The end is now!… and not yet. Realistic Hope for Everyday Christian Life Week 4 – Already/Not Yet Resurrection

Christ the Eschatological Messianic-King comes into the fleshly order of existence which is characterized by weakness, sin, and death, and proclaims the presence of his eschatological kingdom. He is obedient as the second and last Adam. The eschatological life Adam forfeits Christ obtains. He is raised into a new imperishable order of existence. He comes into eschatological possession of the Spirit in his resurrection. He pours out this Spirit on his Church and so delivers his people from the present evil age into a new age marked by the Spirit. Thus he is the giver of eternal (eschatological) life through his Spirit, that is to say Christ has become life-giving Spirit.

This present evil age The age to come The coming age has already broken into the present. FleshSpirit

What does Paul mean in 1 Cor. 15:47 when he says the first man is “from the earth” and that the second man is “from heaven?” How does the already and not yet structure of the last days effect my Christian life now?

You live in the tension of having tasted of the age to come, all that which is already present in the salvation of the believer, and longing for the hope of what is not yet. 2 Cor. 5:1-5 - For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-- not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

He is above, seated at the right hand of God. WARNING: We don’t‘ need to engage in theological astrophysics!

Christ has ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places. (Col. 3:1; Eph. 1:20; Acts 1:9-11). Christ is in an environment appropriate to his incarnation, and bodily resurrection. This is to say that Christ is in an actual spatial-temporal place. Heb. 9: Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

1 Cor. 15: The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. This is not a statement about the incarnation. The natural/Spiritual contrast of v turns into a contrast between earth and heaven in v. 47. This is an eschatological contrast, just like natural/Spiritual or flesh/Spirit.

Remember Spiritual Body ≠ immaterial body Nor does a heavenly order mean an immaterial order Where Christ is now (heaven) is appropriate to his incarnation and his bodily resurrection

Paul is talking about two orders of existence. Those who are natural are like the man of dust and are part of the earthly order. Those who are Spiritual are like the man of heaven and become part of the heavenly order. This present evil age The age to come FleshSpirit Heavenly Order Earthly Order

Hence, Col. 3:1-2 - If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. And hence Phil. 3: Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

What has already happened in Christ What will happen at Christ’s return Horizontal Eschatology Heavenly BlessingsVertical Eschatology

God has already lavished every blessing of salvation on you! Eph 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, You have received the Spirit as an eschatological down- payment, a guarantee of your future inheritance. Eph 1: In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

You are already raised! Col. 3:1-2 - If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Eph. 2: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Your regeneration is the first part of your resurrection. You were dead in your trespasses. (Eph. 2:5) You have been made alive with Christ. (Eph. 2:5) 1 Pet. 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… The Christian life is resurrection life and Christian ethics are resurrection ethics. – Richard Gaffin

You are dead already!

Rom 6:1-6 - What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Col 3: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The basic and fundamental reality of our salvation is that we are united to Christ by Faith. We are in the second Adam. Thus all that is his becomes ours, his righteousness, his death, and his resurrection! Hence - Eph 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, Justification, sanctification, adoption, and our future glorification all come from our union with Christ.

2 Cor. 5: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. This present evil age The age to come FleshSpirit Heavenly Order Earthly Order

We have been raised with Christ, but not yet bodily. 2Co 4: But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Christian living is patterned after Christ’s life, suffering unto glory. Luke 9:23 - And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Not health and wealth…. Yet.

2Co 4: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Rom 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Rom 8:23 - And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Col. 3:3-4 - For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. All that is ours has not appeared yet. Thus our lives are hidden with Christ. The last days, the end of the ages has dawned on us, but we are not in it fully yet. The last day has not come. We live in the tension of the already and not yet.

What has already happened in Christ What will happen at Christ’s return Horizontal Eschatology Heavenly BlessingsVertical Eschatology

They will become one and the same. Rev. 21:1-3 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. The union of heaven and earth lies at the end of history!