Living in Divine Tension

The nature of our salvation requires us to live in the present while simultaneously looking backward to the past and forward to the future. We keep in mind the once for all finished work of Christ by which he actually completed our salvation. When he said, “It is finished,” he meant it. Nothing can be added to or subtracted from what he accomplished. It simply must be believed and received by faith, a faith that includes our faithful allegiance to him as Lord. This is the basis of our ability to rest in God’s grace. The immediate beneficiary of Christ’s perfect work is the innermost part of us – the Spirit, where we are born again and made righteous. This is where God dwells inside us. We are united to God’s Spirit through the miracle of justification.

But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹³ There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:12-14 (NLT)

We are also looking to the future while waiting for the last installment of our great salvation – the resurrection of the body. The spirit was saved over 2000 years ago at Calvary, but the body still waits in eager anticipation of the glorious day when Christ will return to raise his people from the dead. At that point, we will be completely and finally saved. Nothing will remain to be done. The final link to Adam’s transgression, the body, will be transformed forever. The battle with what the Bible calls the “flesh” will be over.

However, in the meantime, we live in the present in a divine tension between the past and future aspects of our salvation. The present requires that we experience a daily dose of God’s grace. Our past salvation was accomplished without our participation. Christ did it for us. Our future resurrection is not something we can pull off either. God must do it. The present process of our transformation or sanctification, however, is a partnership between God’s Spirit and us. He applies the benefit of Christ’s finished work as we eagerly wait for what is yet to come.

Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. ³ And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 (NLT)

The look to the past assures us that God already has done the heavy lifting that assures the final outcome. The look forward comforts us that we will not have to struggle forever with the “flesh” and sin. This gives us the confidence to live each day by faith, drawing upon the Spirit’s life and power within. Looking backward teaches us that sin, death, disease, oppression, slavery, and the devil have already been conquered. Looking forward to the resurrection and final judgment, which include the rewards Christ will dispense to those who faithfully serve him, inspires us to make the commitment and sacrifice to serve him with our whole heart.

We live in a divine tension between the past, present, and future. Those who are already made perfect in spirit are being made holy in the soul while awaiting the resurrection of the body. This is a tension between the already done bumping into that which is still in process and waiting completion.

The ongoing work of the Spirit is firmly rooted in the already finished work of Christ. God is working out in time what has been settled for eternity.

The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Ephesians 1:14 (NLT)

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