CHRIST'S COMING AGAIN One of the many wonderful things about the Christian life is that it not only covers the past and the present but it also gives us a tremendous hope for the future. That hope is centred in the second coming of Jesus Christ. Christ will one day appear for us and then we will appear before him. The first thought is thrilling. The second thought is challenging. 'We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ.' These verses speak of three aspects of his coming. First being confident at his coming, then being changed at his coming and thirdly being challenged by his coming. Let's look briefly at each of these. These verses do not say being confident of his coming, but confident at his coming. When he comes there will be two classes of people-the believers and the unbelievers. But this verse 28 says-to us that there will be two classes of believers at his coming. There will be those who will face him confidently and there will be those who will be ashamed before him at his coming. There is no suggestion here that a true Christian may be lost at his coming but that it is possible to live such a careless, undisciplined life that we are out of fellowship with Christ when he comes. How could a person like that be anything else but ashamed at the coming of Christ? John says also that we will be changed at Christ's coming. At Christ's first coming, he became like one of us. At his second coming we will become like him. We will have a body like his-eternal. We will have a nature like his-sinless. We will have a position like his-in heaven with our Father. Could anything be more wonderful than that? Then there is the challenge of his coming. The Christian who hopes to be like him at his coming must begin to be like him now. The word 'purify' here really means to keep on purifying ourselves-in other words to grow more and more like him. It means to grow more loving, to be more faithful, to be more sincere, or putting it simply again, to be more like Christ. A PRAYER: Lord help me to be ready if you were to come today. |
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