Jesus Is Coming
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.”
Today’s Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
We are still living in that age—the age “on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will return in this age. The world as we know it will come to an end in this age. Beyond this age will be the Millennial Kingdom, Christ’s one-thousand years of rule on this earth. And then, the new heaven and the new earth, and along with it, the lake of fire.
According to the biblical accounting, there are about four thousand years of human history before Christ (whether one believes in the accounting of years literally or figuratively). In about 2030 or so, it will be the two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. If indeed Jesus comes back after two thousand years, that would make it six thousand years of human history. Add the Millennial Kingdom, and we find ourselves with a nice round seven thousand years of human history. Pastor John Pokluda pointed that out.
Of course, that is no proof that Jesus is coming back around 2030. Only the Father knows. However, that possibility should make a person realize something that the Bible tries to emphasize to us earnestly—Jesus is coming, and He will come soon enough.
And so all the Scriptures were given to us in this age as warnings of what we ought not to do and exhortations of what we ought to do. It is our choice to believe those Scriptures and take heed or to not believe, in which case, we can do whatever we please, being blind to the devastation that awaits us.
The culmination of the ages is now. Jesus Himself said,
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”
— Luke 17:26-30
The point is not to give up living our lives because Jesus is coming back. The point is that we should live our lives to the full in Christ Jesus because Jesus is coming back.
What does that really look like for us? Jesus said,
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
— Matthew 6:33
And Jesus said,
“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “
— Matthew 22:37-39
And Jesus said,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
— Acts 1:8
Most Christians seem to understand church as an accessory to their lives. Jesus pleads with us to think differently.
Father, You are the Creator of heaven and earth and even time. All things are in Your hands. Lord, I long for Jesus to return. And if I long for Him to return, help me also to prioritize and order my life accordingly. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
