KC Podcast - Episode 117: Passing the Baton

Advent Hope

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.

Comments