#DailyDevotion Christians Live In The Now-Not Yet Age

Isaiah 61:10—62:3 ¹⁰I will be very glad in the LORD, I will delight in my God, for He has dressed me in the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom puts on a priestly turban and a bride puts on her beautiful jewels. ¹¹As the ground produces its sprouts and a garden makes the seed sown in it come up, so the Lord GOD will make righteousness and praise spring up in the sight of all the nations. 62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until her righteousness comes out to be seen like a light and her salvation burns as bright as a torch. ²The nations will see your righteousness and all the kings your glory. You will be given a new name that the LORD’s mouth will determine. ³Then you will be a beautiful crown in the LORD’s hand, a royal crown in the hand of your God.

We have seen these verses from Isaiah sixty-one from the Advent season but now they are joined to Isaiah sixty-two. As we, in Christmas week one, continue the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we also continue to look to his second coming. We also would do well to remember that we live in the age of the Now-Not Yet. What I mean by that is what St. Paul continually reminds us, we live by faith and not by sight.

So we believe Jesus has won salvation for us but we cannot see it yet. We have faith that our sins are forgiven us yet we cannot see that this is true. We trust that we have been born from above however we cannot prove except for the fact that we have a new perspective on life and attitude towards our Father above.

So we will and are very glad in the LORD and delight in our God, “for He has dressed me in the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom puts on a priestly turban and a bride puts on her beautiful jewels.” It is what our LORD Jesus Christ has promised us when we were baptized, given the Holy Spirit and came to faith in him. If we were converted as an older child or adult, we might remember some feeling of it, of course we might not have felt anything at all (there may have been a more transitional, educational conversion). Yet we rejoice because we believe all of God’s promises are yes in Christ Jesus.

The LORD Jesus indeed is having righteousness and praise spring up in the sight of all the nations. Whether it was sudden or gradual, from the time we were born from above as infants or later in life, the Holy Spirit is working righteousness and praise in and through us in the sight of all the nations. We Christians are the Jerusalem, the Zion the LORD is renewing, making and growing. As Simon become Peter and Saul become Paul, so we too received a new name from our Father in heaven when we were adopted by him in baptism because we have truly become new people. While the world may look down on us now, on the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ and our revelation as the children of God, we will be the crown and glorious diadem in the hands of our God.

Almighty and merciful Father, grant that we may indeed walk by faith in the promises which are fulfilled in Christ Jesus so we may with our own eyes see their total fulfillment at his revelation to the world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.