There is this present age. There is this age to come, but Paul stresses that we live in what has been called the overlap of the ages. We have been transferred as believers from the dominion of this present age, and we have been brought into the life of the age to come. The world around us is marked by strife, by sin, and ultimately by death. Yet Scripture tells us that this present world is passing away, and the life we have in Christ now signals the coming of an age that will not be marked by death, but by everlasting life.
Welcome back to another Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Josh Mann, and today we'll be continuing our study in Guy Waters' series, "The Life and Theology of Paul." This video teaching series includes twelve messages from Dr. Waters, exploring key themes of Paul's writing. When you make a donation in support of this program today, you'll receive digital access to the video teaching series. We'll also give you the companion ebook and a digital study guide as well.
Just go to renewingyourmind.org to make your gift and request this offer. Here's Dr. Guy Waters with today's message.
Now, on the Damascus Road, Paul tells the Galatians in the first chapter, he was given a gospel to preach, a message of good news. What is the gospel that Paul preached? How can we start to get our arms around it?
Well, I think to begin, we can offer both a long answer and a short answer. Paul has left us the long answer in the Epistle to the Romans.
Now, a little background on the Epistle to the Romans. Paul is writing this letter from Corinth. It's towards the end of what we call his three missionary campaigns or journeys, and it is in the late fifties A.D. Paul's intention is to go from Corinth back to Jerusalem. But then Paul has a wider mission in view.
After that trip to Jerusalem, he wants to go to Spain.
Now, Spain in Paul's day was the back and beyond of the civilized world; it was very much the frontier. But Paul doesn't want to go straight to Spain. He wants to go to Spain by way of Rome. Halfway between Jerusalem and Spain, why is Paul so eager to go to Rome first?
Well, Paul's missions had always been based out of a church. If you read the Acts of the Apostles, the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas out, and Paul would return. And tell the church in Antioch of what God had done through him among the Gentiles. And Paul very much wanted to continue that pattern. He was not a freelancer, as it were.
So he is eyeing the church at Rome to be the base of this new Western mission to Spain.
Now Paul has never seen the church at Rome. He knows of them. You read his greetings in Romans 16, and it's clear that he has been praying for them and he is acquainted with them. But he's not been to them. And this letter is something of an introduction.
It's a way for Paul to tell the church at Rome, "This is what I'm about." He tells them in chapter one, verse fifteen, "I am eager to preach the gospel." To you who are in Rome, you see, the gospel is not just for the unconverted. The gospel is for believers as well, and Paul could sum up his work in aspiring to visit the Romans as preaching the gospel to them. And the rest of the letter, as we'll see in subsequent lectures, is a preface or a summary of the gospel that Paul intended to preach in Rome.
Now that's the long answer. The short answer comes in First Corinthians chapter fifteen.
Now Paul is addressing a number of pastoral issues in the church in Corinth, the church that he had founded by God's grace, the church that he had spent time with for some eighteen months. Luke tells us. And one of the problems in chapter fifteen is that there is questioning of the bodily resurrection, even a denial of the bodily resurrection. And Paul saves this for last, and he devotes some fifty-eight verses to addressing this issue that, for Paul, is of utmost importance. And in the beginning of chapter fifteen, he says to the Corinthians, "I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you." So here, in a few verses, is a digest of the gospel that Paul preached.
And I think we could note three things about this gospel from these verses. In the first instance, the gospel centers. On the message that Jesus Christ has died, and that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, he died for our sins; he was raised on the third day. These are two historical works of Jesus Christ, works of Christ in history that Paul proclaims. Paul is concerned that believers know that these are well attested.
That's why he goes on to say Christ died for our sins, and he was buried, that certified that he in fact died on that cross. And then not only was he raised on the third day. But that he appeared to many witnesses, and you have a long list of those witnesses. Jesus was seen by people in the flesh, in time, space, history. And these two works, Paul is concerned to stress, are in accordance with the scriptures.
He died according to the scripture. He rose again according to the scripture. God's promises. The Old Testament have now come to fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
So that's the first thing. The gospel centers on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But then, secondly, the gospel assumes that we are sinners. You see that in First Corinthians fifteen three. Christ died for our sins.
Assumes we are sinners. Paul says the gospel is the message, verse two, by which you are being saved.
So sinners need to be saved, and it is the work of Christ that saves. It is preaching Christ that sinners come to be saved by Jesus Christ, and that leads to the third thing. The gospel is not, we could say, automatically saving. But Paul says, "I preached it to you." It's a message that has to be declared, and moreover, it has to be received. Verse one.
