The Eternal-Now

       Everything we experience in this life is designed to prepare us for the life we will come to know when we leave this world and enter into God’s eternal presence. The challenge before us, especially during times of suffering, is to view all aspects of life in the light of eternity. We must constantly live in the eternal-now, never divorcing our current experiences from our eternal destiny that is assured to us who are in Christ. The apostle Peter tells us “to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Pet 4:13). The apostle Paul shares a similar mindset when he says, “for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18); for “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17). Suffering becomes bearable when we see it in the proper context of eternity to which we belong right now. I say we belong to eternity “right now” because as Christians, we possess eternal life at the very moment we believe in Christ as Savior (John 10:28). Eternal life is not what we can have, but what we have at the moment of salvation. However, it is only when we leave this world and all its sorrows and enter into the presence of God in heaven that eternal life has its greatest experiential expression. The flow of time ceases at death, and all life’s sufferings associated with this world come to an end when we pass into eternity. More so, at the end of time itself, God will put an end to all suffering and evil when He destroys the existing universe and earth and creates a new universe and new earth (Rev 21:1). At such a time “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes [believers who have suffered]; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). Until then, we must look to the Lord and live by faith. (excerpt from, Suffering: A Biblical Consideration, p. 18-19)

Dr. Steven R. Cook

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