Already and not-yet in John

To the Samaritan woman:

"the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him" (4:23)

To the Jews:

"an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (4:23)

To the Disciples:

"the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone." (16:32)

So "the hour" in John seems to be Christ's death and resurrection and the breaking in of that Old Creation death and New Creation life into our present.

The day of the Lord

The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thes 5:2).

People sleep during the night or stay up getting drunk. Either way they are not alert (v.7).

Christians live in the daytime (v.4), even though for the world it is still dark. They are experiencing the already even though it is not-yet. Therefore, they should be alert for Christ's appearing and doing the things of the day. That doesn't mean having your head in the clouds and being idle, but working (v.12-14)

Tomorrow's Monday, so unglamorous as it sounds, I'll be at the office as a child of the day. Today was the Lord's day, but so is Monday.

Trinitarian structures?

Eugene Peterson structures his course on "Biblical Spirituality" like the following boxes. He admits that there is a lot of bleed between them (e.g. that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in creation, justification and sanctification; and that creation, justification and sanctification are all of a piece, as is Christ's atoning work).

Given those caveats, is there enough distinction to use this as a structure? The early church in the creeds certainly agreed about the first two columns tying together in some way.

God the Father	Creation	Christ's birth
God the Son	Redemption	Christ's death
God the Holy Spirit	Holy Living	Christ's resurrection

Incidentally, I think, having just heard Tim Chester on Eschatology, I might add a fourth column:

God the Father	Creation	Christ's birth	First Creation
God the Son	Redemption	Christ's death	Death of Fallen Creation
God the Holy Spirit	Holy Living	Christ's resurrection	New Creation

...I don't know there are things I like and dislike.

Hope for the future in Hebrews

The author of Hebrews explains that "God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking" to Jesus and, in him, to humanity (2:5).

This captures much of what Hebrews is about. It is not a about incorporeal reality in contrast to a corporeal sub-reality. Instead it is profoundly eschatological. It is a book about our future ("the world to come") which has already happened in Christ. "At present" we do not see this future world except when we look to Jesus where it is encapsulated (2:8-9).

Hebrews regularly exhorts its readers to "hope" that endures through present difficulties "to the end". This involves "patience" and "waiting" but we are not to be "sluggish", but should "run" towards the eschaton.

Jesus is our "forerunner" who has entered the future before us. The OT temple is not modelled on heavenly realities only in the sense that it is modelled on an incorporeal dimension to reality. The Holy of Holies is symbolic of the future age which is "not yet opened" (9:8), and the Holy place "is symbolic for the present age" (9:9). Indeed the whole law is a "a shadow of the good things to come" (10:1).

Christ "entered once for all into the holy places [plural]" (9:12) to secure an "eternal redemption" (9:12; cf. 9:15).

We are waiting now for him to come a "second time" (9:28), just as he is "waiting [...] until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet" (10:13). The "Day" is "drawing near" (10:25) so we should encourage each other to hold firm and do good for "a little while" longer (10:37). Because "here [that is, in our present age] we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come".

Struggling with the already/not-yet

Does anyone else have trouble explaining already/not-yet?

I don't know why I know so many people who doubt their salvation, but one thing they all have in common is that they don't accept theological jargon without questioning what that really means. I got pulled apart on 'already/not-yet' recently.

When I talk about already/not-yet I think usually end up doing away with the tension and either saying:

• Its already fully but not yet revealed.
• Its already partly but not yet completed.
• Its not already at all, although we say it is (as some kind of legal-fiction) because it is certain that in the not yet it will be really true.

One ambition for 2010 is to tighten up my understanding on this. Any thoughts on books, bible verses, illustrations, etc which would help would be gratefully received.