Now, how is the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ, received?
Well, Paul tells us it is through faith. Verse two, and then again in verse eleven, we preach verse eleven, and so you believed.
So Paul's theology is a gospel theology. He tells us in verse three, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. Here, Paul says is the very heart. Of my teaching that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised from the dead, that sinners like you and me might be saved through faith in Him. You see, for Paul, the gospel is an historical message.
It is the proclamation of what has happened in history. There is no gospel that is not rooted in history. You can't take the history out of the gospel without gutting the gospel of all that it is. And as we read Paul's letters, we see that he looks at history in a way that illumines the gospel for us.
So I want to take time to think how Paul looks at history.
Now, in company with the biblical writers generally, and the New Testament writers particularly, Paul has a clear and a comprehensive understanding of history. It begins at creation. History begins at creation, the moment when God made all things, heaven and earth, and all that in them is. And history will end, Paul says, when Jesus Christ returns. At that moment, the creation, he says to the Romans in chapter eight, will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
It's then he says to the Corinthians later in chapter fifteen, that all things will return to God.
So creation and return and history is moving from this point to that point. But as the apostle Paul surveys history and the work of God in history, its midpoint or its center is the work of Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection. That's what Paul means when he tells the Galatians in chapter four that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. He's saying that the first coming of Christ, His incarnation, His death, His resurrection, it marked a new era, a new epoch in history. And it it's the beginning of the end.
It is bringing history to its intended conclusion. Or Paul can tell the Ephesians in chapter one at verses nine and ten that Christ's work occurred at the fullness of time. And God's purpose was nothing less than to unite all things in Him, things in heaven, things on earth, to bring all under His lordship.
So Jesus Christ, Paul says, is the center of time, and He is the center of space.
Now our Convention of dividing years by B.C. before Christ, A.D. Anno Domini in the year of the Lord, I think picks up rightly on what Paul and the other New Testament writers are getting at. But Paul had his his own way in company with the other New Testament writers to speak about what it means that Christ has entered history. And is bringing history to this glorious conclusion, and he does so in terms of what he calls two ages, two ages.
Now, a little background: When we read the Old Testament, the Old Testament is fully aware that we live in a world that is made by God and so good. But it's marred by sin and the curse and death. But there is hope, and that hope is in the coming of the Messiah. You see that especially in the prophets. God is going to come, and He's going to judge the world.
He's going to save His people. He's going to lift the curse. Usher in new heavens and new earth, as Isaiah tells us at the close of his prophecy. And between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Jewish writers would speak of this in terms of two ages. This present age is the world as we now inhabit it, the world marked by sin and curse and death.
But the age to come—that's the new order that God would bring about through Jesus Christ—is through His work of salvation and judgment. And this order would be marked for God's people by blessing and by life and by glory, and it would be for them the removal of curse and of death and of shame. And in fact, the word order might best capture what's in view here. Yes, we're looking at a span of time, but we're also looking at a moral order, because this new order is shaped by the very character of God Himself.
Now, when we come to the New Testament, we see the New Testament writers using The phrase "this present age" and the age to come. In fact, Jesus Himself speaks this way in a couple of places. You have Him saying in Matthew 12, "Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." And you see Him saying something very similar in Luke chapter 20. And here Jesus makes it clear that with His coming into the world, and especially His death and resurrection, He had come to bring in that long-awaited age of blessing and life and glory for God's people. That it was now breaking into history.
And so, no surprise that Paul himself. Will speak of the work of Jesus Christ in just these terms.
Now, there's only one place where he puts those two terms together, and that's in Ephesians one at verse twenty-one. Not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And so we ought to step back. And ask how does Paul talk about this age on the one hand, and the age to come on the other? Because as we'll see, understanding how Paul thinks of these two ages is absolutely crucial to understand how Paul would have us live the Christian life.
So, how does Paul speak of this age, or the world, as? Term that he uses interchangeably with this age, and I think we could point to three things. It is, he says, an evil age, Galatians one four. It refers to people, human beings, who are united in rebellion and opposition to God. It's characterized.
He tells the Ephesians in chapter two, verse two, by trespasses and sins. Second, it is we could say comprehensive. That is, we see it in the whole person.
