Week 8 - FROM ALREADY TO NOT YET
CONNECT
What are you thankful for?
What challenge are you facing?
Have there been any answers to prayer?
Pray for each other.
Did anything stand out to you from last week’s follow-up Bible readings?
How did your “I will …” statement from last week go?
How did your sharing goal from last week go?
How’s your memory work coming along?
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV-1984)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (she) is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!
DISCOVER
Let’s start with a review.
FROM ADAM TO CHRIST - Union with Christ
We were born into Adam. This means that whatever was true of Adam was true of us. But by grace through faith, we have been born again into Christ. This means that whatever is true of Jesus is now true of us. Therefore, we are no longer characterized by Adam’s sin and death but by Christ’s righteousness and life.
FROM DEATH TO LIFE - Regeneration
We were dead in Adam, but now we are alive in Christ. Because we share in Jesus’ resurrected life, we already have eternal life here and now. From our new birth, new heart and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can stop living for ourselves and start living for Jesus.
FROM GUILTY TO INNOCENT - Justification
On our own, we are guilty sinners, who have rebelled against God’s authority and broken God’s law. We stand condemned and deserve death. Jesus, however, took personal responsibility for both our obedience to God’s law and our disobedience of God’s law. He did this by living the life we should have and dying the death we would have. Now through faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, when God looks at us He sees His Son. And because Jesus is righteous, God sees us as righteous. God has acquitted us of our guilt and declared us innocent in Christ.
FROM ENEMY TO FAMILY - Reconciliation and Adoption
Though we were God’s enemies because of our sinful rebellion, God has reconciled us to Himself as His friends and has adopted us as His very own children through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. He has also given us the Holy Spirit to assure us of His Fatherly love, especially when life is difficult.
FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM - Redemption or Ransoming
We were in bondage to sin, Satan and the fear of dying. Jesus, however, purchased our freedom with His own blood. He personally paid our ransom and we have been redeemed. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).
FROM IMMATURITY TO MATURITY - Sanctification
When we come to Jesus Christ, we are just infants in the faith. From this beginning of knowing God as our Father and His forgiveness, we grow strong in the Word and so overcome Satan and eventually become parents of other believers. God uses His Word and His Spirit, along with our commitment to grow, to help us become more and more like Christ.
FROM SELF TO CHRIST - Remaining in Christ
God never intended for us to live the Christian life in our own strength. Instead, He calls us to stay connected with Jesus so we do everything through His strength. Then what we could never do on our own, we do through our relationship with Jesus.
And now …
FROM ALREADY TO NOT YET - Glorification
Ask God to speak to you as you read His Word.
1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Have someone retell the passage in their own words.
What stands out to you in this passage?
What does this passage say about God (The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit)?
What does this passage say about people, including ourselves?
What does this passage say about the life God invites us to live?
Digging Deeper
Already
1 John 3:1-2 (NIV)
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God.
Who are we already?
How did we become the children of God?
Not Yet
1 John 3:2 (NIV)
What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
When Jesus returns, who will we become fully like?
How will this happen?
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 (NIV)
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
So Now
1 John 3:2-3 (NIV)
2 But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
For those who have the hope of becoming fully like Jesus, how now are we to live?
Through faith in God’s eternal Son, we have become God’s adopted children. When Jesus returns, we will become fully like Him. As we anticipate that Day, our priority is to become who we already are in Jesus Christ. As God’s children, we are to become more and more like Jesus, His One and Only Son.
Philippians 3:10-16 (NLT)
10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
How does Living in the Tension of The Already but Not Yet show up in Philippians 3:10-16?
How does Paul live his life in light of The Already but Not Yet?
What’s your reaction to this quote?
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, p. 104
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.
Living in the Tension of The Already but Not Yet
There is much to the Christian life that can be explained by the phrase The Already but Not Yet.
For example, fill in the blanks:
Already I am forgiven, but I still struggle with ________
Already I have new life, but some day I will ________
Already I am free from Satan, but he still ________ me
Already we see the power of God’s Kingdom bringing healing to people, but not everyone is ________
Already we ________, but ________
Already we experience so many benefits of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Yet there are other benefits that are still to come. We aren't in Heaven yet. Yet the life of Heaven and the Kingdom of God still break through to our lives here on Earth. We experience both life and death. We see both healings and the devastation of cancer. We know both forgiveness and temptation. So our lives are to be a balance of grateful praise, patient suffering, spiritual warfare and enduring hope.
Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV)
1 Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
What are you looking forward to the most about the New Heaven and New Earth?
Foundational Truth
Here’s the FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH we discovered today:
Some-Day Jesus will return. When He does we will become fully like Him and all things will be made new. We now live our lives in anticipation of that Day. As we set our hearts and minds on things above, we pray for God's Kingdom to come and His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. This hope fuels our purpose and passion to live fully for our Lord Jesus Christ here and now.
Theologically, this is called Glorification. God will get all the glory as He glorifies His people in His Son, making them fully like Jesus and making all things new. We both live and long for this Day!
Through Glorification our Union with Christ (where our study of FOUNDATIONS began) is completed as we are perfectly united with Jesus and perfectly transformed like Him forever.
LIVE
What truth have you discovered from today’s Bible passage(s) and conversation?
What would stop you from believing and obeying this truth?
How will you live out this truth this coming week? Finish this statement: “I will ….”
Who else needs to hear this truth? How could you share it with them?
NEXT STEPS
The next part of Follow The Way is called FREEDOM.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1). You don’t have to be paralyzed by fear or tripped up by lies or crippled by bitterness or in bondage to sin. Over 10-weeks you’ll discover how to personally and practically embrace the freedom that Jesus has purchased for you.
FOUNDATIONS and FREEDOM make up Follow The Way’s GROW Set.
When will we meet again?
Who will facilitate that meeting?
Pray for God’s help as you seek to follow Jesus this coming week.
FOLLOW-UP BIBLE READINGS
Let’s finish off FOUNDATIONS with 3 more passages and remind ourselves of Follow The Way’s memory work so far.
BUDDY SYSTEM
Connect with your buddy this week and ask each other these questions:
How are your readings going?
How’s your “I will …” statement coming along?
How’s your sharing goal coming along?
How can I pray for you?
PRINTABLE PDF
© 2023 Karl House. All rights reserved.