Moral balance

The second area of biblical tension is the moral sphere, or the question of holiness. Already God has put His Holy Spirit within us, and already the in-dwelling Spirit has begun to subdue our passions and to produce in our character and conduct His beautiful fruit of love, joy, peace, and the rest. Already, as the Holy Spirit fills us, He begins to turn us inside out and to make us more like Christ.

Not yet, however, has our twisted, distorted, fallen, self-centered nature been eradicated. Not yet do we love God with all our being or love our neighbor as ourselves. We are caught in this painful dialectic between assurance of victory and dismay over our continuing sinfulness; between the cry of triumph, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ," and the cry of longing, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

On the one hand, we have to take seriously God's command, "Be holy because I am holy," and the command of Jesus, "Go and sin no more," and the statement of John, "These things I have written to you so that you may not sin." But on the other hand, we have to face the reality of our continuing sinfulness, lest we become proud or dishonest. Let me give you a couple of quotations.

In his own understanding of sanctification, Augustine said in one of his sermons: "thither we make our way, still as pilgrims, not yet at rest; still on the road, not yet at home; still aiming at it, not yet attaining it." And John Newton, the converted slave trader, put it beautifully: "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world, but thank God I am not what I once used to be and by the grace of God, I am what I am."

Physical balance

That brings me to my third area, which is the physical sphere or the question of health. Already the Kingdom of God has erupted into human history in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He walked on water, He turned water into wine, He stilled the storm, He multiplied the loaves and fishes, He healed the sick, He raised the dead. In other words, He gave plenty of evidence of His own lordship over nature. The Kingdom had come in that respect.

Not yet, however, has God's Kingdom come in its fullness. Our bodies have not yet been redeemed and it is only when the body is redeemed at the resurrection that we shall be finally delivered from disease, pain, and death. Not yet have these things been destroyed. Not yet has nature become fully subservient to the rule of God.

On the one hand the Kingdom of God is at work in the world, but on the other, as we read in Romans 8, the whole creation is groaning in the pains of childbirth, and we ourselves are groaning, waiting for the new order to be born. I believe there are too many grinning Christians and not enough groaning Christians. There is an authentic groaning of the redeemed who are longing for the fullness of salvation, which will be ours one day.

So here is another tension. We have tasted the powers of the age to come, because the age to come has come, but so far it is only a taste. We experience the risen life of Jesus in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4) but to proclaim perfect health for everybody now is to anticipate the resurrection of the body.

Those who are dismissive of the very possibility of the healing miracles have forgotten the already of the Kingdom, while those who describe these miracles as "the normal Christian life" have not come to terms with the not yet.

Social balance

My fifth and last example is the social sphere, or the question of social progress. Already the Kingdom of God is at work in human society like yeast in dough. Jesus appointed His people to be the salt and the light of the world. Salt and light affect, even change, the environment in which they are placed. When you rub salt into meat or fish, bacterial decay is, if not arrested, at least hindered. And if you switch on the light something happens: the darkness is dispelled.

The Church has had an enormous influence all down the ages. Think of the rising standards of health and hygiene; the greater availability of literacy and education pioneered by Christian people; the greater concern for the sick and the elderly, that they may be allowed to live and die in dignity; the equal respect for and rights of all men, women, and children; improved conditions in mine, factory, and prison; concern for the environment; the abolition of slavery and the slave trade; and we could easily go on.

We can't claim that all those things are due entirely to Christian influence, but they are very largely so. Through His followers Jesus Christ has had an enormous influence upon society throughout the world.

Not yet, however, have nations beaten their swords into plowshares, or their spears into pruning hooks. Not yet has God created the new heaven and the new earth which will be the home of righteousness and peace. So it is right to expect further progress, as Christians become increasingly the salt and the light of the world.

But Christians are not utopians. We cannot perfect society, but that does not mean that we cannot improve it. We should seek to improve it and to make it more pleasing to God.

Three types of Christians

Let me recapitulate. In five spheres —— intellectual, moral, physical, ecclesiastical, and social —— we need to preserve the tension and balance between the already and the not yet.

I want to conclude by suggesting that there are three types of Christians today according to the degree to which they maintain this Biblical balance.

First, there are the "already Christians." They are the sunny optimists. They concentrate on what God has already said, done, and given through Jesus Christ. So whether the sphere is knowledge or holiness or health or the Church or the world, they give the impression that there are really no mysteries left that we cannot solve, no sins that cannot be conquered, no diseases that cannot be healed.

Their motive is marvelous. They want to glorify Christ. And because they want to glorify Him, they don't want to admit that there is anything that He cannot do today. The danger with them is that their optimism can easily degenerate into presumption and their presumption into disillusion. These "already" Christians forget the not yet, that perfection awaits the Parousia.

Pessimists and realists

Second, there are the "not yet Christians." They are the gloomy pessimists. They concentrate on the incompleteness of the work of Christ and on human depravity. They see evil ingrained in human nature and in human society and they see little possibility of improvement. They give the impression of being exceedingly negative in all their attitudes. They are wet blankets.

Actually their motive is fine too. They want to humble sinners. But the danger of the "not yet" Christians is that their pessimism can easily degenerate into complacency and their complacency into apathy. They forget the already of what God has said, done, and given in Jesus Christ, which we need to exploit to the full.

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Third, there are the "already, not yet Christians." They are the Biblical realists. They focus equally on the two comings of Christ, on what He has done and what He is going to do, living in the tension between Kingdom come and Kingdom coming.

They want equally to glorify Christ and to humble sinners at the same time. On the one hand they are determined to explore and experience to the fullest possible extent everything that God has said, done, and given in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, they keep their feet on the ground. They acknowledge the continuing folly and weakness and sinfulness of Christian people until the second coming.

More confidence and more humility

My desire is for more Christian confidence in the already, a determination to enter fully into everything that is possible for us today, and more humility before the not yet, acknowledging that much ignorance, much sinfulness, much physical frailty, much ecclesiastical unfaithfulness, and much social decay will continue as symptoms of a fallen world until Christ comes again.

And it is this combination of the already and the not yet, of Kingdom come and Kingdom coming, of the look back to the past and the look on to the future, of Christian confidence and Christian humility that characterizes authentic BBC. (More detailed & "better" version in the book Contemporary CHristian)

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"Balanced, Biblical Christianity" is taken from the "Social Witness and Action" (Spring 1995) issue of Mission & Ministry, the quarterly magazine of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. Subscriptions may be ordered for $16.00 a year (four issues) from: Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, 311 Eleventh Street, Ambridge, PA 15003. Inquiries may be made to the editor, David Mills, at DavidMills@tesm.edu.