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Jesus speaks of two different “ages” in Mark 10:30, “this present age” and “the age to come.” The context of Jesus’ statement gives further details about each age.
Jesus had just finished His conversation with the rich young ruler, who left sad, choosing to turn his back on Jesus rather than give up his great wealth (Mark 10:22). Peter then reminded Jesus that “we have left everything to follow you!” (Mark 10:28). Jesus then replies with these words:
Truly I tell you, . . . no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Matthew 10:29–31)
In the Contemporary English Version of Mark 10:30, Jesus speaks of “this world” and “the world to come.” The J. B. Phillips’ paraphrase contrasts “this present life” with “the next world.” Phillips’ wording probably comes the closest to Jesus’ meaning. “This present age,” the age in which disciples forsake all for Christ, is obviously this present life. There is no other time in which we can sacrifice for our Lord.The “age to come,” then, must be the world we will experience after the resurrection. It will be the age of “eternal life.” Those who are born again have the promise of God: “If we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). When the new heaven and new earth appear, we will move “into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (1 Peter 1:4).
Paul addresses life in the age to come in 1 Corinthians 15. A major theme of the chapter is the resurrection of believers. The eternal hope of all believers is based on the resurrection of Christ, and they look forward to the time when “our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won't die or decay” (1 Corinthians 15:53, CEV). In stressing the importance of Christ’s resurrection, Paul writes, “If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:19, NLT). The phrase only for this life implies another life different from this one—a life to be experienced in the age to come.
First Timothy 6:17 contains another indirect reference to the age to come, admonishing “those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant.” The rich “in this present world” may not be wealthy in the next world, which is the age to come.
The author of Hebrews speaks of the age to come, likening it to a new, permanent address sought by the faithful throughout this present age: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13–16).
Jesus used the metaphor of a large house to comfort His disciples concerning their place in the age to come. The Father’s house has “many rooms,” Jesus said, and He is going there “to prepare a place” for them (John 14:2). From there, Jesus will return for His own and take them to their eternal home (verse 3). Jesus’ promise assures all of us of the reality of the age to come.
Jesus told His followers to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), an admonition to prioritize the age to come. He also said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, . . . but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19–20). Jesus’ command draws a clear contrast between our present life “on earth” and our life in the age to come (“in heaven”).
Other biblical references to the age to come include these verses:
Philippians 3:20: “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 13:14: “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
Praise the Lord, there is more to life than what we see in this present world. There is an age to come, and those who belong to Jesus anticipate that age with great hope.
