DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 17, 2019
“The Future is Now”
Prayer: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, You hold our life in Your hands. As the psalmist says in Psalm 31:15, “My times are in your hands.” Knowing the depth of Your love for us as we look back upon the manger in which Jesus was born and back upon the cross upon which He died for us, we should live each day confident in Your presence and provision. Yet, Lord, we confess that many times we worry about tomorrow and wonder if You are with us. By Your grace and by the power of Your Spirit, grant to us the joy of knowing we are Yours now by faith in Christ and will be with You for all of eternity. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 5:25-27
25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
Devotional – “The Future Is Now”
The Christian life is a life of simultaneity. As those who have been born again in the waters of baptism and given new eternal life in Christ, yet who still live in this life broken and sinful, we live both in the “now” and in the “not yet”. We exist simultaneously in the reality that is and in the reality that is yet to come. How we live, how we think, what we prioritize and all that we do should find their locus in the paradox of knowing that because our life is hidden in Christ who has risen from the dead, our future life is both one to come and one that has already begun.
Colossians 3:1-4 reveals this mystery to us when it says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
As it said in verse 4, Christ is our life now and is also coming again very soon to both judge the world and take us into the eternal life we have already been given in Him. For all of those who know Christ as Lord and Savior, the future really is now. As Jesus said in our text for today, “a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
Although we will never be able to fully wrap our minds around this truth of Scripture, it should leave us no less in awe of what the Lord has done for us through His death and resurrection. As we celebrate the Advent and Christmas season, we look back on the birth of Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. By looking back upon the coming of the promised Christ Child and how that changed both the world and radically changed the lives of those people who longed for His arrival and worshiped His appearing, we too should be changed and have our lives transformed knowing that this same Christ Child has promised to and will come again. You and I have the awesome privilege of living in the light of the empty tomb of Jesus, and that is no less a privilege or any less stunning of a reality than being told “you shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Jesus, Immanuel (which means God with us).” – Mtt. 1:23
The fact that God is with us now only because we have already been raised with Christ into the very presence of God Himself, is a mysterious reality that should have very real consequences on our life. It is not possible to both have eternal life now and still live the same way we always have. Christ was born, was crucified and buried, and rose again on the third day in order to give us the hope of eternity that resolves our worries of tomorrow and sets us free from the prison of yesterday so that we experience His peace and joy today.
A life lived apart from Christ is a life lived only for the here and now. It is a life lived in the constant uncertainty of what tomorrow might bring. It is a life cheapened and emptied by the daily routine and futility of trying to bring life meaning and significance. It is a reactive life consumed with making the most out of what you have because you don’t know what tomorrow may take away.
This is not how it should be nor how it has to be. Jesus says in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
A life lived with Christ and in Christ is a life lived in eternity and for eternity. It is a life lived in the constant certainty of God’s love and salvation, regardless of what tomorrow brings. It is a life enriched and overflowing by the excitement and suspense of following the One whom the waves obey, and a life given heavenly purpose and meaning as we surrender everything into His hands. It is a proactive life consumed with making the most out of the time we have by serving the God who has given us life and has seen each one of our days before one of them came to pass. It is a life lived in fear and wonder of God’s merciful power, and a life that charges fearlessly into tomorrow because we know that as the angel Gabriel told Mary, “All things are possible with God.”
In all of your festivities and celebrations this Christmas, I pray you find some time to separate yourself to God, in His Word, and let the full weight of His glorious and mysterious grace settle in your heart and mind. I pray that before Christmas comes to an end, you have made room for the Spirit of God to remind you that the eternal life He has given to you in His Son Christ Jesus, has already begun and is coming very soon.
Thanks for spending time with me today in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
