There is, perhaps, no issue that so captures the imagination of the world at large more than the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Such has been the case since His departure from the Mount of Olives, when He bodily ascended out of sight in the presence of His apostles. And, it may be said with certainty that no one then believed two thousand years would pass, and His promise of returning would still not be realized. No doubt, some refer to His long absence as likely proof that He is not coming back for, if He were able to make good on the promise of His return, He certainly would have done so before now.
Possible alternatives are all over the map. One is: Christ was simply mistaken. He had told them He would return, but He simply couldn’t do it. This, of course, requires a very mistaken Christ or a very incompetent and powerless One, a concept wholly unacceptable to anyone who knows anything about the Savior. Or, another alternative explanation for His seeming lack of return is: He did return. He returned in Acts 2, only ten days after His ascension but in the person of the Holy Spirit. This, too, fails miserably, contradicting everything Christ said about His return in Matthew 24. It simply will not suffice to replace a very literal, physical departure, and a very literal, physical assurance of the angels at the Ascension, that Christ “would so come again in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.”
So, what is the answer? How do we account for the prolonged two-thousand-year absence of the Messiah when He clearly said He would come again, but hasn’t? The biblical answer is: the time for His return hasn’t yet arrived, and we don’t know when it will. But we do know that it will. On what do we base that? Upon the integrity of the God who cannot lie.
Part of our problem is that we, in our humanity, have such a limited perspective, but God has His own perspective and reminds us that it is we that need to adjust to Him and His timetable, not vice versa. No doubt the ancients of Old Testament times who were promised about the first coming of the Messiah probably had their misgivings too. Each passing generation thought the Messiah would surely come in their lifetime. After all, how long does it take for God to get His act together and make good on what He promised way back in Genesis 3:15? How long does God take? As long as He wants. His perspective, remember? The wait for God to deliver on His promise of sending the Redeemer was four thousand years, and, when He came, it was called “the fullness of time,” in Galatians 4. So, be reminded that we living today have waited for Christ to come for the second time only half as long as Israel waited for His first coming. Times, days, years, centuries, and millennials aside, be sure of one thing: Jesus is coming again. He said so.
CC-06-17
Published by