The Puritanical “Already, Not Yet”
7/3 Reading Portions: Joshua 5:1-6:5; Psalms 132-134; Isaiah 65; Matthew 13
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
7/3 Reading Portions: Joshua 5:1-6:5; Psalms 132-134; Isaiah 65; Matthew 13
Isaiah 65:20
“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.”
INFANCY
While surely the seventeenth verse indicates that the verses following are prophetic blessings of the new heaven and new earth in that Day when Christ Jesus returns. Nevertheless, does this not also reflect the spiritual reality of gospel grace found in Christ’s church? Are these not the gracious effects of the gospel of peace? Truly, we now enjoy a measure of what the old Puritans used to refer to as the “already-not-yet” of Christ’s kingdom. Since there “is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female,” because we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28), one who is but a babe in Christ and born-again by grace through faith, such a one inherits every promise of Christ and every privilege in Christ as a believer who has walked with the Lord a hundred years. Through Christ’s gospel, it is as Dr. Hawker expressed it long ago:
“The infant in nature is an old man in grace.” —Robert Hawker, The Poor Man’s Commentary
The sinner, on the other hand, who dies at a hundred years old without Christ, shall be accursed, dying in the same condemnation in which he was born. On the last day of VBS a few years ago, a child asked: “If a child dies and goes to heaven, will he be a child or grownup?” Truly, out of the mouths of babes, our Lord Jesus has perfected praise. My answer: YES. Our verse today expresses this. By God’s grace, all God’s people are children in Christ’s kingdom. Christ is our Everlasting Father (Isa 9:7). Yet at the same time, in the new heaven and earth, we are God’s eternal people, full and complete in Christ— as children, still learning of our infinite God; yet as mature, fully enjoying our God (Isa 65:18) while bringing Him joy (Isa 65:19). What will it be like? I have no idea. John expressed it in this way:
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
A man like me, at sixty-four,
Is but a child in Christ;
We’ll still discover more and more
O’ His glorious sacrifice.