Christ is "center stage"

"It is not enough to know that history moves towards a goal; the great question, without the solution of which the think­ing mind cannot rest satisfied, concerns the element of identity in the flux of development. What is the stable, the constant substance that underlies the ceaseless, never-resting change? To what extent and where and in what form is the goal that beckons at the end present at the beginning? Derive the past and present all their value from the future, or do they contain a solid reality of eternal worth in themselves? These questions are urgently pressing in the sphere of religion, where the dignity of God and the dig­nity of man’s spiritual relation to Him do not at any point allow the human subject and its Godward experience to be regarded as a mere transitory phase, a passing ripple on the surface of the stream. And they become most pressing of all when we enter the field of revealed religion, of special redemptive history, of the covenant of grace, where the bond between God and man becomes so intimate and precious that the postulate of a fixed essence unalterably the same through the ages will not be denied. God is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living; to Him all in all times must live; and an evolution which would leave no room for the presence in every one of its stages and moments of such a true life unto God is incompatible with the idea of religion itself. There is a catholicity of religion not merely in the form of space but as well in the form of time. It is the distinctive merit of the Epistle to the Hebrews that, in connection with its doctrine of the covenants, it has raised this great problem and found for it an answer that satisfies not only the religious mind in general but satisfies the heightened covenant-consciousness of the Christian believer in particular.

“…the figure and the shadow (of the Old Covenant) are not the reality, and it is precisely for the reality (of the New Covenant) during the time that they flitted across the scene of history that we are looking. Here again it is by the identification of the two covenants with the two ages and the two worlds of eschatology that the epistle ap­proaches the solution of the problem. In order to understand this we must recall the peculiar manner in which the older eschatology was affected by the Christian belief in the advent of the Messiah. Previous to Christianity the two ages and the two corresponding worlds were conceived as purely successive. The present age must come to an end before the coming age can have its beginning; the present evil world must pass away, before the coming perfect world can take its place; between the two no overlapping is conceivable. But no sooner has this scheme passed over on to Christian ground than a remarkable change in this very respect appears. The dis­tinction between two chronologically successive stages becomes, in part at least, the distinction between two contemporaneous states or worlds. This is brought about by the appearance of the Christ and the accomplish­ment of His work. In Christian eschatology the Christ occupies from be­ginning to end the center of the stage. All developments, all transactions, all gifts, all experiences that make up the drama of the great world-change are related to Him and derive their significance from Him; He is the repre­sentative and exponent of the future life in its totality. “To be forever with the Lord” is the succinct expression of what the eschatological hope means to a Christian. But, where eschatology and the Christ are thus closely identified, there inevitably the appearance of the Christ and even the partial accomplishment of His work must be interpreted as ushering in the initial stage of the future world, the opening chapter of the life of eternity. We can actually observe this in Paul, who teaches that through the cross of Christ the believer has been in principle snatched out of this present evil world and translated into the eternal kingdom of the Son of God’s love. The resurrection of Christ is to the apostle the first act in the general resurrection that will introduce the final kingdom of God. Chris­tians have in effect passed over from the age that is into the age to come. Their commonwealth is above, where they sit with Christ in heavenly places, and all that is necessary in the future is that they shall undergo the last change which will make them, in body as well as in soul, redeemed, supernatural, eschatological creatures." -- Geerhardus Vos, "Hebrews, the Epistle of the Diatheke" in "The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos"