Between Two Worlds

Christians live in an unusual tension. On the one hand, Paul declares, "For to me, to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). For him, life is not merely about Christ; life is Christ–Christ's will, Christ's power, Christ's blessings, and Christ's promises define his entire existence. He lives in Christ the way a fish lives in water. This is his atmosphere, his animating force, the environment in which he thinks, chooses, rejoices, and suffers.

On the other hand, Peter reminds believers, "With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day" (II Peter 3:8). In God's presence time collapses, stretches, and obeys His purposes rather than human clocks. Peter's point is not mathematics–it is perspective. God inhabits eternity; humans inhabit time. And the two do not move at the same speed.

A Christian, however, lives in both.

The Eternal Within Us: "To Live Is Christ"

When Paul says "to live is Christ," he is not speaking poetically. He means that knowing Christ and being indwelt by His Spirit pulls the believer into the gravitational field of eternity. The Christian's inner life is no longer strictly bound by the rise and fall of earthly seasons.

Life in Christ provides:

• Eternal meaning in temporal actions.
• Eternal security within temporal danger.
• Eternal joy in temporal suffering.

Through faith and union with Christ, a believer's spirit touches realities that do not age, decay, or run out. In this sense, the Christian is already breathing the air of eternity. Even now, the believer lives a life sourced in the Resurrection, guided by the Spirit, and aimed at a kingdom that never ends.

The Temporal Around Us: "A Day Is Like a Thousand Years"

But while the spirit tastes eternity, the body still belongs to time–and time can feel heavy.

Peter's phrase captures the human experience of waiting, longing, and enduring. A single day of pain can feel like a thousand years. And conversely, a thousand years of human history amount to a single moment in God's eternal plan.

For Christians, this creates a kind of holy dissonance:

• We know Christ is risen–yet we still struggle with decay.
• We experience eternal hope–yet we wait day by day for redemption.
• We are heirs of an everlasting kingdom–yet we must still endure each passing hour.

Some days feel gloriously short because God is near. Others feel endlessly long because the flesh is weak, the world is broken, and the burden of waiting weighs on the mind.

Where the Two Meet: The Christian Life in Tension

A believer, therefore, lives at the intersection of two truths:

1. Life in Christ pulls us upward into the eternal.
2. Life in the body drags us back into the temporal.

This tension explains why Christians can feel spiritually alive while physically exhausted, confident in hope yet weary in waiting. It is possible to rejoice in the Lord while groaning in the flesh–because we inhabit both worlds at once.

Why This Matters

Understanding this dual experience helps Christians make sense of their spiritual lives:

• It explains why worship feels like stepping outside of time.
• It explains why suffering feels so long, even when hope is near.
• It explains why Christ can feel profoundly real while the world feels unbearably heavy.
• It explains how a Christian can be both homesick and hopeful at the same moment.

We live in the flesh, but not from the flesh.

We experience time, but are shaped by eternity.

We walk on earth, but belong to heaven.

"To live is Christ" pulls us forward into eternal life; "a day is like a thousand years" reminds us that we are still waiting for its fullness.

And so, Christians spend their earthly days as citizens of two worlds–one passing, one permanent–living Christ while feeling time, tasting eternity while patiently waiting for it to swallow time forever.