Heaven and Earth (Part III)

In between west and east, heaven and earth.

The fullness of heaven and earth came together in the man Christ Jesus and culminated on the cross.

  Heaven                         Earth
Fully God                      Fully Man
Born of Spirit                Born of Flesh

There were also 2 times in life where Jesus was literally suspended between heaven and earth.
1) In the womb.
2) On the cross

Both are places of birth for us. We are physically born from the womb (with the head coming out first followed by the body) and we are born again from the cross (with the 'head' Jesus, coming first and the 'body' us, following)

Once born again we remain in this tension, living our lives in between heaven and earth.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us...raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6)

This verb tense in the Greek for the word 'seated' is in the aorist active tense which is used to specify a past event that has ongoing implications.

If you are in Christ and Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, then where are you?...Right now?

Right now, we are seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father. When are born again (whether over time or in a moment) we get caught up into eternity. Jesus' reality and experience becomes ours. That is why it can be said by Paul in Galatians 2:20 that "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me". When Jesus died on that cross, we were in him! It is really OK if this is beyond what you can imagine. His ways are higher than our ways and he often gives us more than we can ask or imagine!

We are both here on the earth in time and space AND seated in Christ outside of time and space!

In between heaven and earth.

We are the temple of God and his throne is in the midst of his temple. (Ezk. 43) His throne is in heaven. So are we.  But we are also his temple here on the earth!

God uses us to be priests, mediators of his kingdom. We pray that his kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven, then Jesus uses us (his hands and feet) to carry it out!

We can even feel this tension, this conflict between the domain of darkness and the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13), within ourselves. Paul writes about this in Rom. 7:21-24:
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"

Praise God he has already told us who will rescue us in the next verse!
"Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

There is a battle raging even though the battle has already been won.

We are called to be warrior priests with our 'tents pitched' in between:
                                 
                                     West and East
                                     Bethel and Ai
                                  Heaven and Earth