FACE TO FACE

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). These words speak of Christ's return, which is mentioned over and over again throughout the New Testament—and is even alluded to in the Old Testament (e.g., compare Daniel 7:13-14 to Mark 14:62 and Revelation 1:7). The subject of this week's devotion is Christ's Return. It is not my intention to go into all the details of the end times, but rather to (1) have a brief look at the purpose of Christ's second coming and then to (2) focus on how we should live our lives in light of the certainty of His return.

Salvation: The Reason for Jesus' Return

Hebrews 9:26-28 describes the reason why Jesus came to the earth, and it distinguishes between His first and second coming: “...But now he [Jesus] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” The reason Jesus came the first time was to earn our salvation by bearing our sins on the cross. The reason He will come again will be to bring salvation to those who, in faith, are waiting for Him to return. Jesus' second coming will involve a gathering up of the true believers: “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens” (Mark 13:26-27). So we see that with Christ's return comes salvation.

ccc I think it's worth taking the time to answer the question: What does salvation accomplish for us? Why do we need to be saved? It all began with Adam and Eve's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden, when they decided to be obedient to themselves and live for themselves rather than for God. We might be quick to blame them, but we are not innocent either. The Bible says that everyone is guilty of sin (Romans 3:23), and that all sin is really an offense against God (e.g., Psalm 51:1-4). Because we have all sinned against God, we are all in His debt—owing Him our very lives: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). In other words, death is the penalty for our sinfulness. Romans 5:12 expresses it this way: “...sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned..” So the answer to our question—What does salvation accomplish for us—is that salvation frees us from sin (and, therefore, from death): “...Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' They answered him, 'We... have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?' Jesus replied, 'I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'” (John 8:31-36).

ccc The more I come to know Christ and His perfect law, the more I realize that what He is saying in this passage above is so true. I am a slave to sin. Every second of every day, sin is crouching at my door, desiring to have me (Genesis 4:7). And, like Paul, I can truly say “...I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good... I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out... Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it... For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched [person] I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!...” (Romans 7:14-25).

ccc Jesus said, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” But He also said, whoever the Son sets free is free indeed! It's important to realize, though, that freedom from sin is not the freedom to do whatever we please (Romans 6:16,22): “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ...But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” In this life, we really only have two choices: (1) Be slaves of satan and his desire for us to sin—which further separates us from God—or (2) be slaves of God and and His desire for us to be obedient to His life-giving commands. Whom would you rather your master be—someone who wants to harm you (satan) or someone who has your best interest at heart (Romans 8:28) and loves you so much that He suffered greatly in order to redeem you from the grave (God)?

Judgment: The Reason for Jesus' Return

John 5:22 says that God the Father “has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” In 1 Corinthians 4:5 we find Christ's second coming associated with judgment: “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” Therefore, with Christ's return comes judgment.

ccc God's Judgment is not something we like to talk about. It is not something we like to think about. But with guilt comes judgment. We are on trial for our sins against God and the verdict has just come in—we are guilty. I think most of us would agree that laws are good. They bring order from chaos. They set a standard for all to follow. When someone does us wrong, we are glad when justice is served. Why is it different for the law of God? Do we really consider ourselves innocent? God's judgment is what we deserve—each and every one of us. And this is God's judgment (John 3:16-18): “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” This passage says that we are no longer judged by our ability to follow God's law, but rather by our belief that Jesus—in our stead—has already faced the death penalty for us and has paid the price for our sins.

ccc What is a saving belief? This is a difficult question. From my own experience I know that we—as sinful human beings—have a tendency to try and take “belief” and make it into something safe and easy. We want to have the salvation without the suffering (Philippians 1:29) and selflessness (Matthew 16:24). It took me a while to grasp what God was telling me—through His word and Spirit—about being in relationship with Him, but this is the understanding that I have come to accept: We all have to start somewhere in our relationship with Christ, and I believe the saying that “Jesus meets us where we are...” The Holy Spirit creates faith in us, and God meets us where we are... But then He takes us to a place we could never go on our own (Matthew 19:26, Philippians 4:13). When God calls us into a faith relationship with Him, He calls us to holiness (1 Peter 1:16). He calls us to die to sin (Romans 6:11) and become slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18). He calls us to a life lived for Him (2 Corinthians 5:15). There is no one in such a bad state of sin that Christ cannot reach that person (Romans 3:21-24)... But there is also no one so well off that they do not need Christ's help (Romans 3:23).

Living in light of Jesus' Return

One day Jesus will return—and with Him will come judgment and the completion of our long awaited salvation. If this is what we truly believe, it should affect the way we live our lives. 2 Peter 3:10-14 describes the coming of the Lord Jesus and His judgment as follows: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.”

ccc What kind of people should we be? How should we live our lives in light of the certainty of Jesus' return? Given that the entire New Testament deals with this question in one way or another, it is not possible to give a comprehensive answer. Instead I will attempt to touch on a few main points.

