He comes...

As I mentioned in Bible Class this past Sunday, Jami and I have been using a devotion book compiled from the writings of Bo Giertz, a Swedish pastor and Bishop of the Lutheran diocese of Gothenburg, Sweden in the twentieth century. Having just moved from the end of one church year into the beginning of the next, the texts and his devotions on them were almost without exception about the end times and the return of Christ Jesus.

It was beneficial to be reminded that God is delaying this return in order to give us time to reach the people around us with the news of their salvation through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It was also a bit jarring to be reminded of the struggles which are to come as that Last Day approaches (texts from 1 Peter and Revelation, especially).

Let me share something from Donald T. Williams (“Right to the End” Touchstone Magazine, Nov./Dec., 2023) about these very things:

In his first epistle, Peter is writing to encourage people facing the Neronian persecution. He tells them that they are “protected by the power of God”—from what? From being fed to the lions? No, they are being kept “for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5). Peter gives no promise that God will protect believers from suffering, sorrow, loss, or death. Rather, if they have to face these things, he wants them to be confident that it will be worth it because of the glory Christ will reveal in the last time.

Maybe we Christians and our churches would be more like those of the first century if, instead of promising people their “best life now,” we proclaimed a Christ worth living—and dying—for.

God bless your Advent observations as we rejoice in (a) the nativity of our Lord is His first coming, (b) the presence of Christ Jesus in Word and Sacrament assuring us of our forgiveness and His eternal love, and (c) the promise of His return in power and glory!