Looking back to look forward

Have you ever noticed, when teaching teens to drive, that what is instinctive for you … isn’t instinctive for them? You want them to be aware what’s going on around the car at all times. One of the times when they don’t instinctively do this is when changing lanes. So, you have to remind them that, if they want to change lanes, they need to physically turn around and check their blind spots to avoid accidents. They have to turn and look backward in order to go forward. In our text this week, we see Paul reminding us to do the same thing. He calls us to look backward and to remember the first time that God’s grace appeared, bringing salvation (the life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus). Then, he calls us to look forward to Jesus’ Second Coming in hope. In this, we see a wonderful explanation of God’s grace available to any who would come to Jesus. We also see how that grace trains us to leave behind who we once were and to live out our new identities as Jesus’ people. We are to be an expectant people, a hopeful people, looking forward to the day when our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ will return in glory. On that day, everything sad becomes untrue. Every broken heart is mended. Until then, we wait … expectantly. And as we wait, we do so remembering our new identity in Jesus as those who have been redeemed from lawlessness and purified, washed clean, by Jesus. We really are a people of His own possession. And we long for His coming when our faith will be turned to sight.