So the world has a way of thinking. Paul tells the Romans in chapter 12 familiar verses to us: Don't be conformed to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't think the way the world thinks, but think according to God's will. The world has desires. Paul could say of Demas that he loved this present world.
And of course, there are patterns of behavior and life sin that characterize this world.
So Paul says to the Ephesians, a verse we mentioned a moment ago: "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world." So it is evil. It is comprehensive. But then it is thirdly. Corporate, you see, it it involves the individual person, but it's bigger than any one individual. Satan, Paul can say, is the god of this world.
In Second Corinthians, the world, in its wisdom, Paul says to the Corinthians in First Corinthians one, crucified Jesus Christ, and that's the age and the world that you and I inhabit. And that we are part of, apart from the grace of God. But then Paul speaks of the age to come, which Christ has brought into history by His saving work. How does Paul speak of that age?
Well, he doesn't often use the word age. He'll use a couple of other words. He speaks of a kingdom. We looked a lecture two back at Colossians one thirteen. You've you've been brought out of the domain of darkness.
You've been brought in to the kingdom of His beloved Son. You are under the glorious saving reign of Jesus Christ. Or, new creation. Paul can say to the Corinthians, a verse known to many of us, two Corinthians five seventeen. Behold, if anyone is in Christ, new creation.
And the idea there is not so much that the new creation is in us, as that we have been brought into that new creation in Jesus Christ. But Paul usually speaks of this age to come, when he says that the believer is in union with Jesus Christ, that we are in Christ, united to Him by the Holy Spirit and through faith, with all that that means for us.
Now. There is this present age. There is this age to come, but Paul stresses that we live in what has been called the overlap of the ages. The overlap of the ages. We have been transferred as believers from the dominion of this present age, and we have been brought into the life of the age to come.
That's clear. It's what he says to the Galatians in chapter one: You have been delivered from this present evil age. And he tells the Romans in chapter six: You're united to Jesus Christ, and you've died to sin. Sin no longer has dominion over you. It is not your lord and master, and you're alive to God.
In Christ Jesus, but Paul tells us there are two things we need to know. Even as we we glory in these realities that are true of every genuine believer, the first is that we have yet to experience this age to come in full, and that's evident in our own bodies; they're mortal. We have the hope of the resurrection body; it's a sure hope, but we don't have it just yet. And then Paul stresses, "Christian, you are not of this age, but God has called you to live in this age." What he tells Titus in Titus two, what does grace do? It trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.
And of course, we continue to suffer, as Paul tells the Romans in chapter eight, verse seventeen. The sufferings of this present age, we continue to experience them.
So we live in the overlap of the ages, and this gets sharpened, especially in Romans chapter eight. Paul says, "Christian, you are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit. You don't belong to that old order. You belong to Christ, and His Spirit dwells in you." But Paul knows that the old ways, the old patterns of thinking and living, are never far behind, and so we have to be vigilant. He says, "Don't think according to the flesh.
Don't live according to the flesh. By the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh." As we close, what what lessons are there here for us as we look at the Christian life in light of this grand scope of history that Paul gives us in his letters, centering in Jesus Christ? Firstly, Paul helps us to understand our sin. He helps us to understand who we used to be, and how the old habits. Are real and present threats to us, but second, he also helps us to understand grace—the mighty hand of God in Christ, rescuing us from that bondage and dominion that we were under in sin.
And we have in Christ every believer resources of grace. That He is one for us, and that He gives us freely by the Holy Spirit, so we can live the Christian life in confidence. Yes, we live between the times, and we'll feel the tension and the pull and the struggle. But we live, not in despair, but we live in confidence, knowing who our great Savior is, and knowing what He's done for us. In the gospel, Christians can live with confidence.
The gospel says that Christ's victory on the cross is our victory, and though we face trials of many kinds in this life, we are nevertheless more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This has been the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and you've been listening to a message from Guy Waters' series, The Life and Theology of Paul. You know, hearing Dr. Waters talk about Paul's use of the two-age framework has been so helpful. And this is just one example of how understanding key theological themes of Paul's writing helps us to better understand the Bible.
When you make a donation in support of this program today, you'll receive access to the entire video teaching series. We'll also give you the companion ebook and a digital study guide to help your learning as well. You can use the link in the podcast show notes to give, and let me thank you in advance for your generosity. No Christian should live in isolation, because we've been called to live in the community of the church. Join us next Saturday as we conclude our study in Guy Water's series by reflecting on the importance of the church in the Christian life.
Here on Renewing Your Mind.
