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28th December: Christ Will Come Again

Never lose sight of this fact, that time is not the same with the Lord as it is with us -- to him a day may be a thousand years, and a thousand years only a day. It is not that he is dilatory about keeping his own Promise... the fact is that he is very pa

With life as it is we tend to oscillate between hope and despair. Individuals face sickness, suffering and insecurity or tragedy of one sort or another. Society flounders from one crisis to the next. The Christian gospel does indeed bring hope, joy and peace into men's lives now, but we must admit that it is not a panacea for all our current problems.

The Christian hope is an eternal one. Dismiss this as `pie in the sky', and there is little left. Christians are right when they stress the qualitative and present nature of eternal life, but the Bible never does this at the expense of our future expectation. Jesus said `I will come again' (Jn 14:3).

Peter has written at length on how to live as a Christian in this present age. He does so in the setting of God's eternal purpose and programme: his purpose -- to give all men a chance to repent; his programme -- the dissolution of the universe and the establishment of new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Pet 3:10-13).

God kept literally to his promise regarding Christ's first coming. It is not presumptuous to believe that he will do the same with respect to the second.

Peter says that there are two possible reactions to God's love and patience toward us. Men can ignore and spurn them, bringing on themselves a judgment as literal as as that which fell on those who perished in the flood: or they can repent and believe, living in holiness and hope, in the light of his coming.

Thank you for that blest hope of glory,
Great day when Christ shall come again,
Day when, in perfect peace and justice,
He in his mercy shall reign.

J E Seddon.

Further reading: 2 Pet 3. 1 Thes 4:13-18.

DEBP