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Scripture Reading: Exo. 3:13-14a; John 8:28a
From eternity to eternity, our God is God. He is not limited by time and space, because He is from eternity to eternity. First, we want to see how God is not limited by time.
The psalmist once prayed to God, "Teach us to number our days,/That we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psa. 90:12). If men are wise, they should know how to number their days. But what about God? There is no way to count God's days because He is God from the ages to the ages; He is God from eternity to eternity. Second Peter 3:8 tells us "that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day." Man can never have this view. If we treat an hour as a week, or a week as an hour, we will throw many things into disorder. As men we cannot live without dealing with time. But God sees one day as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day; He is not limited by time, and He is not bound by time. God is God; therefore, He transcends time.
If we want to learn to go on and to know God, we need to realize that God has one characteristic: He is beyond time. We cannot measure God by time. All of God's works are beyond the limitation of time. If we want to contact God, to gain some spiritual experience, or to receive some spiritual help, we have to learn to get away from the concept of time. Whoever wants to pursue God and know God must not be bound by the concept of time.
We need to see another very special matter: God is the present God, the God of today. In other words, there is no concept of time in God. This is not to say that God does not have time, but God does not have the concept of time, and God is not bound by time. Human beings divide time into periods. To us, one period of time belongs to the past, another period of time belongs to the future, while we call a third period of time the present time, or today. Whenever we think of time, we always think of the past, the present, and the future. Everyone thinks in this way. However, in our communication with God, there is only one time period — the present time. God does not have the past. In God all the past is the present. God does not have the future either. In God all the future is the present. We are not saying that God does not have time, but time as we think of it does not exist in God. Our time is the past, the present, and the future, but God's time is eternally present; it is continuously, eternally present. In God, neither the past nor the future exist.
In the Bible, God has the name Jehovah. Jehovah means that God is the self-existing and eternal God. God is the One who now IS and who forever IS. In Revelation 1:4 God is called "Him who is and who was and who is coming." From man's view, He is the One who was, who is, and who is to come; there is a distinction of the past, the present, and the future. Whenever the Bible mentions God's past, present, and future, it is with man's realization in view. But as far as God's name is concerned, He is the eternal One. There is no concept of time in Him. If there is, it is always the present, and this present is forever unchanged. For instance, a father's birth is always earlier than that of his son. This fact is true not only today, but forever. God is the God who now is. He is forever the God who now is. This is an assured fact.
God Himself is unchangeable. What we think of as the past and the future does not apply to Him. God is forever the God who is. The only tense God has is the present tense. In Exodus 3, God told Moses His name — the self-existing and ever-existing One, which, according to the original text, can be translated as "I AM THAT I AM." The time of the "I AM" is present. God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM," which meant "I am the One who now is." As far as God Himself is concerned, He is the God who now is.
Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to Him, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." To please God we must believe. But what must we believe? We must believe that "He is." "I AM" is what He calls Himself, while "He is" is what others call Him. We should not believe in God as the God of the future, because for God there is no future; nor should we believe in God as the God of the past, because for God there is no past. This teaching may bewilder even the most intelligent persons. From man's point of view, we always think that something belongs to the past, something belongs to the future, and something belongs to the present. We always divide time into the past, the present, and the future. But with God, there is neither a past nor a future. Why then does God's Word mention the past and the future? It mentions them because for human beings, there is always a need to reference things to the past or the future; otherwise, our mind could not comprehend or understand what is being discussed. To say that God is the God who now is does not refer to the "now" in time as we know it. Rather, it refers to the fact that God is the One who forever is in Himself. In God there is no past, present, or future. God is the God who now is.
In John 8:28, the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am." The meaning of the "I am" in this verse is the same as the meaning of "I AM" in Exodus 3. He was not saying, "I was" or "I will be," but "I AM," that is, "I AM NOW." This means that He is God; He is a God who now is. The Jews countered the Lord and said, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am" (vv. 57-58). When the Jews heard this, they took up stones to cast at Him, because the "I am" that the Lord spoke of here is the same as the "I am" in verse 28. The Jews knew this "I am." So they took up stones to cast at Him. Furthermore, when Judas led others to arrest Jesus and the Lord said, "I am," they drew back and fell to the ground (John 18:6). The Lord is the "I am." Once this God appears, no one can stand before Him; everyone has to fall to the ground.
