Already, but not yet

"It only took a night to get Israel out of Egypt, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel."

As we went through the Exodus story yesterday in church I said something that I tried to repeat at least twice, it's that important! It's the quote above.  In a moment, with a prayer, a step of faith,  we trust Christ and become a Christian.  In that moment we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son (Col. 1:13), and in that moment we are taken "out of the world". We become children of God, but it will take a lifetime to get the world out of us.  

That is what the bible calls sanctification, the transformation of the believer into the reality of who we already are because of what Christ has done. One of my favorite verses is in Heb. 10:14 where the author writes, 

"He has made perfect FOREVER those who are becoming holy."

We live in this "already, but not yet" life and so we "pursue Christ", "grow in faith", "draw close to Christ", "grow up in Christ"...whatever the term we use in our culture the idea is the same...we are drawn by God to conform our lives to what he has already made us! 

In a moment of time we were taken out of the world by faith in Christ, but it will take a lifetime to get the world out of us.  That is the transformation that God is working on in each of our lives....and then, one day.....

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."  

-1 John 3:2-3