God’s Past Is Our Present
Time is one of the dimensions that define the world in which we live. We measure distance, evaluate experiences and set goals by time. Many of us feel naked without having a timepiece with us and more and more home appliances and machinery have a clock built into them. We are constantly concerned with past, present and future events. In this dimension of time we determine purpose, direction and value for our lives. As it is often said, “We live by the clock”.
Western languages express action in simple past, present and future tenses. The Koine Greek, (the ancient, classical Greek in which the New Testament was written), expresses action in another way. One of the tenses is that of the aorist form. Using this form of the verb, the writer conceives an action as completed or whole. Translators tend to place this form of the verb as past, though it is not strictly intended to be so. The present form, in the Greek, implies a continuous action, rather than a static present. For example in Ephesians 5.18b it says: “…be filled with the Holy Spirit…” The verb we find here, “be filled”, is in the present tense. To express the kind of action implied it should read: “…be being filled…” It is the continual action of being filled. It is not like filling a cup with water, but rather filling a sail with the wind.
God is not in time. Time is in God. Past, present and future are all the same for Him. He is eternally the “I am”, the Present. God chose the Greek language as a tool to transmit His truth to those locked in the dimension of space and time because it better expresses His eternalness. His action, in our reality of time, is not merely a past experience, but rather a completed work. In other words, God’s past is our present.
When Jesus cried out on the cross: “It is finished”, is because it was. There is nothing more to add to the work that has already been accomplished. The aorist tense expresses it well. Look at some of the God-work that was done and still is:
He chose us – John 15.16
He brought us – James 1.18
He cleansed us – Acts 15.9
He clothed us – Is. 61.10
He redeemed us – Gal. 3.13
He healed us – I Peter 2.24
He glorified us – Rom. 8.30
He kept us – I Peter 1.5
He forgave us – Col. 2.13
He seated us – Eph. 2.6
He raised us – Col. 3.1
Why ask for what we already have been given? Why seek for that which is ours? Rest in the finished work of the cross! Because God said it, it is still true. Because God did it, it is still done. Time does not change it. It does not get old. It does not get outdated or old fashioned. The Lord’s work is always in cinque with the times. His past is our present.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Ex. 3.14; Heb. 13.8; Rev. 1.17-18