It is tough to be in between, but we’ve all been there: in between jobs, in between paychecks, in between visits. If we are adults, we passed through those awkward years that lie between being a kid and being an adult. Some of us have found ourselves in between hostile parties, peacemakers in the midst of a battle.

Living in the in-between is not easy, but that is where Christians find themselves. We live in between how it is and how it should be, between the already and the not yet, in between God and people, and that is where God intends us to be. We are the In-Betweeners.

Priests, by the nature of their calling, are In-Betweeners. They represent God to people and people to God. In Exodus 19:6, God told Israel that they would be a kingdom of priests if they would fully obey him. He wanted them to be In-Betweeners, representing God to the nations, and the nations to God.

In the New Testament, Peter quotes this verse and applies it to the people of Jesus. They are the non-ethnic royal priesthood, standing in between God and the people of the world. This passage from 1 Peter 2 provides the basis for Protestantism’s emphasis on the “priesthood of all believers.” Some protestants, however, have used Peter’s words to support their defiant claim that they don’t need a priest to go to God on their behalf. This ignores Peter’s intent, which was to remind believers of the crucial role they play as priests who stand between God and people.

Being a priest is a weighty responsibility. It was also, as any ancient Jew could have told you, a messy business. It still is. Living in between God and people is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is the calling of all Jesus’s people.

Peacemakers are also In-Betweeners, and Jesus clearly intended his people to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9; see also Romans 12:18; 14:19; Hebrews 12:14; and Philippians 4:2). The need has never been greater. The world is looking for international peacemakers to end deadly conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and to prevent new ones that threaten to engulf the globe.

It is not just international peacemakers that are needed. Families need peacemakers. Workplaces need peacemakers. Government leaders and politicians need peacemakers. Individuals with souls in turmoil need peacemakers. Where will they find them? The biblical answer is among the people of Jesus. They are the In-Betweeners.

Even when they are not making peace or acting in their capacity as priests, Jesus’s people feel the pressure of living in between. They live in that strange land between the already and the not yet, between what is and what should be. The pressure here is like that of gravity. Often it goes unnoticed, but sometimes it slams you to the ground.

Christians live in between what they are now (children of God) and what they shall be, which has not been made known in detail, though it will mean being like Jesus (1 John 3:2). The tension between the two is brought out in different ways in Scripture. For example, Christians have already been made perfect forever by the sacrifice of Christ. The author of Hebrews speaks of this as if it were a done deal (Hebrews 10:14). Yet, he writes that this perfect forever status is true (and, I think, only true) of “those who are being made holy.” Why do people need to be made holy who have been made perfect forever? Because they are In-Betweeners, living in the tension of the already and the not yet. They know what Schrödinger’s cat must have felt like.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he announced that the kingdom of God was at hand, but later he said that the kingdom was still to come, and that individuals must “receive” it (see Mark 1:15; Luke 11:2; Mark 10:15). In Romans 8:30, St. Paul speaks as if Christians are already “glorified,” yet elsewhere he speaks of the glory that is awaiting Christians. It is as if the future is sucking the present into it, and we are caught in the power of that vacuum.

We might get the idea that the in-between is an unwelcome, uncomfortable, and unavoidable place, but it is also a necessary place. It is where the ultimate In-Betweener, Jesus, the mediator between God and man, came. And it is the forge where holy-forever, glorified, peace-loving, God-trusting saints are conformed to his beautiful image.