Last time, we looked as what Christ did in His first advent, and what that means for us as His followers. This time, we will be looking at Christ’s second advent, and why we should long for it.
To begin with, if we already have new hearts and the Holy Spirit, and we are growing in holiness (obedient love to God), then why do we need a second advent? Why would Christ need to return? We need Christ to return because we are in a season between two advents called the season of the “already but not yet.” We who are the elect, chosen by God for salvation, have already been saved. We have already been bought by the death of Christ for an eternity with Him on the new earth. We already have new hearts that are orientated towards God. We already have God dwelling within us by the Holy Spirit. And we are already tasting the grace of God as He works in our lives to make us holy. However, while we have many things in Christ, we have yet to obtain our perfection. We are still in corruptible bodies that will one day decompose and turn to dust. We still struggle with sin, sickness, disease, and suffering. We still see much evil, not only in the world around us, but also battling within us for the allegiance of our hearts. So, while we have many great promises, and have divine endowments for fighting against evil, we are still in a season of great striving against the evils of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are in a marathon, a race, a war. Yes, there is a sense in which the elect have already won. Jesus won the war for us. Yet, there are many battles to be fought as God works His good will in us, bringing His good work within us to completion. Our striving against sin in this season between advents includes both our work and the work of God. So, we ought to, as Paul teaches, run the race with endurance, looking forward to the prize that we have in Christ Jesus. And so, this striving and looking forward to the prize encapsulates our longing for the second advent of Christ.
We desire for Christ to return so that (1) we may be with Him forever; (2) so that we may live to serve God forever; (3) so that we may be made perfectly holy, no longer having to struggle with sin, but having a perfect and unhindered relationship with God; (4) and so that we may do away with all the evil influences on our hearts and bodies, which includes doing away with all suffering and evil in God’s creation. In the Old Covenant, people had a glimpse of God’s perfect plan in Christ, but can only admire it from afar. In the season of the now but not yet, we have developed a taste and subsequent longing for a perfect relationship with God. And, when Christ comes in His second advent, we will have the fulness of what we long for in Him. So, we ought to greatly anticipate Christ’s return, declaring “Come soon Lord Jesus!” We are as young children not yet knowing what we are until the time of our inheritance comes—the coming of age. We are children of God, but we do not yet see the full glories of God in us and in creation. Yet, the time will come when we both become perfect and possess every good thing for all eternity.
Christ, when He returns, will be our King forever. He promised that He will take those who have died waiting for Him, resurrect them, and give them new bodies that cannot grow tired or degrade. They will be physical bodies, like the one that Christ possesses. With them, we will have no need for sleep or rest. Rather, we can always be with the Lord, imaging Him perfectly in the new creation. We will have no cause for shame, since all of those things will be brought far from us by Christ’s work. He will rule over us, and we will rule with Him.
When He arrives, He will subjugate the world and every knee will bow before Him. He will establish His rule and crush all worldly powers. After this, He will judge the living and the dead, rewarding those who obey Him, and condemning those who do not. Many will think that Christ will welcome them into His kingdom, even while they refuse to obey Him. All who practice lawlessness will be condemned. It is not enough to have spiritual experiences, or to say the sinner’s prayer, or to have family that believes in God, or even to perform many works or miracles in Jesus’ Name. The only thing that will count when Christ returns is that we have believed in Him, and therefore that we grow in obedience to Him. Professing believers who go through life thinking that they have “fire insurance” (salvation), but who do not think that they need to subjugate their lives to obey Christ, will find that they are numbered with the damned. Again, Christ gives all His people divine resources to necessarily grow in godliness. If we are saved, then we will grow in obedience to His commands from a heart after Him, and we will come to forsake and hate all forms of evil. You see, we are to all live lives as Christ has lived. That is the mark that we are actually His own. So, we follow the path of Christ in our lives, which can be illustrated by baptism. When we sink into the water, it symbolizes the absolute death of our old selves—our “old man,” evil nature, and indwelling sin. It is as though we die, going down into the grave. All who reject Christ never make it past this point. They remain submerged, and even descend into hell. However, it is only those who trust in Christ’s death and resurrection who likewise are then raised like Him. So, if we die to ourselves, as Christ has died, and live for Christ as Christ did for His Father, then we too will be resurrected. Keep in mind that this is with divine grace, enabling us to follow in Christ’s footsteps. So, all along the way in our Christian walk, we come to imitate Christ, paralleling His life, death, and resurrection. Those who live and die as Christ will also be those who are resurrected on the last day. This means dedicating our lives wholly to love God with all that we are, and loving our neighbours according to that love that we have from God. All that it means for us to serve God with all our hearts will be growing in us. (We will look closer at this theme in the next devotional, when we cover how we are to wait for Christ’s return with all sobriety).
In a very real way, all who will be judged as righteous on the day of our Lord’s return will be those who followed his life and death, and therefore partake in the resurrection unto life. Many professing believers often disconnect Jesus’ own life and death from themselves, thinking that they can get by with seeking only to be a cheap imitation that has no substance or sacrifice, but they are gravely mistaken. If we have not followed Christ, walking as He walked, then we will not partake in that which was intended for Christ as His reward. It is not as simple as to think that we are on a free ride, and that we never come to actually do what Christ did in His humanity. Rather, all who come after Christ die to themselves, take up their cross, and follow Christ. They lose their lives that they may follow in Christ’s footsteps. This cannot be reduced to a trite or shallow phrase. Rather, it means all that it says, and in the very strength in which it is given. We die to ourselves, and live our present lives for Christ—even unto our deaths. All that we have in this world is to be counted as loss—as trash—so that we may attain to the true knowledge of Christ—living and dying as He has, that we may be resurrected as He has. So, when we are ultimately exalted with Christ, we are not being exalted in an entirely alien fashion—as if it had nothing to do with how we actually lived our lives. Rather, we will be exalted as His little Christs—saints of the Most High who have become like their Master. So, when He returns, He returns as One to Whom we followed and sought to become comprehensively in His humanity—making it the great aim of our lives to follow in His footsteps, as our Master and Lord. All the elect will be as He is on the day of exaltation. However, we will only be those who reflect His own glory, since He is the One who made us as He is through His death and resurrection, supplying us with all that we need to follow in His footsteps. So, the glory of our own exaltation will be the glory of Christ’s exaltation, since He is the Author and Finisher of it. When we relate to Him in heaven, it will be to Him in quite a real way as He is in His human nature, but all glory and honour will be grounded in Him. He will return to those who have a like mission and life to His own, to those who imitate Him as their Shepherd. We will not be merely alien or somehow apart from living His life and mission. Rather, with Christ, we will also fulfill the Law with our obedience to Christ (Rom 8:3-8; 13:8; Gal. 6:2), fulfilling all righteousness through Christ as we live our lives. While we may never do so perfectly in our earthly lives, yet the lives of the saved will be marked by strength and perseverance in this pursuit. We will only know the fullness of this when Christ returns, when we relate to Him as those made perfectly one with and in Him (John 17:20-23).
Next time we will be looking at how we are to prepare for Christ’s second advent.