Future Forward Fruit
“The only life I have left to live is future life. The past is not in my hands to offer or alter. It is gone. Not even God will change the past. All the expectations of God are future expectations. All the possibilities of faith and love are future possibilities. And all the power that touches me with help to live in love is future power. As precious as the bygone blessings of God may be, if he leaves me only with the memory of those, and not with the promise of more, I will be undone. My hope for future goodness and future glory is future grace.”[1]
– John Piper
The future is a very interesting and personal concept in our cultural moment. We all expect the future. Some of us find ourselves filled with anxiety over it. Others find themselves filled with excitement and anticipation about it. And then there is a third group, who hold both postures of anxiety and excitement all at the same time. The future isn’t just about our feelings but is also about our communities. We feel that there is a personal future and a communal one. Interestingly, when we read the Bible, we find these very same experiences with the future. Perhaps this is because the Bible is littered with people just like you and me. Yes, our lives are separated by thousands of years and vastly different cultures, but in our heart of hearts, we all long for the same things. We desire peace and comfort, hope and joy, purpose and significance… now and in the future… for ourselves and those around us. This is why I find the John Piper quote above so compelling. Let’s break it down briefly.
First – All we have left is future life. That is a truth that is true for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are 15 minutes old, 15 years old, or approaching the 15th anniversary of a birthday when you last felt young. All we have is future life. We can’t go back, but we can go forward. There is a grace and a kindness in that reality for us. The past is important, but the future is full of possibilities. How will we engage those possibilities?
Second – The promise of more to come. Whether we are young or not quite as young as we once were, we all hope that there is still more beauty and purpose to the story ahead. Yes, the past and its positive memories are wonderful, but we can’t live there, and we weren’t designed to live there. That is why we hunger for more. See, our hearts are made to participate in the noble, lovely, beautiful, and eternal things of God. When we experience them, we have the righteous desire for more of those things. God’s precious bygone blessings give way to a holy hunger for what God is yet to do. And that “yet to do” is not just here and now but will echo on into eternity.
Third – My goodness and God’s glory are still to be experienced in the future. Let’s come back to that idea of the Lord’s “yet to do” in our lives. Paul tells the church in Rome that God works all things for the good of those who love him and have been called by him (Rom. 8:28-29). That is a gift of grace in our lives. Not only is God promising us that our pasts (joyful and difficult) will be used for our good (sanctification), but it will bring glory to God now and into the future. That is a gift of grace experienced, ongoing grace, and as Piper says, future grace. What are the parts of your story where you are wondering, how will God use this for my good and his glory? We all have them. And while we wait on the Lord, we can do so trusting that his grace is sufficient and is a sure promise for the future. In the end, we will come to find that this “yet to do” is even richer than we might have understood.
Fourth – There is fruit in the future. As God works out the events of our lives for our good and his glory, we know that it will involve eternal fruit. Jesus tells us that he alone bears fruit that lasts (Jn. 15:5). Paul goes on to tell us that while there is one who plants and one who waters, it is God who causes growth (1 Cor. 3:7). Fruit in the future is guaranteed. Why? Because God is advancing redemptive history, and he causes fruit to grow. But he gives us a joyful invitation to be laborers in his vineyard and to participate in his fruit-bearing work! None of us knows how much time we have left. All we know is that we have some and that it is future life. The gift of grace in future fruit is that we do not need to be anxious if God will cause it; he will, and because of that, we can rest easy. We can also be joyful in that each of us has a role to play (some plant, some water, and some harvest), but the fruit is shared. Maybe the Lord calls you home before you see the fruit come to bear, but it is still your fruit by grace. Maybe your role in your local church looks different or is less on the front lines of ministry, but you still share the fruit of those whom you support and release to ministry. There is fruit in the future, that is guaranteed. The question is, will we participate in what God is doing even if it only looks like cheering others on?
The future is inevitable. After all, you are reading this in the future from when I wrote it. But the future is full of God’s grace. Here is how Piper puts it, “We learn that grace is not merely a past reality but a future one. Every time I reach for the Bible, God’s grace is a reality that will flow to me. Every time I put the Bible down and go about my business, God’s grace will go with me. This is what I mean by future grace.”[2]
[1] Future Grace – John Piper (p. 63). Kindle Edition.
[2] Future Grace – John Piper (p. 65). Kindle Edition.