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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Glory of the New Testament - Second Coming & Eternity

As we close out this particular blog series: "The Glory of the New Testament", I pray you have found it helpful in your walk with the Lord.  We have explored the entire New Testament by means of themes.  Those themes, which walk us through all 27 New testament books, are: Incarnation, Humiliation, Gospel, Exaltation, Pentecost, Missions, Christian Life and New Covenant.  As we round the corner and head down the homestretch, we will look at the final two themes in this blog series: Second Coming and Eternity.

THEME NINE: SECOND COMING
If one thing united the first eight themes of this study, it is that they all our connected somehow to what Christ accomplished in His first coming.  However, we also understand that the Christian is directed to base their hope and life upon Christ's second coming.  If there was one verse I could name that brings home the significance of Christ's soon return, it would be 1 John 3:2-3 - " Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

Now as a Christian, I know on the one hand who I am and whose I am - I am by Grace through Faith a new creation in Christ.  Whose I am is Christ's - His possession, His vessel to do with what He will.  Yet in another way it has not yet been revealed what the Christian will become.  Now John does not leave us in the future, for the reality of Christ's return affects the Christian in the here and now.  His Return provides the grounds for our sanctification - our progressive growth in Jesus Christ.  The Cross of Christ is the Grounds for victory, and the Second coming guarantees it.

THEME TEN: ETERNITY
I want to end this blog series in Revelation 22:16-21.  The Great Preacher and writer Warren Weirsby has well stated that Redemptive history is determined by four gradens: Eden, Gethesemane (where Jesus sweat drops of blood), Calvary (Jesus was buried in the garden tomb) and the garden described here in Revelation.  John describes here an inviation by the Holy Spirit, through the church, echoing the urging of Christ to come unto Him.  Eternity beckons, it reaches into time.  The mighty dam of time's end is about to bust loose.  The Christian, reading the scriptures, knows what is on the other side.  You cannot escape the inevitability.  Christ issues the call to come and heed what He has been communicating throughout the entire Bible.  Be ready, by faith, for His return.