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The second coming of Christ
As he promised, Jesus Christ will return to earth to judge and rule all peoples in the kingdom of God. His second coming in power and glory will be visible. This event ushers in the resurrection and reward of the saints. (John 14,3; epiphany 1,7; Matthew 24,30; 1. Thessalonians 4,15-17; Revelation 22,12)
Will Christ return?
What do you think would be the biggest event that could happen on the world stage? Another world war? The discovery of a cure for a terrible disease? World peace, once and for all? Or contact with extraterrestrial intelligence? For millions of Christians, the answer to this question is simple: the greatest event that could ever happen is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The central message of the Bible
The entire biblical story focuses on the coming of Jesus Christ as Savior and King. In the Garden of Eden, our first parents broke their relationship with God through sin. But God foretold the coming of a Redeemer who would heal this spiritual breach. To the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve to sin, God said: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall crush your head, and you will stab his heel" (1. Mose 3,15).
This is the Bible's earliest prophecy of a Savior who would crush the power of sin that sin and death exercise upon man ("he shall bruise your head"). How? Through the sacrificial death of the Redeemer ("you will stab his heel"). Jesus achieved this at his first coming. John the Baptist recognized him as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1,29).
The Bible reveals the central meaning of the incarnation of God at the first coming of Christ. The Bible also reveals that Jesus is now entering the lives of believers. And the Bible also says with certainty that he will come again, visibly and with power. Jesus comes in three different ways:
Jesus has already come
We humans need God's redemption - His salvation - because Adam and Eve sinned and brought death to the world. Jesus brought about this salvation by dying in our place. Paul wrote in Colossians 1,19-20: "For God was well pleased that all fullness should dwell in him and that through him he reconciled everything to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through his blood on the cross." Jesus healed the fracture , which first happened in the Garden of Eden. Through his sacrifice mankind can be reconciled to God.
The prophecies of the Old Testament pointed to the kingdom of God in the future. But the New Testament begins with Jesus proclaiming the good news of God: "The time is fulfilled... and the kingdom of God is at hand," he said (Mark 1,14-15). Jesus, the king of the kingdom, walked among men! Jesus "offered an offering for sins" (Hebrews 10,12). We should never underestimate the importance of Jesus' incarnation, of his life and ministry about 2000 years ago.
Jesus came. Further - Jesus is coming now
There is good news for those people who believe in Christ: “You also were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly lived after the manner of this world... But God, being rich in mercy, has in his great love with whom he loved us, even us who were dead in sins, made alive with Christ - by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2,1-2; 4-5).
God has now raised us up spiritually with Christ! By his grace "he raised us up with us, and instituted us in heaven in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace through his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (verses 6-7). This passage describes our present condition as followers of Jesus Christ!
God "according to his great mercy hath born us again unto a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, preserved in heaven for you" (1. Petrus 1,3-4). Jesus lives in us now (Galatians 2,20). We have been spiritually born again and can see the kingdom of God (John 3,3).
When asked when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied: “The kingdom of God does not come by observation; neither will they say: Behold, here it is! or: There it is! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17,20-21). Jesus was in the midst of the Pharisees, but he lives in Christians. Jesus Christ brought the kingdom of God in his person.
In the same way that Jesus lives in us, he introduces the kingdom. The coming of Jesus to live in us foreshadows the definitive revelation of the kingdom of God on earth at Jesus' second coming.
But why does Jesus live in us? Note: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his work, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2,8-10). God saved us by grace, not through our own efforts. But although we cannot earn salvation through works, Jesus lives in us so that we can now do good works and thereby glorify God.
Jesus came. Jesus is coming. And - Jesus will come again
After Jesus' resurrection, when His disciples saw Him ascend, two angels asked the question:
"Why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come again just as you saw him go into heaven" (Acts 1,11). Yes, Jesus is coming again.
At his first coming, Jesus left some messianic predictions unfulfilled. That was one reason why the Jews rejected him. They saw the Messiah as a national hero who would liberate them from Roman rule.
But the Messiah had to come first to die for all mankind. Only later would Christ return as a victorious king and then not only exalt Israel but make all the kingdoms of this world his kingdoms. “And the seventh angel blew his trumpet; and great voices were raised up in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world have come to our Lord and to his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (Rev 11,15).
"I go to prepare the place for you," said Jesus. "And when I go to prepare the place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that you may be where I am" (John 14,23).
Jesus' prophecy on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24,1-25.46) addressed the questions and concerns of the disciples about the end of this age. Later, the apostle Paul wrote of the Church how “the Lord himself shall come, with the sound of the command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, descending from heaven, and the dead that have died in Christ shall rise first” (2. Thessalonians 4,16). At Jesus' second coming he will raise the dead righteous to immortality and transform the believers who are still alive to immortality, and they will meet him in the air (vv. 16-17; 1. Corinthians 15,51-54).
But when?
Over the centuries, speculation about the Second Coming of Christ has caused a multitude of disputes - and countless disappointments, as the various scenarios of the predictors proved wrong. The overemphasis on when Jesus will return may distract us from the central focus of the gospel - Jesus' redemptive work for all people, achieved through his life, death, resurrection, and ongoing redemptive work as our heavenly high priest.
We can be so engrossed in prophetic speculation that we fail to fulfill the legitimate role of Christians as lights in the world by showing the loving, compassionate Christian way of life and glorifying God by serving other people.
"If any person's interest in the biblical announcements of the last things and the second coming degenerates into a subtle projecting of precisely worked out future events, then they have departed far from the substance and spirit of Jesus' prophetic statements," says the New International Bible Commentary on this Gospel of Luke” on page 544.
Our focus
If it is not possible to find out when Christ will come again (and therefore unimportant compared to what the Bible really says), then where should we direct our energies? We should focus on being ready for Jesus' coming whenever it happens!
"Therefore be ye also ready," said Jesus, "for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not" (Matthew 24,44). “But whoever endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10,22). We have to be ready for him so that he can come into our lives now and guide our lives right now.
The focus of the Bible
The whole Bible revolves around the coming of Jesus Christ. As Christians, our lives should revolve around His coming. Jesus came. He comes now through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus will come again. Jesus will come in power and glory "to change our futile body to be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3,21). Then "creation also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8,21).
YES, I am coming, says our Savior. And as believers and disciples of Christ, we can all answer with one voice: "Amen, yes, come Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22,20)!
Norman Shoaf