Constant Now

Constant Now

All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter.

All our praise is focused through Jesus on this incomparably wise God! Yes!
Romans 16:25-27 The Message

I watch too much television and as a result, my wife watches too much. When we see movies that deal with time travel, she always gets confused. She asks, “How could the same character be in two places at once?” And I try to explain (always unsuccessfully), that it is a conundrum of the time space continuum. The rules of time have been bent (or broken) by a complex set of mathematical equations that have been applied in the real world via technology or other variables… Uh, maybe that is why she is confused?

Time is a formidable issue in Bible scripture. We humans tend to think in the moment. We compartmentalize and place time in the past, present or future. But we never think of time the way that God might see it, as a “constant now”. In other words, a million years ago, today, and the year 3050 are in front of God simultaneously.

God is outside of time (being the author of it) and as such is not affected by it the same way we are (aging, expired memories, unknown future variables, secret information etcetera). When Paul says the “mystery is revealed”, I think he is using the best terms he can to describe an event that has never had a beginning, is present and in trust for the future. The mystery revealed is Jesus, as the Christ (anointed one to deliver us from sin). The revelation is that Jesus is our legal council (propitiation). He purchased us from our sin condition and imparted his righteousness to us (something we commonly think we already own or have earned without Christ).

But here’s the thing. I claim to see these aforementioned events or “state-of-being” clearly, but I cannot. These are things that have been done, are being done, and I admit I haven’t a clue as to how they operate or to fully understand their meaning. The truth is that I am actively gaining a reality on these ideas over time; it seems like God is doing some new thing every time I learn more. Yet these are things that are already done in the mind of God. In other words, these are things that are complete for God. He has done it, but my mind is in the process of being opened to its reality.

The bizarre thing is that I may never understand the mystery in its entirety, but I am certainly happy about the parts I understand. I know what Jesus did on a cross.