The Ends of the Ages
The Apostle connects the start of the “last days” to the death and resurrection of the Son of God. The time of fulfillment arrived with the appearance of Jesus “in the fullness of time,” and all God’s promises now find their “yea and amen” in the Nazarene. It is in “these last days” that God has “spoken” His definitive “word” in His Messiah.
And Paul declares that the church consists of
those men and women upon whom the “ends of the ages have come.” While
the term “last days” is not frequent in his letters, the Apostle does demonstrate
his understanding that History’s final era has commenced with the death and resurrection
of Christ, therefore, nothing will or can ever be the same again.
ENDS OF THE AGES
To the Greek-speaking congregation in Corinth,
he identifies key events from the Hebrew Bible as “types,” examples for
the followers of Jesus, the very ones “upon
whom the ends of the ages have
arrived.”
In the wilderness, God provided Israel with “spiritual
drink” from the “spiritual rock,” and it prefigured Jesus (for “the
rock was Christ”). Such pivotal events provide examples and patterns for
Christians so they will no longer live after the ways and dictates of this fallen
age - (1 Corinthians 10:11).
And, in the Greek sentence, Paul uses the
plural forms of “ages” and “ends.” The term telos or
“end” may signify the termination of something, but also its “goal.”
And in his letter, both senses are in view - termination and goal.
Jesus expresses the same thought in his parable
of the Wheat and Tares that are “gathered at the consummation
of the age.” “Consummation” translates a compound Greek word built
on telos - sunteleia.
Similarly, the book of Hebrews declares
that Jesus “once, in the consummation (sunteleia) of the ages, has
appeared to put away sin by his sacrifice” - (Matthew
13:36-44, Hebrews 9:26).
Thus, In Christ, one era reached its endpoint while another commenced. That transition was due to Jesus - his death, resurrection, and exaltation. And so, the “ends of the ages” have come upon the disciples of Jesus.
To the churches in Rome, the Apostle writes that the arrival of Jesus signifies
the “end (telos) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who
believes.” The literary context is clear - By “law,” Paul means the legislation
given at Mount Sinai. Whether he means its termination or goal,
his statement indicates a fundamental
change in status and era - (Romans 10:1-4).
CUSTODIANSHIP OF THE LAW
To the churches in Galatia, Paul answers the question – “Why,
then, the law?” Noteworthy is how he places its jurisdiction within a finite period.
The law was “added because of
transgressions until the
seed should come to whom the promise was made.” The law was given over four
hundred years after the promise was confirmed to Abraham. The promise takes precedence over the law
- (Galatians
3:19-25).
The
law served as the “custodian” of God’s people “until the faith that should afterward
be revealed.” Since that faith has arrived, God’s people are no
longer under the custodian with its divisions between Jews and Gentiles:
- Therefore, “all are sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus; there cannot be Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male and female…you are Abraham’s heirs according to promise” – (Galatians 3:19-29).
FULLNESS OF TIME
And
in the “fullness of time,” God sent his Son “to redeem them under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because we are sons God
sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” – (Galatians 4:1-6).
And so, Paul links the “promise of Abraham,”
the inheritance, redemption, and the “fullness of time” to the arrival
of Jesus, along with the “adoption” of God’s children and the gift of
the Spirit. His arrival in history signified a fundamental change in the
law and the status of the one people of God – (Galatians 3:1-4).
His first arrival marks the commencement of
the “fullness of time,” the point when the saints cease to be minors
under the custodianship of the law and instead become heirs of the
promises to Abraham. To now return to the “elemental things” of the old
order is nothing less than regression - (Galatians 4:9-11).
And all this means a radical change in the era
and in the status of God’s people took place due to his death and resurrection.
Paul uses similar language when describing what Christ accomplished for his
people when writing to the church in Ephesus:
- (Ephesians 1:9-11) - “Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him, for an administration of the fullness of the seasons, to reunite for himself, under one head, all things in the Messiah, the things upon the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him. In whom also we were taken as an inheritance, according to the purpose of him who energizes all things according to the counsel of his will.”
Here, he uses the more pregnant term “seasons”
rather than “time,” and in the plural number to stress how Jesus was and
is the goal of God’s plans in all eras - past, present, and future.
PRESENT AGE FADING
Paul addresses marital relationships in 1
Corinthians. Should Christians continue in such relationships considering
the “present distress?” The short answer is - “yes.” Husbands and wives must
fulfill their mutual obligations, and the unmarried are free to marry, but only
“in the Lord.”
Nevertheless, he places the institution of marriage in its proper
place. Disciples must keep their priorities straight, for since the advent of
Christ the “time is shortened,
therefore, let those that have wives may be as though they had none, and let
those that buy as though they possessed not… the fashion of this world is passing away” - (1
Corinthians 7:29-31).
The present tense verb rendered “passing
away” stresses ongoing action. Even now, the world and its
institutions are in the process of dissolution because of this change in eras.
Similarly, in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes:
- (2 Corinthians 5:15-17) - “Having judged this, that one in behalf of all died, hence, they all died; and in behalf of all died he, in order that, they who live, no longer for themselves should live, but for him who, in their behalf, died and rose again. So that we, henceforth, know no one after the flesh: if we have even been gaining after the flesh a knowledge of Christ. On the contrary, now, no longer are we gaining it. So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation! the old things have passed away. Behold, they have become new!”
Thus, Jesus inaugurated the promised new
creation, and its implementation has already begun.
The “old” order is passing away and the “new” one is dawning, initially in the church. There is both continuity and discontinuity between the old and new eras. Certain things that were required under the old system have lost their relevance. For example, circumcision is no longer here nor there - (Galatians 6:15).
And in Galatians, Paul points to Jesus
and his sacrificial death that “delivered
us from this present evil age.” He does not refer to our removal
from the physical universe, but to our deliverance from the present era under
the dominion of sin and death - (Galatians 1:4).
Likewise, in Colossians, he thanks God
“who delivered us out of the power of darkness and transferred us into the
kingdom of His beloved Son.” Disciples now belong to a different age and a different political order
- (Colossians
1:12-13).
The “mysteries” that were hidden have now
been unveiled in Jesus. The promises communicated through the prophets
of Israel find their fulfillment in him. He is the “mystery which
has been kept in silence through past ages but now is made manifest” - (Colossians
1:26, 2 Timothy 1:10).
THE LAST DAYS
In the New Testament, the term “last days”
is not a chronological marker, nor does it refer simply to the final few years
of history. Instead, it refers to the fundamental change in the nature and
status of everything that has occurred due to the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus.
He achieved final victory over sin, death,
and Satan (“having achieved the purification of sins”), and since his
resurrection and exaltation (“and he sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high”), the final era of human history has been underway as the
present order winds down to its inevitable conclusion.
Calvary means far more than the
forgiveness of sins. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God, the New Covenant,
and the New Creation. And the latter is not waiting for its commencement – it began
with his resurrection from the dead, and it will consummate with our own bodily
resurrection at his “arrival” or Parousia – (1 Corinthians
15:20-28).
His death put into motion the final phase of the
redemptive plan of God for the entire creation; therefore, all human relationships
are radically altered, whether marital, societal, or political.
That is why the New Testament consistently
portrays the “last days” as having begun with the death and resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth. The age of fulfillment has been upon us ever since he
was raised from the dead by his God and Father, an event that marked the
arrival of the “fullness of time.”
