“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
“And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)

The Struggle

Last century Geerhardus Vos developed the idea of the “now-and-not-yet”: as Christians we enjoy the blessings that belong to the “now” – since Christ’s death and victory on the  cross; but there is so much more in store in the future that we do “not-yet” possess.

It is important to recognise this tension between the “now” and “not-yet”, so that we don’t get caught up in living solely for the “now”, or live as though we already possess the “not-yet”.

Daniel Dunlap notes how: “The already-not yet tension underlies the whole New Testament message. Understanding this tension provides us with the necessary balance for applying its teachings to every aspect of our Christian experience.”

Even the Old Testament saints experienced something of this tension.
Almost half the Psalms are couched in some form of lament for the “now”; but that is balanced (usually) by looking for a hope in the “not-yet”: a hope in what God will perform in the future.
eg. Psalm 63:
“O God… My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”
But:
“The king shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him shall glory; but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.”

The distress the Psalmist felt (and that we too feel) in the “now” is often because of our ongoing, painful struggle with sin. But even here, while we struggle with this present reality, we hope in a final deliverance.
eg. Psalm 68:
“My iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long…”
But:
“In You, O Lord, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God.”

True, the Psalmist found relief in the “now” of being justified by faith. But he also knew he had “not-yet” finally overcome in his struggle with sin; it would be foolish, even mule-like, to imagine he had.
eg. Psalm 32:
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.”
But:
“Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you…”

And now that Christ has come, the saints still struggle with the tension between the “now” of forgiveness and the “not-yet” of having finally overcome.The apostle Paul rejoiced in the “now” of justification by faith: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:1-2)
Yet in the same breath he was realistic about the “not-yet” in finally overcoming in his ongoing struggle with sin: “To will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:18-19,24)

We need to come to grips with this tension between the “now” and “not-yet” so as to strike the “necessary balance” in our Christian lives.

Focusing exclusively on the “Not Yet”

More than one person has noted how an exclusive focus on “not-yet” blessings in charismatic circles has led to heretical teachings.
One source writes:

“The problem comes when this paradigm is used to justify the prosperity gospel, name-it-claim-it teachings, and other heresies.
The idea behind these teachings is that Christ’s kingdom is in full operation and that prayer can make it ‘break through’ into our world…
People are told they never need be sick or poor because the riches of the kingdom are available to them right now.”

The Christians in Corinth also went astray claiming that the blessings of the “not-yet” were already theirs.
Paul derides them for their foolishness: “You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us.” (1 Cor 4:8).
David Jackman comments:

“Their claim, clearly, was that everything they needed was already in their possession, here and now. They were already wealthy and prosperous, already reigning, and already kings in supreme authority. In short, the blessings of heaven were already theirs…
Christ Himself has taught us that, ‘whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life’ (John 5:24). Building on the fact that the verdict had already been announced, the Corinthians it seems began to assume that all the other blessings of the full coming of the Kingdom were available to them in the present…
They no longer had to hunger and thirst after righteousness; they were already glutted. They no longer needed to mourn over their spiritual poverty; they were rich.”

Something similar occurs when the doctrine of justification is preached as though it were the whole of salvation.
The very real struggle with sin and the imperative for ongoing sanctification is ignored. Instead, preaching a “completed” salvation where “there is nothing more to do”, the focus shifts to the “not-yet” as if it were a present reality.

Of course, we rejoice that: “blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” We rejoice that the guilt of sin has been removed, and that there is literally nothing we can do to atone for sin. “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.”
But as long as we live on this earth, we will continue to struggle with indwelling sin.To ignore that reality and pretend we are already in the “not-yet” does not help the struggling sinner. To tell him, “Don’t worry; all that matters is that you are justified; just rejoice that God accepts you” is not enough.
The redeemed sinner knows that, for “now”, the struggle goes on; he needs help with that struggle.

Focusing exclusively on the “Now”

On the other hand, if we simply focus on the “now”, and lose sight of the fullness of the “not-yet” blessings to come, we can become so taken up with our present struggle with sin that we lose all heart.
Worse, if to combat sin we focus only on sanctification to the exclusion of justification, we will inevitably descend into a works-based “salvation”. Then all hope is lost!

Paul Yeulett, of Grove Chapel in London, writes:

“We can give too little attention to the future, and be bound by the present. For someone in this category, present sins and temptations and disappointments also get them down.
In this case the tendency is to be so bound by these daily defeats that we completely take our eyes off all God’s future promises. We feel we’re just getting from one day to the next, and if we have a moderately good day then we’re quite cheerful, but when we slip up and fall we’re down in the dumps. This Christian life seems to be a bit of an up-and-down slog – good days and bad days.
Typically we become introverted and defeatist, and tragically the source of our contentment becomes how we’re doing now, not what God in Christ has presently done for us and will one day reveal perfectly in us…

“Supposing you were told, ‘This is it. You’re basically now complete. Your heart and mind and soul and body have progressed as far as they ever will. So be satisfied with what you are!’
Wouldn’t you feel like howling in protest, ‘That’s not enough! It won’t do; I want more!’…

“The correction for us here is to be told that ‘what we will be has not yet appeared’. Don’t we feel like praising God every day for this – that what we are now, here, today, is so very far from what we’re going to be one day when Jesus comes back?
Good – things are going to get a whole lot better!

Yes, by the grace of God, we may be encouraged by the progress we have made.
But we can also be discouraged by how far we haven’t come.

We dare not focus solely on what we are now.

Restoring a Balance

We need to maintain a balance – to rejoice in the present blessings we enjoy “now”, while looking forward to what is “not-yet” when, in the last day, there will be “no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and no more pain” (Rev 21:4).
And – no more sin!
We rejoice in justifying grace now.
But we also long to be made perfect in holiness. We hunger and thirst after a righteousness that will be fully ours, experientially as well as forensically.Maintaining this balance is important if we are to be kept from despair in our present weakness on the one hand, and from a complacency that would keep us from striving after greater holiness here on the other.

The apostle Paul rejoiced that “now”, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”; at the same time lamenting the “not-yet”, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 5:1, 7:24).
It was both “now” and “not-yet”. But he was neither pessimistic, nor pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. Rather, his hope was: “I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25).
The fact that there is “now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” didn’t make him complacent. It only made him all the more determined to “not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1, and see following verses)
He “hungered and thirsted after greater righteousness” (Matt 5:6). His aim was to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt 6:33).

Likewise, in Phil ch 3, Paul rejoiced in the “now” of justification: “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil 3:8-9)
Yet, at the same time, he knows he had “not-yet attained”, or was “already perfected.”
He is neither pessimistic, nor pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. Rather he is energized (he says) to “press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Phil 3:12)
“I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14)

The “now” of justification from sin, but the “not-yet” of final victory over sin, drives us to hunger and thirst for, to strive for, to press on towards, that complete righteousness that one day will be ours.

Or, as John put it, in that “now” and “not-yet” passage with which we began (1 John 3):

“Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”