Until Then
Originally scheduled for December 31
It is the last day of the year. While we like
to think of our New Year’s resolutions, most of our thought dwells
on what happened this year; a review of the past. May I cast your
eye instead to the future:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens
will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned
up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it
will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and
godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and
the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his
promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for
these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and
at peace.
(2 Peter 3:10-14)
It is fashionable these days to ignore any
passages concerning the return of Christ, the Day of the Lord. But
as is clear from what Peter has written here, this is not something
that simply occurs in Revelation, shrouded in symbolism. Peter is
pretty explicit here:
·
The Day of the Lord, his return, will
surprise us all when it happens. Any number of people think they
have mathematically calculated the date. They’re wrong. We will be
surprised.
·
This current universe in some fashion
will be destroyed and remade into the New Heaven and New Earth.
·
In light of this, we are to live
lives that produce Christians “without spot or blemish, and at
peace.”
Until then, we must live the life of the
Christian anticipating the Lord’s return. There are many things that
the Scriptures tell us we should be doing, but only one particular
ritual is performed in anticipation of his return. This ritual is so
important that Christ instituted on his last night before the Cross.
He told his disciples that this would be the last time he would eat
Passover until he did it again in the renewed kingdom. In the
meanwhile he has left us this ceremony.
Why this particular ceremony?
·
The bread and wine recall his body
and blood, reminding us of the supreme sacrifice that he made for
our atonement.
·
We are taught to examine ourselves —
a call to repentance — so that we might do this in a worthy manner.
So then, look back upon your life, examine
yourself and see if there is need for you to repent. Bring that need
to the Lord, and take this communion in a worthy manner — until He
comes again.
