Living Life Future-Back.

When many people think about the gospel, they think in terms of me: my sins forgiven, my eternal life secured, my place in heaven assured. And while that is good news, it is not the whole story.

The gospel is not primarily about me. It is the royal announcement that Jesus is King. His resurrection is not simply news of an empty tomb, but the declaration of an occupied throne. And if Jesus reigns, then the church exists not as a club or association but as a community living under his kingship.

The gospel is not first the good news about me—it is the good news for me because it is first and foremost the good news about Jesus. 

That changes everything. Because the Bible does not tell history merely from the past forward. It tells it from the future back. God’s promised future—new creation, where every tear is wiped away and Christ makes all things new—has already broken into the present through the resurrection of Jesus.

In Christ, the church, then, is one family marked by an uncanny “Jesus-likeness,” living life future-back; as a living sign that Jesus Christ reigns now as he will forever.

Consider four aspects of what that means.

In Christ:

Grace Grants Belonging, Kingship Demands Allegiance.

At the center of the gospel is grace. To be in Christ means our belonging is not earned by pedigree, performance, or piety. As Paul writes, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). We belong because God, in sheer mercy, has welcomed us through Jesus.

But grace does more than forgive—it reclaims our loyalty. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Because Jesus is King, our lives are no longer ours to direct. Grace makes allegiance possible; kingship makes it necessary. This is why the earliest confession of the church was short and subversive: “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9). It was a declaration that ultimate loyalty belongs not to Caesar, not to nation, not to self—but to the crucified and risen King.

A Covenant Community:

One Family by Promise, One People in His Likeness.

To belong to Christ means to belong to his people. God promised Abraham a family through whom the nations would be blessed. Paul says it clearly: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”(Gal. 3:29). And again: “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” (Gal. 3:26).

That promise is fulfilled in Jesus. He tears down the walls that divide us. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). The church is not a voluntary association of like-minded people. It is a covenant family, created by God’s promise and marked by uncanny Jesus-likeness.

This is why our belonging is never just private or individual. To confess Jesus as King is to be adopted into a family where grace is shared, burdens are carried, and love is practiced across every boundary.

A Living Sign:

A Living Sign of the King, A Foretaste of His Future

The church is not the kingdom in its fullness, but it is the kingdom’s foretaste and herald. Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” (Matt. 5:13–15).

Then comes the invitation: “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). To be salt and light is to live in such a way that God’s future becomes tangible in the present, so that others are drawn not to us but to the reign of our Father.

Paul echoes this when he says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). The church is God’s advance working model of the world to come—imperfect and incomplete, yet unmistakably pointing forward.

Every time a community of believers reconciles across division, forgives when wronged, cares for the vulnerable, or lives with hope, it is as if God has lifted the curtain and allowed the world a glimpse of his promised future. The church is not merely a spiritual refuge. It is the chosen way God declares to the world: “The throne of heaven is occupied. Jesus reigns.”

Progressive Approximation:

Becoming What We Will Be, Living life Future-Back

Think of the church as God’s advance working model of the world to come. Like any model, it is a work in progress. It is incomplete, even fragile. But it points unmistakably forward. And as a work in progress, we are not yet what we will be. But by the Spirit we are being transformed. “We all… are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor. 3:18).

Paul describes it personally: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Phil. 3:12). This is what it means to live “future-back.” We practice today the life we will share fully when Christ’s reign is complete.

This journey is not about perfection but about pressing forward. It means sometimes starting again after failure. It means choosing forgiveness when bitterness feels easier. It means imagining reconciliation when division feels inevitable. By the Spirit, we live into the future now, until the day when “Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11).

Becoming a Tangible Presence, now.

All who belong to Jesus belong at the table

This is not just a word for others — it’s a word for us. If we believe Jesus is King, then we are called to live future-back as his disciples. That means learning from him how to live our actual lives — in our homes, workplaces, schools, neighborhoods — as he would if he were in our place.

The greatest witness to the gospel today is not sharper arguments but the tangible presence of communities apprenticed to Jesus, embodying his way of life together. To live future-back is to let God’s promised tomorrow reshape our present reality. It is to forgive where bitterness wants to harden our hearts, to show mercy where judgment comes easily, to choose integrity where compromise is tempting, and to love across divisions where hostility seems inevitable.

So who belongs at the table? All who confess allegiance to Jesus the King. But the more searching question is: what kind of people will we be at that table? Will we gather merely for comfort, or will we become a family whose very life together is a visible sign of Christ’s reign—a people of uncanny Jesus-likeness?

Let us commit ourselves afresh: to be Christ’s tangible presence in the world, to rehearse the life of the world to come here and now, and to live in such a way that, when others encounter us, they cannot help but say: “Our God reigns.”

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Col 3:17