Lincoln Steffens went to Russia after the Russian Revolution and saw the new collective form of government, known as communism, being tried. Things looked so good in the early days that he reported back home, “I have seen the future and it works.” Of course, by 1989 the country was in big trouble, having witnessed millions of people dead in the tragic experiment.

 However, the scriptures testify that we can see the future and it really does work.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV)

In the real world described here, the spiritual and natural intertwine. When Jesus appeared, the eternal invaded the temporal; or speaking from a linear perspective, the future broke into the present. Jesus announced, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” A new era was beginning. A new age was dawning. Though the willfully blind can’t see beyond the temporal and thus live based on observation and intuition, those born of the Spirit can see through the temporal to the eternal. In the mystery of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, believers share the very life of Jesus the Christ—called “eternal life.” They share his past, present, and future. Because they are “in him,” they are wherever and whenever he is. The apostle Paul is not talking nonsense when he says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”