What is the purpose of speaking about this? We have to realize that this has much to do with our life. If we truly see this, we will be led to know God more. Anyone who wants to know God needs to be delivered from the limitation of the concept of time. If a person is bound by the concept of time, he cannot even be saved. Do not think that time is nothing; time is a very crucial thing. We want to prove this point specifically by the following four items.
First John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin." When we preach the gospel, we usually tell people that the blood of God's Son Jesus cleanses us from all our sin. Someone may ask, "How could the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanse us from all our sin?" We tell him that the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, paying the price for our sins. Our sins have been cleansed by the blood He shed. But others may not understand and ask, "How is this possible? The Lord Jesus was crucified more than nineteen hundred years ago. On the day He died, I was not even born yet, and I had not committed any sins. How could He die for someone who was not born yet and had not committed any sins?" Brothers and sisters, when you encounter this kind of problem, how should you answer? When you encounter this kind of problem, you should realize that this problem occurs because people have brought in the concept of time. However, the Lord's cross transcends time. When people bring in the concept of time, there is no way to understand the cross.
We need to remember that Christ is the One who now is. In God there is no distinction between past and future. In God it is always today. God is the One who is from eternity to eternity. From the ages past to the ages in the future, He has not changed. God does not have any past or future. God is the God who now is. If we bring time into our concept, we cannot communicate with God. When we look in the Greek New Testament, we will find out that 1 John 1:7 is in the present tense. It does not say that the blood of His Son Jesus cleansed all our sin in the past. Neither does it say that the blood of His Son Jesus will cleanse all our sin in the future. All of our sins are cleansed now, not in the past or in the future.
Brothers and sisters, before we were saved, our minds were filled with the concept of time. We thought of Jesus as someone far away. Not only did He live far away geographically in the nation of Israel, but in time there was a gap between Him and us of more than nineteen hundred years. How could He have died for us? How could a past Savior save a sinner today? The Lord Jesus was a past Savior, but I am a sinner today. How could One who lived in the past save me in the present? It was incomprehensible to us; we could not fathom it. Then one day, we said to our God, "I do not know everything. But I know this: I am a sinner. I know I need to be saved and now is the time for me to be saved." At that moment, God opened our eyes and we saw Jesus the Nazarene crucified for us on the cross. It was as if He were stretching out His hands and saying to us, "As long as you come to Me, as long as you do not refuse Me, everything will be all right." At that instant, we received Him with tears as the Savior. Brothers and sisters, at that time did you consider the question of time? Did it occur to you that He was a past Savior and that you were a present sinner? Our experience tells us that from that day forward, time did not present a problem to us, and we did not think of the cross as a past event anymore. God is the God who now is. Our words cannot express this thoroughly. All we can say is that God is present. In fact, even the word present is not adequate to express this characteristic of God.
The ashes of the red heifer in Numbers 19 signify the Lord's redemption. These ashes mingled with running water and sprinkled upon a person made a person clean. The death of the Lord Jesus is likened to the red heifer being burnt to ashes. According to history and to man's view, the Lord Jesus died nineteen hundred years ago. However, one day the Holy Spirit revealed to us the fact of the Lord's accomplishment. That is like running water being mingled with the ashes: when we received what He accomplished, we were cleansed. In the Spirit, the Lord's redemption is not something of the past, but something of the present. The Holy Spirit is God's power today. The Holy Spirit unveils all the facts in God to us and makes them ours today.
We need to remember that God is the present God; in Him there is no past. Everything we do will pass away, but what God has done will not pass away, because He is life and He is always living. To man, God's works are related to time; one may say that such and such a thing was done in the past, or that such and such a thing will be done in the future. Yet in Him everything is present because He is the perfect life; He is so perfect that there is no possibility of advancement anymore. Human beings make advancements; when we advance, something becomes the past. I advance a little now, and after a while I advance some more. When I move on, the things that happened before become things of the past. On the one hand, there is a constant advancing, while on the other hand, things are constantly turned into past history. However, God remains the same from eternity to eternity. Therefore, there is no past with God; nothing in God can pass away. God is the God of life, and He lives forever. In God one cannot find anything that belongs to the past. When a person is saved, his eyes are opened at least once to see that the Lord's work is neither past nor future. Therefore, he receives the Lord Jesus. We need to be saved from the concept of time so that we can know this God who is not limited by time.
Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." This shows us that God not only caused the Lord Jesus to shed His blood on the cross so that we could be forgiven, but He also put us in Christ. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, God also crucified our old man with Him. We have been crucified with Christ on the cross. This is God's fact. But our human minds cannot understand this. The Lord Jesus' crucifixion was obviously something in the past. How can we be joined to Him? How can we as ones living today be related to Christ who was crucified more than nineteen hundred years ago? Thank God that one day He opened our eyes, and we saw the light. The Bible says, "Our old man has been crucified with Him," and we also confessed that we have died. When we say this, we do not consider the death of Christ to be something in the past. We are not talking about a fact of death more than nineteen hundred years ago. We are saying that this fact of death is here today, living and fresh. It is true that Jesus died, but this truth is something we can touch and see today. We need to remember that everything God has done in Christ is done in the present. Second Timothy 2:18 says, "Who concerning the truth have misaimed, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and overthrow the faith of some." The people who misaimed concerning the truth did not say that there was no resurrection, but that the resurrection had already taken place. Saying that the resurrection has already taken place is to misaim concerning the truth. We need to know that resurrection has not passed away. It is still here today. Did the cross pass away? No, it is still here today. Did the fact that we died with Christ pass away? No, it is still here today. God is forever the God who now is; therefore, everything that God has done in Christ is now and forever now. If we consider any aspect of the work of Christ as being past, that aspect will be dead to us. We thank God that all that He has done in Christ is present; nothing is past. God put what His Son has done in the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit there is no past, there is only now.
The work of the Lord Jesus in us is something living when we look at it through the Holy Spirit. But if we consider it apart from the Holy Spirit, it is just letters. If we read it as mere letters, it is dead. If we speak of it as a doctrine, it is dead, and if we consider it merely as a story, it is also dead. Some people say, "I believe in all the facts of the Bible. Why is it that they do not produce any effect on me?" Some people say, "I have heard that doctrine, but why does it not have an effect on me?" Others say, "I have found God's words in the Bible. But why do they not have an effect on me?" The reason is that these ones are not touching God's facts in the Holy Spirit. Everything in Christ belongs to the past when it is viewed according to letters or when it is viewed doctrinally. But when it is viewed according to the Holy Spirit, nothing belongs to the past; everything is now.
Hallelujah! Nothing in Christ is past. Christ is still the great "I AM" today! He does not have a past; He cannot pass away. Hallelujah! Our Lord cannot pass away! Everything in Him is full of life and fully in the Holy Spirit; nothing can pass away. Brothers and sisters, if a person is truly under the Lord's leading and is going on all the way, he will see that everything in Christ is a matter of now; there is no past. Christ is the Lord of today; there is no past in Him. Everything in Christ is always today. This is true with Christ's experience, and it is also true with our experience of Christ — it is forever a matter of now. We do not have enough words to describe this kind of thing, but when the Lord's Spirit works in us and brings us into a union with Christ, we will see that all the facts in Christ are now; nothing is past, because we are joined to the Lord. The cross of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, and the descension of the Holy Spirit are all matters of the present. All that God gave us in Christ is now. We cannot take what God gave us in Christ as history. All that God has given us in Christ is now. Thank God, Christ is still the "I AM" even today. He is always there and does not pass away. God is a God of now; there is no past in Him.
Mark 11:24 says, "For this reason I say to you, All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them." From man's point of view, prayer and petition are things of the present, and "you will have them" is a thing of the future. There is a gap of time between "pray and ask" and "you will have them." When I pray to God for the healing of a disease, for the salvation of a sinner, or for the accomplishment of a work, I do not know when the disease will be healed, when the person will be saved, or when the work will be accomplished. In man's eyes, answers to prayer belong to the future. But the Lord Jesus' word here is very unusual. He is speaking of genuine faith. "All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them." In our mind, we often misread the word "have" in the phrase "believe that you have received them." We often change it to "believe that you will receive them, and you will have them," or we change it to "believe that you can receive them, and you will have them." Sometimes we change it to "believe that you are going to receive them, and you will have them," or "believe that you will receive them in the future, and you will receive them." But once you change it, that is no longer faith. Only one faith is genuine faith — the faith that believes that "God is." "All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them." The Lord's Word does not say "going to receive" but "have received them." "Believe that you have received them" means that I believe that I have received them now. I am not waiting for the future. Do we see this? This is not the future as we think of it. In Christ there is no future. Brothers and sisters, do not think that this is a small teaching. We should know that this has everything to do with our spiritual life. We cannot disregard this.
