I was freshly challenged by the view held by most believers, including, until recently, myself, that God dwells in a present-continuous tense. It presupposes that when Christ was “slain from the foundations of the earth”, in God’s mind the event had already happened, would yet happen and by implication is still happening. Another scripture in Ecclesiastes 3 adds to that view, saying, “Whatever is, has already been and what will be, has been before”.
“Slain before the foundations of the earth”, refers to a provision or guarantee that God made to underwrite project earth, not to predetermine its fall. It was a divine insurance policy. If God had been so predeterministic, He would be in no position to judge us. The scripture in Ecclesiastes is also moot, referring more to the continuity of life and the fact that nothing is really new – our issues today reflect issues of bygone eras.
Taking the points further, we now need to ask if God continually relives the cross. Perhaps the Father is independent of time, but Jesus is called “the ancient of days”. By implication He lives within some concept of time and mathematically He had a beginning = e + t or eternity plus the time it took for Him to become a son of His eternal Father.
God’s laws are universal and He dwells within them. However, time in heaven is not as we know it here – it is more of an Einsteinian, event horizon. It is not referenced to a sun or moon, but to the throne of God, but it is still a form of time. It has an event sunrise, a beginning of a major cycle or season, and a sunset, when the event ends. We see that reflected in the book of Revelations, where seasons are introduced with trumpets or vials. By that argument, the cross is a fixed-time event that marks the end of an era of unchallenged rebellion and the beginning of a season of divine restoration.
It is wrong to assume that the cross only liberated humans. Rebellion and corruption happened in heaven when Satan rebelled, to taint God’s entire domain – thus Christ was already under sentence of death way back then. The creation was God’s reply to that dilemma and the cross its ultimate objective. God agonized over sin until Calvary, but when Jesus died he resolved the issue for us below and for heaven above.
Now, rather than me deducting from your faith, I hope this has added to it. What was resolved, remains resolved. God has marked a moment when sin and Satan were judged – that is not a present continuous event, but a past perfect event. It is finished, it is done. Our sins are forgiven and Satan has lost, forever, the keys to death and hell. Be comforted – it is so – heaven is now living in the post-cross era of grace. When God says He remembers our sins no more, believe Him to mean he really has moved on.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ http://www.4u2live.net/
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