Hopefully, by now, we are becoming more and more convinced of certain truths:

– God is making a new world. A new heavens and a new earth for His children to enjoy forever.

– We will walk on this earth again, with physical resurrected bodies. We will be with our friends and family, discovering millions and millions of new reasons every day to praise God for giving us the gift of existence (Revelation 4:11).

– In this new world, we will eat food, drink drinks, and have responsibilities like serving cities (Luke 19:19).

– Above all, and most importantly, we will be with the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit forever.

This should fill us with amazing hope! But here’s the beautiful thing… The new world starts now.

Let me explain. 

Many people would acknowledge that the new world started the moment baby Jesus was born in a manger, but I want to focus on what came shortly after that. The writer of Hebrews captured this well when speaking of those who believe the good news about Christ’s coming, referring to them as those “who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted of the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:4-5). For those who currently believe, we have tasted the powers of the age to come. 

In other words, the age to come, the new world, is spilling over into this present age. Jesus, the Leader and King of the New World is pouring out His powers to those who believe; to give the world a taste of things to come. The “church” – which is simply this who believe – is a picture of the new world.

What exactly are these “powers” that we are currently tasting? Let’s go over some of them. 

Faith and Love

Let’s first acknowledge the most obvious power we’ve been given: faith. Or, to put it differently, trust. The restored trust we have toward God is absolutely foundational to the new world. This trust is a gift from the Father, revealed in the Son, and shared in the Spirit. Remember, even faith is a gift. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Everything in the kingdom flows through trust. If we don’t trust God, we haven’t clearly seen His glory yet. But when we have trust we have peace with God, and harmony between the Creator and His creatures is restored. This is what Jesus died for (Colossians 1:20). 

With faith and trust comes love. The apostle Paul intimately linked these qualities together in a number of places, especially in Galatians 5:6 when he wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working in love.” From a place of trust in Jesus, we overflow in love for one another. Love for one another is a defining characteristic that Jesus desires for all of His followers. This is what He told them after washing their feet, “As I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). 

Faith and love are the lasting qualities that the new world is built upon. What’s especially powerful is when men and women of different nationalities and backgrounds love each other with the love of Christ. It’s like in The Lord of the Rings when the elves, hobbits, dwarves, and humans were able to love each other in a world where these classes were typically divided. Paul says this in Colossians 3:11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” 

Paul is saying that believers put Christ above their nationality and cultural status, and that they love each other and see Christ in one another. These are some of the central “powers of the age to come.” Faith and love are our inheritance in Jesus. In the new world, we will continue to trust and love each other and it will be cause to praise our Creator and Redeemer forever and ever.

This whole journey and all our previous discussions have led to this point. God is building the new world now through his believing church. Through you and me. Christ was the cornerstone of this new world, and those in the church are referred to as the foundation stones that get laid on top of that original cornerstone placed in a manger (see Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:4-5). It’s amazing to think about how the foundation of a building remains hidden under the ground, much like the roots of a tree. It’s an unseen structure that no one sees and yet it holds everything else up.

We could say then that the new world God’s creating is truly here, all around us, and yet it remains unseen just like a hidden root system of a great tree or the foundation of a giant skyscraper. But every time love and faith prevail in a human heart, this foundation grows and God continues to prepares the way for something that will one day manifest all over the planet and rise up to the heavens with eternal glory.