Grace Until Things Are Wrapped Up

"He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, 'O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.' " Daniel 9:22-24 NASB

Here we see the finished work of Christ laid out in time and space. God gave Daniel, a man in captivity in a foreign land, the blueprint and time frame for His plan of salvation. The next verses get into specifics about the breakdown of those 490 years (one week is seven years) and what will happen in broad strokes.

When the seventy weeks have expired here are the things that will have happened:
- Transgression will be restrained
- Made an end to sin
- Made reconciliation for all participation in evil
- Everlasting righteousness will have been brought in
- The door will be closed on the prophet or visionary ministry
- Holiest of the Holy will be anointed

Sixty nine of those weeks have transpired. One week is left and it is suspended in history. God abandoned His temple in Israel and stopped the prophetic clock leaving the last seven years to play out on a future stage (see Daniel 9:26-27)

The church and we ourselves are caught between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

Sin is paid for but not everything is sealed up just yet. God in His mercy and long suffering held the door open for us to come in. Soon that door will be shut and the last events will unfold and what is finished in our hearts will be finished in the world at large also.

I look at that list of things and reckon in my heart that the work is finished. Receiving Christ puts us on the other end of those things. We will be ushered into them but God sees them as already on the account of the believer.

Christ said this to the Israel that rejected Him.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' " Matthew 23:37-39 ESV

One day a nation will say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' and Christ will come to them.

Those who believe now have already said this statement because grace has been revealed to them. He gathers them all under His wings and loses no one who comes to Him.

There is a yearning in us to see God take possession of what He has paid for. Until then we continue to receive grace and point people to the open door.