The Christian’s ‘blessed hope’ is the imminent, personal and pre-Millennial return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, motivating the believer to live godly in an ungodly world.
Titus 2:13: “…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”
It is most important to beware of the danger of becoming more occupied with the event than with the Person who is coming. Scattered throughout the Word of God there are scores of thrilling details concerning the time, manner and place of His return, but the most thrilling aspect of this whole subject is that HE is coming – our Lord Jesus Himself! Three N.T. scriptures especially emphasize that it is our Lord Himself who is coming:
Yes, the Lord Himself is coming, and therefore we as His followers should not only be conscious of this fact but we should also be consciously on the lookout for Him. Why?
Think of it this way: every Christian is going to Heaven, but how are we to get there? The souls of the “dead in Christ” are already with Christ, “which is far better” (Philippians 1:23); but we are not going to spend eternity as disembodied spirits (2 Corinthians 5:3); one day we shall have a new body like His. But how and when will this take place? The answer is – at His coming again! 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 makes it clear that the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation and translation of all living believers will take place at the Jesus’ second coming.
Do you realize what a large proportion of the prophecies of the Old Testament are taken up with the final triumph of Christ and of His reign? They were not fulfilled at His first coming, when He came as a baby, suffering and dying for us; they await fulfilment at His second coming. There are many more prophecies in the Old Testament relating to the second coming of Christ than to His first coming. Therefore, the subject of the second coming dominates biblical revelation! If we acknowledge the authority of the Bible we must be convinced about the fact of His return, and when we come to the New Testament we find, as one Bible teacher has said, that the second coming is mentioned 318 times, or approximately once in every twenty-five verses!
If we really believe that the Lord Jesus is coming again, we shall be different in what we are and what we do. There is no greater incentive to holy living than to be convinced that at any moment the Lord Jesus may return. Those who hold the doctrine of the second coming find their belief to be:
How much more carefully we should live in the light of His coming!
Some have said that to believe in the second coming of Christ would take away the motive for service and for evangelistic endeavor – but the truth of the second coming of Christ spurs us on to faithfulness and colors all our service with a deep sense of urgency; and it safeguards us against a wrong objective in Christian service. If we do not believe Christ is coming, or if we believe His coming is post-Millennial, our objective will be the conversion of the world, which is not God’s plan. But if we believe Christ is coming soon we shall pray and work for the evangelization of the world and the completion of the church (Acts 15:14-18).
The only solution to the problems and perplexities of our collapsing civilization is the coming again of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No man, politician, government or scientist can solve the present situation, but God has a solution. His Man, “the man Christ Jesus”, will step down from the throne of Glory and will set up His reign and rule of righteousness, and all the signs – religious, political, industrial, commercial… point to the fact that His coming is very near.
It is very significant that the promise of our Lord’s return is set within the context of His promise of Heaven and His desire that we should have untroubled hearts (John 14:1-3). How we need to understand and apply this cure for troubled hearts! Is there any more comforting truth than His assured and near return? Study 1 Thessalonians 4:18.
