Good Morning
All!!
1 Corinthians 13:12; “For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known”
In
ancient Greek philosophy, Plato said that we never see reality. We only see our perception of it. It is like we are in a cave and the real
item, image, or event occurs behind us and all we see is the shadows on the
wall before us. There are many in the
world that agree with this. You and I
don’t have to. We know reality; it is
God Incarnate in Jesus. Yet even as we
know the reality; we don’t fully grasp it.
We live in the existence of “now but not yet”.
We know the reality that awaits us; we have
eternal life assured to us. Our future
is in heaven celebrating with all believers in the marriage feast of the Lamb. We know this is true but we can’t see it
fully. We are saved; right now. Our salvation is secured by the blood of
Jesus. Our future in heaven is
guaranteed by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
You are saved right now. There is
no delay in this. This is the “now” part
of our phrase.
The thing is that we are not fully
glorified. This is the “not yet”. We are living in the time of our life where
we live by God’s grace. Right now, we
are living according to God’s grace.
When the time comes, either our earthly death or Christ’s return, we
will live according to God’s perfected, complete glory. So as we go through life we want to remember
that grace is glory begun and glory is grace that is perfected.
So we live in an imperfect time. Our time will not be perfect until we receive
our full measure of God’s glory. As we
wait, we see it dimly. We really only
have hints at what is to come. We often
speak of Holy Communion as a foretaste of the feast to come. We see it as just a small, microscopic taste
of the wonderful gift that, while we have received it, we haven’t opened it
yet. It is the Christmas present under
the tree with your name on it and it is only the 20th of
December. It is ours; just not yet. Just like that present, we only dimly know
what it is. We can pick it up and feel
the weight; we can shake it; we can smell it but we can never fully know what
it is until we open it. Then we can hold
it and look at it and play with it. We
can fully enjoy it. We no longer have to
wait but we can enjoy it completely and perfectly. This is what Paul means when he says “now I
know part, then I shall know fully.” We
are now-but not yet.” We are saved
according to God’s grace; awaiting for the completion of his glory.
And we wait with the eager expectation of
the joy that the completion of God’s glorious work will give to us. We wait eagerly knowing that when this
perfection occurs, when Jesus returns in his glory, all pain and sorrow, all
suffering and death will end. We will
see and live in the perfection of God’s creation with all the risen saints in
our glorified bodies with Christ, our king, in the midst of us.
Dearest Father, we only dimly see our future
glory. Yet we can celebrate your grace
as we wait for the fulfillment of your glory to us. Keep us in your peace. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor Bret
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.