One day, while the Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem from Bethany, He was hungry, "and seeing at a distance a fig tree having leaves, He came to see if perhaps He would find anything on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing except leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He answered and said to it, May no one eat fruit from you forever!" (Mark 11:12-14). "No one eat fruit from you forever" is a fact. The Lord Jesus stated a fact. This was a flourishing fig tree, but the Lord said, "May no one eat fruit from you forever." He spoke with such confidence. What is the secret? The secret is in verse 24. What the Lord Jesus said in verse 24 is a continuation of the subject of the fig tree. He said, "For this reason I say to you, All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them." This is what He did to the fig tree. He did not wait until the fig tree had died before saying such a word. He said, "May no one eat fruit from you forever" when the fig tree was still flourishing. Although the fig tree was flourishing, in the eyes of faith, the Lord Jesus saw it as dead already and that no man would eat the fruit of it forever. Though the fig tree had not died, the Lord Jesus saw the fact of its death. The faith which "believe[s] that you have received" is this kind of faith. The facts that faith sees are not in the future but in the present. Those who do not know the Lord can only say that they know something when they actually see it in the future. But for those who know the Lord, it is a matter of today and not the future. They know something before they have seen it; they know it within already. We need to remember that in spiritual things, everything is today. Nothing is in the future. God is the God who now is, not the God who will be.
Mark 11:24 shows one thing: everything that God does is in the Spirit. According to man's view there is the past, the present, and the future; this makes sense to man. But spiritual things are different. Whoever has the experience can testify with us that there is neither a past nor a future in spiritual things. Everything is in the present. There are many things which, according to man's view, are in the future. But we say that they are in the present. Thank God, in genuine faith, everything is done.
Hebrews 6:5 says we "have tasted...the powers of the age to come." What is this? How can the coming age be moved to today? Can all the things in the future be moved to today? We know "the age to come" is the millennium. Hebrews 6 tells us that Christians can have a foretaste of the powers of the age to come. The prophecies in the Bible about the millennium are wonderful. For example, "the wolf will dwell with the lamb;/And the leopard will lie down with the kid, /And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;/And a young boy will lead them about./The cow and the bear will graze;/Their young will lie down together;/And the lion will eat straw like the ox./The nursing child will play by the cobra's hole,/And upon the viper's den/The weaned child will stretch his hand./They will not hurt nor destroy/In all My holy mountain,/For the earth will be full of the knowledge of Jehovah,/As the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:6-9). At that time, "they will beat their swords into plowshares,/And their spears into pruning hooks;/Nation will not lift the sword against nation,/Nor will they learn war anymore" (2:4). Oh, how wonderful is the kingdom age! From man's point of view, these things can be enjoyed only in the future. But Hebrews 6:5 speaks of Christians having a foretaste today; Christians can have a foretaste of the powers of the kingdom. In the kingdom age all the demons will be cast out. But today man can cast out demons also. In the kingdom age everyone will be healthy. But today the Lord sustains the human body also. In that day men will know the Lord. But today men can know Him also. In that day the nursing child will play by the the cobra's hole. Today men can take up serpents (Mark 16:17-18). The children of God can have a foretaste of the powers of the coming age. According to the concept of time, these things will happen in the future. But the church can move the future to the present, just as she moved the past to the present.
We have to shout, Hallelujah! Christ is the Christ who is now. Christians are in contact with such a "now" Christ. We communicate with such a Lord, and we are related to such a Lord. Every spiritual thing to Christians is a matter of now. We often have heavy burdens, trials, and difficulties. We pray to the Lord, yet it seems useless. The more we pray, the more unclear the situation becomes. Our petition seems to have no effect no matter how we pray. This is because we are standing on the wrong ground in our petitioning. Our thought is that God will answer us in the future. We have limited God by time. We wait for the future. As a result, nothing happens. But thank God that we can bring the future and the present together. We believe that in our individual experiences, we can move the things of the kingdom to today.
May God show us that our Lord is the God who now is. Whoever touches this holds the key to communion with God. We need to ask God to save us from our thoughts, our cleverness, the limitation of time, the future, and the past, and deliver us from dead knowledge outside of the Holy Spirit, so that we may see that in the Holy Spirit everything is now and living. May the Lord lead us and bless us. Amen!