Purification & Sanctification: The Pursuit of Holiness

The first point is the one that is most clearly expressed in the passage from 2 Peter 3 above. These are the words that Peter uses to describe how we ought to be: holy, godly, spotless, blameless, and at peace with Jesus. In a sense, all these words are saying the same thing—be holy. I like the way John says it in his first epistle (1 John 3:2-3): “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Jesus] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he [Jesus] is pure.” This passage of Scripture is saying that the people on this earth who are truly looking forward to Christ's return will seek purification. To be sure, holiness and purification are closely related (1 Thessalonians 4:7): “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” True holiness is the end result of the process of purification (or “sanctification”). And this is how important our purity is to God (Ephesians 5:5): “For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”

ccc Consider the purification of a metal. The purity of a metal determines its value. Through the aid of fire, metals are refined in order to purify them. The refining or purification process involves the removal of the impurities or “dross”. As Proverbs 25:4 says, “Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith.” In the same way that the silversmith desires to remove the dross from the silver in order to make it more pure, God desires to remove the dross from our lives. This analogy is used several times throughout Scripture: Isaiah 1:22, 25: “Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water... I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” Ezekiel 22:18: “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver.” Zechariah 13:9: “This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'” Malachi 3:3: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness...” 1 Peter 1:7: “These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

ccc To seek purity means to seek the removal of our impurities, or dross. One obvious example of dross is sin. In the Bible, there are clear-cut examples of sin (Exodus 20:1-17: idolatry, murder, adultery, theft, etc). But really, anytime we fail to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—and to love our neighbor as ourselves—we break God's commands and are, therefore, guilty of sin (Luke 10:27). In this life we will sin. We are not perfect, but—with God's help—we strive for perfection. We strive for continued purification. This is how Paul described his own struggle with purification (Philippians 3:12-16): “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

ccc We know that we are going to mess up at times—that's inevitable. But when we do slip we need to repent (i.e., acknowledge our sin before God, ask for His forgiveness, and seek to do better in the future). The real problem is when we live in continual unrepentant sin. The Bible warns us not to do this when it tells us not to “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4). Our sins should grieve us because they grieve God and—if we do not repent of them—they will continue to separate us from Him.

ccc Besides the obvious sins, there are other things in our lives that are not inherently bad, but they can become bad if they are misused. Television is a good example. (Something I've struggled with in the past.) If I like watching TV so much that I don't have time for God, then it becomes a bad thing in my life. Therefore, dross is anything in our lives that distracts us from God—anything that prevents us from single-minded devotion to the Lord. It is the stuff that we ought to consider loss for the sake of Christ. This is how Paul puts it (Philippians 3:7-8): “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”

ccc Having said all of this, it's easy to become overwhelmed by our faults and failures. The devil wants to drive us to despair, but we must never forget the forgiveness and the mercy of God. If we really seek to purify ourselves, God promises that we won't have to do it alone (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24): “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify [purify] you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Watching & Waiting: Keeping an Eternal Focus

Luke 21:34-36 is a frightening passage: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Let's consider the meat of what this passage is saying.

ccc First of all, Jesus will return “at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:44). This means we should always be ready for His return. We should be waiting for His return. So the question is: What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for your schedule to free up before you commit to following Christ wholeheartedly or are you waiting for Christ's return with eager anticipation (Philippians 3:20-21) and longing (2 Timothy 4:8)? Another way of thinking about this question is as follows: Is your heart set on earthly or heavenly things? Are you focused on the temporal or the eternal? I'm sorry to say that most of my life thus far has been focused on myself and my earthly life, rather than on Christ and eternity. The passage stated above warns us not to get so caught up in our earthly lives that we neglect our relationship with God, which has eternal consequences. Therefore, as followers of Christ, we are called to readiness and watchfulness as we wait for His return.

ccc Secondly, having just talked—in the previous section—about our need for God's help in our purification, it is fitting that we should bring up the subject of prayer. In the passage above, we are commanded to pray that we would “escape all that is about to happen” and that we would “be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Are you ready to see Jesus, face to face in all of His glory, and to give an account of your behavior to Him? (See Romans 14:12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10.) I don't know about you, but when I think of having to do this, I cringe. I'm not sure if that's the right reaction or not, but it definitely motivates me to pray! In the book of John, Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples that He will give them whatever they ask for in His name (John 14:13-14, 15:7,16, 16:23-24). The conditions of Jesus' promise, however, are that His words remain in us, that we bear fruit as His disciples, and that our request be something that brings Him glory. If we ask for a free porsche, for example, we probably won't get it. But if we ask for things we know God wants us to have, then we can be certain we will receive them. Therefore, in view of eternity, we should pray that God would purify us and make us blameless so that we would be able to stand before Jesus when He returns.

Conclusion

There are many more things I could say regarding the ideal Christian lifestyle, but my purpose was not to be comprehensive. Wherever you are in your walk with God, I encourage you to “press on”—to forget what is behind and to strain toward what is ahead. Assess your priorities as you fix your eyes “on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). And as you strive to press on towards purification and a closer relationship with God, do not neglect to pray. To do so would be to forget that we are unable to purify ourselves, but are in desperate need of God's help. In the words of M. E. Andross, “If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together.” (I encourage you to read through some of the other prayer quotes.) Let me end with a verse of Scripture (1 John 2:28): “And now, dear children, continue in him [Jesus], so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”