How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in his heart. For him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with him all the riches of limitless time and endless years.
~A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)
When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since you have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 17
Oh beloved, it is true.
We talk about getting saved. And yes, it is true that there is a moment in a believer’s life, where we cross over from death into life. At least it is true from our perspective. We were conceived, and born. We lived our lives in our own ways. And, continuing on this path, we would have stayed separated from Him.
But, something wonderful happened.
Across forever, this One in Whom we did trust, had already been standing there, gloriously excited for the moment. Oh, He had always been there. It was no guess. Nor, was it some very good prediction. No, He knew, and He knows, and He will know that we are His. And, this being made alive in Him really is something that was already done forever.
And, up until the moment where we turned away from our path on the timeline of this planet, and turned toward eternal life in Him, we were indeed stuck in four dimensions. We could move up and down, back and forth, and left and right. Plus, we could do these things along an axis called “time.”
However, time is something that we could not control. It was moving forward in some sort of unstoppable march. It was as though the dead weight of our sin and self were drawing us down and away from any hope that we thought we had.
Then, it happened.
Can we see it?
When we trusted Him for our salvation, we did not change anything about G_d. No, it was everything about us that changed. And as we were changed in an instant, we stepped into the Life that has always been bursting forth in every conceivable direction, forever. We came off the rails of the time that was drawing us down and away from Him, and were freed from this terrible, ticking taskmaster.
Said more simply: we entered into the eternal now of The Trinity. The Son held out His Beautiful and Glorious Hand… And He drew us into Their arms. The clock stopped ticking, and time became, for us, forever irrelevant. We, in coming to know Him, also entered into the way they have always lived, do live, and will live.
Eternal. Free. Whole. Real. Forever.
So, are you worried about whether G_d has changed His mind about you? Or, are you concerned about the pressing circumstances of life? He hasn’t, and the circumstances (though real) are hardly overwhelming in light of His nature. Perhaps tonight, you could again realize that it is never Him Who changes, it is you and I.
Tonight is your night, beloved. Time to experience His eternal nature, in your life. Right now.
The Cross to me is certain salvation. The Cross is that which I ever adore. The Cross of the Lord is with me. The Cross is my refuge.
~Thomas Aquinas
