The Lord always keeps his promises.
Psalm 145:13
The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:19-22
No longer will there be any curse.
Revelation 22:3
"Is everything sad going to come untrue?"
The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Joy to the World, Isaac Watts
Eight hundred years before it happened, Isaiah anticipated the coming of the Messiah. In compelling metaphorical language he paints a picture of what the arrival of the Prince of Peace will mean for broken humanity living in a broken world: the Messiah will reveal God to the world, reversing the consequences of the fall, reconciling sinful humanity to God and putting all things right.
From Isaiah’s vantage point, with all of these events still in the future, it seemed as though all this would happen at once. We who live on the other side of the birth of Jesus know this was not God’s design.
Instead of transforming all of human existence into the Kingdom of God all at once, Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom during His first coming, and will consummate the Kingdom only when He returns at the close of the age.
This has us living in a time described as “the already but not yet.” We see around us glimpses and foretastes of the Kingdom of God, but we cannot point to any part of our world and declare it fully redeemed, or any one of God’s promises and declare it completely fulfilled. Jesus is God keeping His promises, but every promise of God is only partially fulfilled now, and will only find its complete fulfillment upon His return, when He closes out the age and establishes the new heaven and the new earth.
So much already given; so much yet to be given. That means our experience as believers is one of grace and gratitude on the one hand, and longing and lament on the other. As the people of God living between the two visits of Jesus, we are privileged and challenged to experience the portion of His promised revelation, rescue, reversal, and reconciliation available today. We are grateful for the redemptive work we have experienced, and hope and trust in its glorious fulfillment in That Day.
God strengthens his people with a message of hope through the prophets. The Messiah will come – come to do nothing less than reverse the curse: bring light into darkness, turn the desert into a garden, and allow the wolf to lie down with the lamb.
Tangibly speaking, that great reversal will mean Jesus reverses our relationship with God (redemption and rescue), our relationship with our circumstances (restoration into wholeness), and our relationships within our society (righteousness and justice/making things right).
David Henderson
Senior Pastor
