If you are anything like me, you hate failure. I forget how many ‘one more time’s’ or how many ‘one more shot’s’ I have said on the basketball court. I forget how many times I have played golf, thinking that this was going to be the round where I break 80. Time after time, I walk away disappointed in my performance. All the time of practice, strength training, and conditioning seem to have come up short when the time for performance had come.

This attitude towards athletics has carried over into my spiritual life as well. I am discouraged continuously and find myself wishing to be a better father, husband, and pastor. It pains me whenever I fail; whether that be excessive discipline or not enough, not showing Christ-like love to my wife, or not shepherding with love and patience. Frequently, I find myself longing for the day when I will finally be free from sin’s presence in my life.

This thought is why I love that refrain from ‘Come Thou Fount,’ which goes, “On that day when freed from sinning, I shall see his lovely face. Clothed then in blood-washed linen, how I’ll sing thy wondrous grace.” Have you ever felt that way? Have you wondered why God just does not snatch his people up to be with Him upon their conversion? Would it not be much more simple? These questions are what I want to consider together with you.

Patiently Hope for the Perfect

Often, I think of verses that speak to how things will be on that day. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.'” It is entirely unfathomable to think of what that day will hold for those of us who love Christ. No one has ever seen it, no one has ever heard it, and no heart has even imagined what our state of glorification will be like.

Or, think of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Consider, Hebrews 6:9, “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things – things that belong to salvation.”

And then, finally consider Romans 8:22-25, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

According to Paul, that for which we long for should be waited on hopefully. Hope in the Bible is not the same hope as if we were to say, “I hope it rains today.” Rather, hope in the Bible is that sure expectancy of a promised event. We could say that hope is the fruit of true faith. Faith is not a ‘shot in the dark,’ but rather faith is an unwavering trust in what God has promised to us in his Word. This ‘hope,’ says Paul in Romans 5:5, “does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Therefore, unlike the hope that this world promises, the hope that God gives through the Spirit does not disappoint. I leave the golf course disappointed more than I do with the feeling of accomplishment. I leave the basketball court thinking of how I could have played better. The things in this life disappoint, even the things that we thoroughly enjoy. The hope of God, however, keeps us steadfast and waiting with patience the day which has been promised. This brings us to the next point.

Persevere in Christ Until the Perfect Comes

Our hope is true hope because it is rooted in the character and nature of God – who cannot lie and cannot change. Because this is so, our hope is firmly established in Him. But what does this hope produce? This hope produces perseverance, and perseverance produces hope (Romans 5:4). Yet, Paul is clear that our perseverance is due to the work of God in those He saves (Philippians 2:13).

So, back to our first question. “Why does God just not take us out of this world at the time of conversion?” The answer is because, in doing so, we would miss out on the joys our salvation brings. If God were to withdraw us from this world immediately, the benefits received in Christ would not be realized as individual events that God brings us through.

In his Reformed Dogmatics, Geerhardus Vos offered two profound answers to the question about why God does not confer the full realization of the benefits of redemption in our experience immediately upon our regeneration. He wrote,

It would be possible for God to take hold of and relocate each one of the elect into the heaven of glory at a single point in time. He has His good reasons that He did not do this. There are a multiplicity of relationships and conditions to which all the operations of grace have a certain connection. If the change came about all at once, then not a single one of these would enter into the consciousness of the believer, but everything would be thrown together in a chaotic revolution. None of the acts or steps would throw light on the others; the base could not be distinguished from the top or the top from the base. The fullness of God’s works of grace and the rich variety of His acts of salvation would not be prized and appreciated.¹

In short, if God were to carry His people to glory immediately after redeeming them, the benefits of our redemption would be indistinguishable to us. We would not be able to appreciate our justification (that fixed act by which we are declared righteous) from our sanctification (that process by which we are made holy). We would not know our calling from our glorification. The application of the benefits of our redemption in time help us to appreciate all the more the fullness of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf by his life, death, and resurrection.

Pray for Spiritual Strength

Why can I not just be perfect? Because our longing for sinlessness produces in us a hope of future glory. Second, because our longing for sinlessness helps us to develop perseverance in Christ and to enjoy the benefits of our redemption in time. Finally, our hope and perseverance should result in constant prayer for spiritual strength.

Writing to the Ephesians Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Our imperfections should drive us to the throne of grace; there we have an advocate with the Father, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who took upon flesh and who became acquainted with our griefs, though without sin. Our prayer should be for spiritual strength, for our hope to grow, for our faith to not lose sight of Christ.

As I conclude, allow me to leave you with this encouragement from John’s first epistle, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

My dear brother and sister, let not our battle against the flesh cause us to grow discouraged. Instead, let us be filled with hope as we patiently wait for the perfect to be revealed. Let us continue to persevere in Christ and let us continually pray for the Spirit’s aid in our weaknesses. Until he returns, let us continue on in the salvation which has brought to us by the grace of God.

Then we may sing that second part of the refrain from ‘Come Thou Fount,’ “Come, my Lord, no longer tarry. Take my ransomed soul away. Send Thine angels now to carry me to realms of endless day.”