“Time is charged with the eternity of God” by Herman Bavinck

“Believers are what God has made them, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be their way of life (Eph. 2:10).

In the cause of Christ it is graciously given them not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Acts 5:41; Phil. 1:29).

God crowns His own work, not only in conferring eternal life on everyone who believes but also in distributing different degrees of glory to those who, motivated by that faith, have produced good works.

His purpose in doing this, however, is that, on earth as in heaven, there would be profuse diversity in the believing community, and that in such diversity the glory of His attributes would be manifest.

Indeed, as a result of this diversity, the life of fellowship with God and with the angels, and of the blessed among themselves, gains in depth and intimacy.

In that fellowship everyone has a place and task of one’s own, based on personality and character, just as this is the case in the believing community on earth (Rom. 12:4–8; 1 Cor. 12).

While we may not be able to form a clear picture of the activity of the blessed, Scripture does teach that the prophetic, priestly, and royal office, which was humanity’s original possession, is fully restored in them by Christ.

The service of God, mutual communion, and inhabiting the new heaven and the new earth undoubtedly offer abundant opportunity for the exercise of these offices, even though the form and manner of this exercise are unknown to us.

That activity, however, coincides with resting and enjoying.

The difference between day and night, between the Sabbath and the workdays, has been suspended.

Time is charged with the eternity of God. Space is full of His presence.

Eternal becoming is wedded to immutable being.

Even the contrast between heaven and earth is gone. For all the things that are in heaven and on earth have been gathered up in Christ as head (Eph. 1:10).

All creatures will then live and move and have their being in God (Acts 17:28), who is all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), who reflects all His attributes in the mirror of His works and glorifies Himself in them.”

–Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. Ed. John Bolt and Tr. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 729-730.