Study 76

Future Grace

As if all that we've looked at wasn't enough, there's more grace yet to come! Peter tells you ‘to set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed' (1 Pet. 1:13). God's grace will never run out even when ‘we've been there ten thousand years', as Newton's famous hymn reminds us. So what further grace can we anticipate? The fact is that our present salvation is incomplete. We live between the ‘now' and the ‘not yet'. ‘Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known' (1 John 3:2 italics mine).

From groaning...

Paul reminds us that this present age isn't only characterised by eager anticipation, but also by frustration and groaning - because we‘re waiting to be fully glorified. ‘We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies' (Rom. 8:23). As we wait, eager longings are mingled with groanings and in this we're in step with the whole of creation which groans ‘as in the pain of childbirth right up to the present time' (Rom. 8:22).

Creation is pictured as a pregnant mother, straining with birth pangs and longing for the day which will not only bring forth God's sons in all their glory but will also herald the end of creation's long night and her bondage to futility. Somehow the future of creation is inextricably interwoven with the future of the church. God will graciously transform us completely into the image of his glorious Son. The culmination of our salvation is not sanctification but glorification! The prospect of future grace is breathtaking.

...to glory

The ache experienced by creation isn't merely random. Childbirth pains point forward in anticipation of a glorious future event. Jesus told his disciples that wars, earthquakes and famines would be ‘the beginning of birth pains' (Matt. 24:8). At man's fall creation became distorted, cursed and futile. But at Christ's coming ‘creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God' (Rom. 8:21).

Certainly we're the recipients of God's grace in this life but much more awaits us. What we have now isn't the complete picture. Paul writes ‘If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men' (1 Cor. 15:19). He then goes on to compare our present life and our future life in the familiar terms of nature, like the seed and the full flower. At death our body is sown perishable, but is raised imperishable; it's sown in weakness but is raised in power; it's sown natural but is raised spiritual. ‘The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality' (1 Cor. 15:53).

The completion of God's saving work lies before you. If you set your hope fully on that future grace it will set you free from short-term fears, bitter disappointments and pain. Indeed, throughout the ages the certainty of future grace has released glorious faith and overwhelming joy in the hearts of the martyrs.

Paul tells us that our ‘light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all' (2 Cor. 4:17). Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glories that will one day be revealed in us. Mother Theresa is reported to have said that when we get to glory our life lived in this age will seem like spending one night in a second-rate hotel.

To Meditate On

God's people long to be with him.

‘We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked' (2 Cor. 5:1,2).

‘Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing' (2 Tim. 4:8).

‘They were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them' (Heb. 11:16).

To Be Inspired

‘Fundamental to New Testament Christianity is this ambiguity of the church. We are living between the times, between what he did when he came and what he will do when he comes again, between kingdom come and kingdom coming, between the now already of kingdom inaugurated and the not yet of kingdom consummated' (John Stott, Calling Christian Leaders, IVP, 2002).