We’ve been united with Christ in His death and resurrection through baptism — yet we have not ascended as He has. That part is still to come.

Baptism joins us to Jesus — not just in His death, but in the promise of life.

We wait for the fullness of that promise.

When Christ returns and the dead are raised, we who believe will rise to live with Him in a resurrection like His — that is the “not yet.”

That is the eternal promise made to you through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, who now reigns at the right hand of the Father with all authority in heaven and on earth.

But today, we live in this tension — salvation is already yours, already accomplished, already delivered, and yet we don’t experience it fully.

As Paul says in Romans 7, “The good I want to do, I don’t do; and the evil I don’t want to do, I do.” That’s the now.

We are not yet what we will be, but even so, God declares us holy, righteous, and redeemed.

So what does this mean for us?

It means we live in faith.

We gather where His promises are spoken and given. We rejoice in what Christ has already done, and in what He still promises to do.

Salvation isn’t a fragile or fleeting gift — it’s firm, secure, and everlasting.

And there is nothing so broken, not even death itself, that Jesus will not restore.

This is the hope of the resurrection. This is the life to come.

Contributor Rev. Jason Schockman is Associate Pastor at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Oconomowoc, WI.

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