he has done it

"future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn - for he has done it" - Psalm 22:30-31

It is Saturday on planet earth. Good Friday is behind us but the completion of God's resurrection project is yet to be unveiled. And so we wait and we watch. We watch over what God has entrusted us with. We watch for the movings of the Spirit the way my dog watches my every move through the window when I am in the front yard. We watch and pray so that we do not fall into temptation for the "spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41) We keep watch with Jesus even if it is just an hour, for a time of tribulation is coming to planet earth and the saints will be severely tested. For many, in places like China and Iraq, they already are. We wait for the consummation of God's kingdom on the earth. We are the watchmen God speaks of in Isaiah 62 who "cry out day and night giving themselves no rest and give God no rest until he makes Jerusalem the praise of the whole earth."And yet the Kingdom is already here. It is the now but not yet of the Kingdom of God. "Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." (Psalm 24:8) Where was this king's coronation? On a cross on a hill called Golgotha with excruciating pain, scorn and shame. This is the 'Lord mighty in battle?' Precisely. Oh, he will come back as a warrior on a white horse and he will execute the justice of God on all the wicked (Revelation 19:11-21) but his greatest battle has already been fought and won. A broken man on a cross is a victory? Precisely. On the cross Jesus proclaimed "it is finished." What was finished? What's this "it" he was talking about? The same "it" David foresaw at the end of Psalm 22. "future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn - for he has done it" - Psalm 22:30-31. The psalm starts off with the very words Jesus utters on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you foresaken me?" and goes on to describe with uncanny detail a scenario that looks like David is somehow peering into the future, watching the Good Friday events with a front row seat. So just what has the Lord done? Just what was "it" that was finished as Jesus breathed his last? Nothing short of the redemption of the whole human race. Jesus conquered death and sin in that moment. Jesus paid our penalty. Jesus won back the authority that we had relegated to Satan by our agreements with his lies. Jesus won the right for every one of his followers to boldly approach the throne of grace in our time of need. (Which is always for we are always in need of more of God.) Jesus atoning death purchased our healing :"By his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53). Jesus death was the new exodus out of the bondage of selfish agendas, sinful prison cells and short-sided ambitions. Jesus swallowed death and with it the fear that accompanies that relic of the curse. Jesus completed the first and only perfectly sinless life when he breathed his last on the cross. Nothing would ever be the same after that moment. Humanity now had a representative who had kept our end of the covenant with God. Jesus is our great high priest, the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate intercessor. He is the Lamb that was slain who takes away the sin of the world. But He is also the ferocious roaring Lion of Judah. He is the Lord mighty in battle.

So it is Saturday on planet Earth. But I believe it is drawing near to midnight. And "Sunday's a comin'!" as Tony Campolo likes to say. There's an interesting scripture in Hosea 6:2 that reads: "After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence." Just as it was after two days that Jesus was revived, as it was on the third day that the new creation project was launched so I think it will be with this generation. A thousand years is like a day to the Lord (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8). I like to think of the first two millennia as the two days Hosea is talking about. I like to think of this third millennium as the day of our restoration, that we may live in his presence." I know, I know skeptics will question my Biblical interpretive skills with this one...but so many other things have led me to the conviction of Christ's imminent return that this verse is just icing on the cake for me.

So how then shall we live if it is late Saturday night on planet earth? With Saturday Night Fever, that's how! With a fever-pitch passion to know the thoughts of our God and to usher in his kingdom as his vice-regents, and co-heirs. We have royal blood pumping through our veins. We live in the now but not yet of the kingdom but let us not use that as a limiting excuse to relegate what Christ purchased for us on the cross to some future generation! "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons and raise the dead." That's just one of the things Christ commanded us to do (Matthew 10)...and he did command us to obey all his teachings (Matthew 28:20). How do we do this? Well the end of Matthew 28:20 has the key - "And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age." We do it by hosting his presence. By soaking in his presence. By recognizing his presence, and where the King is so is the Kingdom. We pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There is no sickness in heaven! There is no death in heaven! There is no Devil in heaven!" It was Jesus idea that we pray this way. So which things are for the "not yet" and which parts are for the "now"? How will we ever know if we don't ask. I think Jesus would rather us find out that the thing we were contending for in the place of prayer was for a future age, than to hear Jesus say, "I would've given you so much more, if you had only asked." It is Saturday on planet earth. But the hour is late. And Sunday's a comin'!