Already But Not Yet!

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I can remember the first time I was introduced to this phrase; its obvious oxymoronic pronouncement was just one more worldview shattering truth which was redefining Christianity as I once knew it. Having been given new ears for the Gospel - the life, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the centrality of that message through which God the Spirit not only gives new life but also sustains new life (1 Cor. 15:1-2) - “Already But Not Yet” was quickly, if not instantly, ushered from oddity to beautiful Gospel paradoxical truth in my mind and spirit.

“Already But Not Yet” is used to describe a tension within scripture, where both present and future realities converge; it refers to the time between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ or “the last days” where this age and the age to come overlap. It is in this period that the New Testament was penned and in which we still live today. It is in this intersection where Christians (those who have repented and believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ) have been given a foretaste of the eternity to come.

We see this communicated in two ways in scripture:

(a) In Jesus’ ministry he spoke about the Kingdom as a present reality (Mat. 4:17, 12:28 for example) that has come through the life, death, and resurrection of the Christ, namely himself. The Kingdom is manifest in his own earthly ministry making it possible for both Jew and Greek to enter into it through faith in Christ. However, the Kingdom is something we also must wait for; it is only when Jesus returns when we will fully feast upon eternity, experiencing the Kingdom in its entirety (Mat. 25:34).

(b) In this intersection certain aspects of the Christian’s spiritual state also finds itself pinned between ‘this present age’ and ‘the age to come’, for example Heb. 10:10-14. In these verses the writer of Hebrews is speaking of Christ being the perfect and final sacrifice as opposed to the blood of bulls and goats, offered by priests for the forgiveness of sins in the Old Testament on the behalf of the people of Israel. He speaks of these animal sacrifices as being incapable of making perfect those who draw near and impossible to take away sins.

In the midst of his exposition he makes this statement: “10And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The writer declares that the believer has been sanctified by the spilling of Christ’s’ blood on Calvary, using a tense of completion or finality. Sanctification however “is the lifelong progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives” (Wayne Grudem: Biblical Doctrines). We then read in verse 14 “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Sanctification is now being referred to in two tenses, future and present continuous tense; how do we reconcile the two? Simple, we don’t, both are true, we are already sanctified but our sanctification has not yet been completed.

We also see this tension in another link in the “Chain of Redemption”, Glorification “the final step in the application of redemption. It will happen when Christ returns, raises and reunites the bodies of dead believers with their souls and changes the bodies of those believers who are still alive, thereby giving all believers perfect resurrection bodies” (Wayne Grudem: Biblical Doctrines). This is a future occurrence. In Romans 8 Paul declares in verse 17 “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”   Then in verse 30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Again we see the future and present reality of a Christian’s spiritual state.

Also see:

Saved (Rom. 8:24, 10:9, 10, Eph. 2:5, 8) – (1 Cor. 1:18, 15:1-2, 2 Cor. 2:15)

Adopted (Rom. 8:15) – (Rom.8:23, Gal. 4:5, Eph. 4:5)

“Already But Not Yet” a paradoxical Gospel reality that should remind us of God’s faithfulness to his people, for we now live in a sort of intermission where part one of Gods promise was fulfilled with the appearance, life, death, burial and resurrection Jesus Christ. We now await the epic final act, the return of Jesus, where he will usher in eternity and the “Not Yet” will become “Right Now” and forever!

Come Lord Jesus, Come!!

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