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“The Christian’s present taste of reality in fellowship with God and his people is but an anticipation of the substantial realities which are reserved for the future, ‘laid up’ in heaven for us. Therefore, we are not to think of ourselves as largely enjoying the fruits of Christ’s victory now, with heaven as some glorious consummation, a kind of finishing touch. Rather we are to recognize that heaven holds most of the great things won for us by Christ, and that our present experience is no more than a precious foretaste of what is to come.”
—R.C. Lucas, “The Message of Colossians and Philemon”