So far this Lent, we’ve faced the grim reality of our indwelling sin, the weight of our guilt, and the gap between who we are now and who we were meant to be.
But the Bible tells us that the person we are meant to be is the very person we will one day become. And understanding how that transformation comes about helps us live with the disparity we experience today.
Take Gideon, for example. His story begins in Chapter 6 of the Book of Judges where we find him hiding from the marauding Midianites – cowering in a winepress no less – when the Angel of the Lord appears and greets him as ‘a mighty man of valour’. [Judges 6:12]
Which is a great comfort to me as one who, like Gideon, knows just how weak I am. Because if God could see Gideon as someone who is strong, perhaps he can see me that way too – despite all the evidence to the contrary.
But here’s the thing: God’s word is powerful — so powerful that he creates simply by speaking. And because God cannot lie, whatever he says is true — of us as well as of Gideon — irrespective of appearances.
Which means that when God speaks reality must change.
Think about it. By a word of command, God created the universe. And by a word of command he spoke Lazarus back from the dead.
When God said ‘Let there be light’, there was light. And when Jesus said ‘Lazarus, come out’, Lazarus walked out of the tomb he’d been laid in having died four days previously.
God’s word is so powerful that all his promises are guaranteed to come about. Which means that in a real sense God’s promises belong to the present, even before they are fully realised.
Or, put another way, they are both ‘already’…and ‘not yet’ fulfilled.
This is a pattern that is repeatedly seen in scripture. After God declares something to be so, there follows a process by which what is true by God’s decree becomes true in actuality.
So for example, God declared Gideon to be a mighty warrior.
And if God says you are a mighty warrior, then a mighty warrior is what you are – even if, at the time, you are quivering in a wine press.
But there then followed a process by which Gideon became just what God had told him he was at the outset – so that, by Judges 7, he is leading an unlikely band of just 300 men whom God then used to defeat the Midianites.
At the time of God’s decree, Gideon was both ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ a mighty warrior. And in time he became what he already was.
Similarly God renamed Abram as Abraham saying ‘I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.’ The only problem being that when God said it, Abraham had no children at all.
But once again there followed a process by which Abraham became what God had already declared him to be.
Abraham too became what he already was. And the same is true for us.
God declares us to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. And so we are. The only problem being that, as we’ve been confessing throughout this Lenten series, we all continue to sin.
If, like me, then, all too aware of your indwelling sin, you sometimes find yourself asking, ‘Can I really be a Christian?’, you too can take heart.
Because, whilst not for one minute encouraging complacency, we need to remember that we too are ‘not yet’ what we ‘already’ are!
God has declared us to be right with him. We are ‘justified’ solely because of what Jesus has done for us. And if God says we are ‘Not guilty,’ then ‘Not guilty’ is most certainly what we are in Christ. Having already been counted righteous, we are now in the process of becoming what God has declared us to be.
That is, we are being sanctified as, by his Spirit and through his word, he makes us more like Jesus – the mighty warrior we have always needed.
So make no mistake, every single one of us will die as a sinner – still imperfect, still the author of our sin, and still in need of forgiveness.
But if our faith is not in ourselves but in Christ who has defeated sin and death on the cross, we will die as justified sinners – those who, though we still sin, have nonetheless begun the long and sometimes painful process of sanctification by which we become more and more like Jesus.
And, what’s more, God will complete the good work he has begun in us because that is what he has promised to do. And one day, on the day of Jesus Christ, we will rise again – perfectly righteous in our new resurrection body.
Then, and only then, we will become in actuality what today we are already declared to be.
The gap we currently experience – between what we are and what we should be – will finally be gone.
And I for one can’t wait!
So then, ‘there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.’ [Romans 8:1]
‘Beloved, we are God’s children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears we will be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure’ [1 John 3:2-3]
Which is very good news indeed!
Related posts:
To read ‘And not just because baked beans get in the way’, click here
To read ‘The Kindness We Don’t Needand the Truth We Do’, click here
To read ‘No Ifs or Buts’, click here
To read ‘Hope in the Ashes: Why Sin Remains But Does Not Reign’, click here
To read ‘Hope for the Guilty’, click here
To read ‘When our best isn’t good enough’, click here
To read ‘On Narcissism…an the Pot Calling the Kettle Black’, click here
Some musings 