Happy
New Year, everyone! Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, which is the
traditional beginning of the church calendar. The church year begins by looking
forward to Christ’s coming, and then moves through Christmas, Epiphany, Easter,
Ascension, Pentecost, and finally the long weeks of what we call “ordinary
time", the Sundays after Pentecost.
Many people think of Advent
simply as “pre-Christmas”. It’s when you put the tree up. It’s when you start
playing the Christmas music. You pull out the advent calendar and count down
the days till Christmas. However, if you look at the way Advent has been celebrated
throughout our Christian history, you’ll see that preparation for Christmas is
only part of the story. Advent looks to the coming of Christ not only in the
past in His birth, but also in the future in His second coming. Stretching
between His first coming and His second is the time we are living in, what one
theologian calls “Life in the Middle”. That’s a pretty apt description of the
tension we feel in our lives as Christians.
We have been set free from our
dominion to sin. (Rom. 6:18)
And yet, sin still dwells within
us, and we struggle with this indwelling sin daily. (Rom. 7:21)
We have the Holy Spirit in us,
the firstfruits of our salvation. (Rom. 8:23)
But we don’t act as if we’ve
attained the resurrection already. Rather, as the Apostle Paul says, we press
on toward the prize set before us. (Phil. 3:12-14)
We are being renewed daily in
our inner man,
But our outer man is wasting
away, (2 Cor. 4:16) and we eagerly await the redemption of our bodies. (Rom.
8:23)
We recognize death as an enemy
that exists only because of sin. (1 Cor. 15:21-26)
But we also know that death for
believers is the entrance into God’s presence. (Phil. 1:21-23)
We are in the middle.
Another way the Bible puts this
is in terms of the old age and the age to come, the old creation and the new
creation. And there is tension here as well.
Jesus has all authority in
heaven and on earth. (Matt. 28:18)
But every knee has not yet
bowed, every tongue has not yet confessed that Jesus Christ is lord. (Phil.
2:10-11)
The curse of sin is being undone.
But creation has not yet been set
free into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21).
And while the old creation and
old covenant were brought to a definitive end in the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Temple in AD 70, the new creation is still coming into being as people
are brought into Christ by faith. (2 Cor. 5:17)
So in light of all this, we live
in the middle. Between Christ’s work of redemption for us and the final
consummation of His kingdom at the last day. We are at the point when the
mustard seed has been planted, and the tree is growing. The lumps of leaven
have been placed in the loaves, and they are currently spreading. The kingdom
has begun, but isn’t fulfilled yet.
And this is how we live our lives: in
faith looking back to Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension for our
salvation, and in hope looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises He
has made to us. This Advent season, take the time to remember God's promises to
you, that He will continue to save you and preserve you as you look to Christ
in faith even unto the end of the age.
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