Wednesday: On Earth as It Is in Heaven
WEEK 28
WEDNESDAY
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
1 Peter 1:18-21
We noted yesterday the phrase “in all these things” was a key phrase; the victory was “in.” Another phrase gave people hope: “Jesus is Lord.” It is the oldest and profoundest Christian creed. This phrase penetrated to the very roots of life: “Jesus is Lord, of all life now and hereafter!
Note they did not say, “Jesus will be Lord,” for that would have expressed hope. But they said, “Jesus is Lord,” and that expressed a fact now. He had met everything, spiritual and material, and had conquered it; so he is Lord here and now. Out of that accomplished fact in history grew up their amazing hope about everything. Their hope included everything, for he was Lord of everything.
The vicious circle of living, the weary round of treadmill existence, had been broken. Life was no longer a circle, turning back on itself forever; it was an open vista—a Way. Life, history, the world, everything had meaning. The prayer—
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10 RSV)
—pointed life toward the coming of the kingdom on earth. The earth was to be the scene of final victory, therefore part of that victory. It was not merely a future victory when Jesus would return to reign—he was reigning—Jesus is Lord! Where was the kingdom? In his person. As John Baillie says: “The kingdom is not something yet to come. It came with Jesus Christ.” He is the kingdom personalized. In knowing him you “have tasted the excellence of the Gospel and the powers of the coming age.”* In Jesus, the victory of the coming age is realized. Not that he will not come again. The Scriptures say he will come in the final consummation of the kingdom. But in the meantime we partake of that final victory. As far as those in Christ are concerned, it has come and is present. They partake of the “powers of the coming age”—realized eschatology. Jesus is Lord!
“He must reign until he has put all [things] under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25 RSV). Note: “reign until”; he is reigning now even when all things are not under his feet. Things not under his feet perish.
O Jesus, you are Lord, Lord of heaven and earth, time and eternity; you are Lord. In that fact we face all life knowing that all that refuses your Lordship perishes. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today, not only shall I affirm “Jesus is Lord,” but everything I do and am will affirm it.
*John Baillie, The Belief in Progress (Oxford University Press, 1950), 206.