it, for us. How deep must the pain have been? My friend, it still is, for everything that takes place in time is continuous in eternity, till time shall have its end. And God the Father suffered the eternal loss of His Son during the eternity while Christ was (is) in hell on our behalf. It was not the temporary loss that we perceive, but our Father lost His Son forever. There is the love of God for us. It is as infinite as the eternity in which He expresses that love.
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