TWO ETERNITIES

TWO ETERNITIES

Eph. 2:6-7 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The book of Ephesians is a stunning revelation of election, redemption, and the resulting sealing with the Holy Spirit. Paul takes us into eternity past where “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”. Then he fixes our gaze on eternity future “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. In the midst of these two incredible realities is the power of redemption, “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”. This redemption was made available by the greatest of all mysteries, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” A.B. Simpson spoke powerfully about looking into these two eternities.

“We have been looking, in this sublime epistle (Ephesians), into two eternities. The first is that past eternity when we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world for our great salvation and heavenly calling. The second is that eternity to come, for which He has been preparing us; and when He will gather together into one, all things in Himself, and we will sit with Him in the center of a universe of harmony, righteousness, beauty, glory and ineffable happiness, as the sharers of His throne and the very bride of His heart. But how will we understand that distant vision? How will we foretaste that coming glory? What telescope, what eagle eye can disclose the passing glories of that heavenly vision? Listen! The Holy Spirit is the “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Eph.1:14). He comes to be the revealer of the ages to come, to be the celestial telescope that pierces the distant firmament and brings nearer the vision of the coming glory. Nay more, He comes to be the beginning, the foretaste of what heaven will be, and to give us in our present experience some little taste of the fruits of paradise and the river of the water of life. Best of all, He comes to us the guarantee and pledge that all this will yet be ours in full fruition.”

It is so easy for us to become fixated on our current circumstances when we are actually eternal creatures with an eternal inheritance. We get stuck on politics, economic issues, church and family stuff when we are sons and daughters of God with an incredible future. C.S. Lewis talks about how Christians are glorious beings and if we could see our fellow brothers and sisters in their glory we would have trouble resisting the temptation to bow down in worship. Redemption is more powerful that we can possibly know in this life.