The “Already and Not Yet” of God’s Redemptive Promises
Out of Exile
New Testament theologians have this great phrase called “the already and the not yet.” It’s a way of speaking about the way in which Jesus has fulfilled and accomplished all the promises of God. All the promises of God are “yes” and “amen” in Jesus Christ. And so all those promises have been initiated or inaugurated, but equally, there’s a “not yet.” There’s a still-more-to-come realization of these great redemptive promises from God.
When Jesus atones for our sins and is raised back to life, he then ascends back into the presence of God. So, in Jesus Christ we have the first man to truly and fully return from exile into the very presence of God. And then Paul talks about the way we are united with Christ. And so therefore, because that man to whom we are united has returned to the presence of God, we too have returned from exile through our union with the crucified and resurrected and ascended man, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s the “already.”
But the “not yet” is that we still live in a fallen world. Death and sin are still real. What this does for us is it teaches us to have this hope of what Christ has already accomplished in history, but equally, to look ahead and wean us a little bit from the temptation to make this world our home, creating those longings and hopes for our heavenly abode.
But equally, it reminds us that while we have returned from exile, not everybody has. There’s a world full of unbelievers who have not been reconciled to the Father, who are not united to the crucified, resurrected, and ascended man. They have not returned from exile. And so therefore, we have a task in the age of “the already and the not yet” to continue to evangelize, to continue to tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ, how they can be forgiven, how they can receive resurrection life through the Spirit, and how they too can be united and reconciled to the Father through Jesus.
Christians should consider that when we speak the gospel to others, we are co-laboring with Jesus to call others out of exile.
And so this work of evangelism, therefore, is the ongoing work of Jesus himself. Christians should consider that when we speak the gospel to others, we are co-laboring with Jesus to call others out of exile just as we have been called out of exile. Or to put it another way, Jesus is making his appeal to the world to come out from among them and be reconciled to the Father through them. He’s making that appeal to the world through us. And that’s the work of evangelism. That’s why he’s made us fishers of men.
Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People.
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