Has the World Been Saved?

Has the world been saved?  Are we living in the New Creation?  Has Jesus obtained His Lordship over all of heaven and earth now?  Is He Lord here and now?  Is this His kingdom?  Now?  These questions come to us as we look at the world of unbelief and rebellion around us.  These questions come as trial after trial, suffering after suffering, struggle after struggle befall us.  As Christians, are we simply to buckle down and ride the wave of the destruction of this world until Christ comes?  Or has He called us to believe and live something else?

What is it that overcomes this world?  Is there anything?  Look at the headlines, watch the new wicked legislation passed, the ungodly rulers in our midst, the hypocrisies in church after church, the liberalism and socialism inherent in denominations today.  What overcomes this?

What overcomes the world?  John tells us in His epistle that whatever is born of God overcomes the world.  And then he says, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”  It is by faith and faith alone that we can believe that the worlds were created by the Word, and only by the Word of God.  And it is only by faith that we can believe that those worlds have been redeemed, remade, renewed, re-created by the same Word – the Word Who was made flesh, Who came and died for the sins of the world, the One who came to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Of course you cannot see it.  But here is the question – is Jesus’ work done?  Is it finished?  What did He declare on the cross?  We do not come to worship only when we can see these things any more than Jesus waited to say “It is finished” only after the final consummation.  In principle, this sorry world, this sorry planet – and its inhabitants – are saved.  It is finished.  All of them should just come quietly and stop their yapping.  And we should come and worship with that kind of whiskey-gospel mentality, declaring things to be which cannot be seen as if they could be – until they might be asking if we took a few sips too many before morning service.  We didn’t.  It’s the nature of faith.  It’s the nature of grace.  It’s the good news of Jesus.