God reveals God in three tenses of the Name, ‘I AM He who is, who was and who is to come’ (Rev 1:8). The three tenses of the revelatory Name look like three separate times, time present, time past and time future, but time present is ever-present, breaking into time from the Age to come, transcending time in the age to come. Time present is pure presence, timeless presence, which is the uncreated presence of God. Recognition of God, however, is uncreated grace, hidden until turning sees, hidden until metanoia opens the eye of theoria, awakening to recognition that remembers God. There are three tenses of the Name prior to awakening to wisdom, but after illumination there is awakening to the timeless in time and awareness of time in the uncreated light of timeless glory.
Timeless presence releases time past and time future into the age to come, which is always present. Time present looks like a fleeting moment from the standpoint of time, but from the standpoint of timeless presence, abides without ceasing in uncreated, timeless presence. The paradox of time and the timeless is inescapable when divine humanity is truly lived in Christ, which is wisdom’s way of living and being. Deification by grace is participation in the timeless presence of God whilst humanity continues to live in time. Divine humanity lives in time in the light of timeless glory, both timeless and temporal. The paradox of timeless time cuts through confusion and cures division, revealing Christ from highest heaven down to the very depths of hell.
Three tenses of the Name point to the timeless scope of Christ, who encompasses time in the timeless, the Alpha in the Omega of divine-human completeness. The one Name remains one in all three tenses of the Name, bearing witness to the timeless presence of glory in time. Completeness embraces the temporal incompleteness of time in the timeless completeness of glory, revealing the mysteries of glorification, mysteries which are paradoxical but never illogical. The logic of the Logos is intrinsically paradoxical, so wisdom is well able to see the sound logic of paradox, uniting time and the timeless in many sound and fruitful ways. Three tenses of the Name happily give way to one ultimate, timeless presence, the presence of God in the Name, which is the timeless presence of glory transfiguring time, transcending the three tenses of the Name in the timeless presence of revelatory glory.