Here and Now . . . and Eternity: the Tension of Dual Citizenship

BP 151

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I alluded to it in last week’s post about Christians being like amphibians—living both in the water and on land. Christians, who will one day dwell in heaven forever with Jesus, for a while are living in this temporal world behind enemy lines. We are in the world but not of the world. We are children of eternal light living in the darkness of this age, wrestling against the cosmic powers who rule this present darkness.

Do you ever think about this tension? Do you ever feel it? Do you possibly sense it but do not know what it is? Not all depression or anxiety or sustained grief is mental illness.

In this post, I will develop this tension between heaven and earth just a bit.

Although there are some younger individuals who are very sensitive to the brevity of this world, it does seem to be much more common that as Christians age, they become more aware of eternity and the brevity of this lifetime. One way to say it is that when you’re twenty-one years old, you have nine toes in this world and one in timeless eternity. When you’re eighty-one, you have nine toes in heaven and one toe here on earth.

There are a few young people who are gifted (usually because of meditation in the dark valleys of life prompted by suffering in their souls) with an acute awareness that this world is fleeting. They might be called old souls. They know that their days in this world are like grass—flourishing one day and then thrown into the fire the next day. They have eyes to see beyond the material world into eternity. These young people often do not fit in well with their peers. However, some of them are burning lights, shedding illumination on what truly matters in this transient reality.

Below are some random thoughts for humans who have eternity in their hearts but are living in a body that is mortal.

One question for believers is how invested in or attached to this world should we be if it is only a breath and then we die and are reunited with Jesus forever?

Billy Graham had a few thoughts for human amphibians. He said that “Life is just a schoolroom with a glorious opportunity to prepare for eternity” but that “we are so caught up with the affairs of this life we give little attention to eternity.”

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I would say that believers living with toes in both worlds experience a unique tension. As Mr. Graham indicates, many Christians do not ponder eternity very often at all. These individuals are probably too invested in a world where they are only walking dust.

On the other hand, there might also be those believers who are so fixed on heaven that they are not very present in this world. These latter individuals may not be all wrong as long as they have a burden for the lost who live around them, living to love others with the love of Jesus.

1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see Him as He is.”

Jason Helopoulos writes concerning 1 John, “On that day all the tensions [of being an amphibian] in our lives will finally cease. The sinner will fully be transformed into a saint, our peace will be complete, our love will be perfected, sin will no longer be at hand, and our faith shall be sight. And how do we know that this day will be a reality? Surely, some of the greatest signs are the tensions we experience in the present. We are enjoying an appetizer of the benefits of eternity now. The eschaton has broken in.”

In other words, some of the tension we experience in this world points to the fact that as born-again believers, we are tasting heaven and eternity right now even as our mortal bodies are confined to this physical existence. Sounds like a great source of dissonance to me.

Try to get used to the hopeful message of this tension: No, you are not home yet, but Jesus has promised that He will come back for you and bring you to where He is—home. For those of you who have the Spirit within you, you will experience a wordless longing inside until the day you attend the glorious family reunion.

Jim Elliot wrote the familiar words, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” I interpret this quote to mean that we need to live our lives for eternity because we cannot hold onto this world anyway and, as the old saying goes, “Only what is done for Christ will last.”

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Randy Alcorn of Eternal Perspectives Ministries writes, “He who lays up treasures on earth spends his life backing away from his treasures. To him, death is loss. He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to eternity; he’s moving daily toward his treasures. To him, death is gain.”

When Randy’s dear wife, Nanci, passed away just over a year ago, he shared the following words at her memorial service: “The Apostle Paul said, ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’ and ‘it is better by far to die and be with Christ.’ Nanci is safely home with Jesus, where joy is the air she breathes. As Psalm 16:11 puts it, ‘In your presence is fullness of Joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.’”

Personally, as I have witnessed the death of people I love over the years, I have always been comforted by Paul’s words concerning the intersection of this temporary world and the next, eternal world. He writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Jesus’ apostle makes it very clear that the seen things in this world are temporary and are preparing us for amazing glory in His presence in another world that we do not yet see—except with eyes of faith.

In the next chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul goes on to say, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”

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One truth I take from these words is that to groan in this world is “normal”, to be expected. While some people complain that God does not take very good care of His people in this transient reality, others are comforted by the truth that as long as we live outside of the Garden—east of Eden (Genesis 3:23, 24; 4:16) —we will know pain, suffering, tears, and the deep dissonance of being sojourners in a universe that is not our home.

But one day it will not be so.

Here and now mingled with eternity: that is the tension all believers in Jesus live with every day. Be aware of this tension, this glorious tension. Lean into eternity. View this world from the eternal perspective because what will be true forever will give you hope today no matter how dark the valleys are that lead to home.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” ~ Romans 8:18ff.

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“We don’t seek to escape this life by dreaming of heaven. But we do find we can endure this life because of the certainty of heaven. Heaven is eternal. Earth is temporal. Those who fix all their affections on the fleeting things of this world are the real escapists, because they are vainly attempting to avoid facing eternity – by hiding in the fleeting shadows of things that are only transient” ~ John MacArthur.

So, hang tightly to Him, O believer, and lift your eyes above the storm. One day soon you will have all ten toes in heaven. You will be a citizen of only one country. For ever and ever.

And that is no fairy tale.