Trinity and Humanity

What if you could catch a glimpse of your future? That’s the premise of a new TV show called Flash Forward.

I’ve watched the first three episodes and it’s not too bad, if you like sci-fi stories. The premise is that everyone in the world blacks out at the same moment and stays out for a couple of minutes. While they’re out each person sees himself or herself a few months in the future and sees whatever they will be doing at that precise future moment.

Some people see themselves at work, some at home, some in the bathroom, etc. Each person now has to decide whether he believes that the flash forward is accurate and, if so, what he will do with this information.

I think I see a parallel with the gospel.

In the resurrection and ascension of Jesus every person that lives has been given a flash forward of his or her destiny. To see the last Adam, Jesus Christ, resurrected in his glorified humanity and ascended to the Father’s right hand is to see what our Father in heaven has planned for everyone of us. As St. Paul says:

As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ~ 1 Cor. 15:22

The Father “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6) so that we now have a vision of ourselves “hidden with Christ in God” so that when Christ appears we also “will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4.)

Like the people in the TV show we have a decision to make.

Is this vision of our future that we have been given in Jesus – this flash forward to what we will be one day – true or not true? And if it is true, is it a good thing or a bad one? And if it is good or bad, what difference does it make in the decisions and choices we make today?

If this flash forward of humanity’s future in Christ is true and good, then it is the best news we could ever receive. It is the news that our future is secure and our destiny as the Father’s children in Jesus is ultimately a bright and beautiful destiny.

I for one believe it.

~ Jonathan Stepp