Devotions

The second coming of Christ was first prophesied by the patriarch Enoch: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” The message of Scripture can be summed up in three great statements concerning Christ’s coming. From Genesis to Malachi the theme was “He is coming.” This was the testimony of the prophets throughout the Old Testament as they spoke of the coming of their Lord and Messiah. The four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, join together to proclaim the joyful message of His incarnation, that “He has come.” “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” is how John puts it. How amazing this is, that the Creator of the universe should be born among cattle, grow up among Nazarenes, and die between thieves, for our salvation. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18). The Bible not only teaches “He is coming” in the Old Testament and “He has come” in the Gospels. It also announces, “He is coming again.”

As all the prophecies relating to His first coming were literally fulfilled, so will all those relating to His second coming. With confidence, therefore, we look for the personal, physical return of Christ in glory. It has been calculated that there are no less than 317 references to the second coming of Christ in the New Testament. Listen to the Saviour as He speaks to the troubled hearts of His disciples in the upper room (John 14:1-3). Hear the voice of the angels as they witness to the coming of Christ (Acts 1:11).

The Lord Jesus provides the last testimony in one final announcement in the closing chapter of the Bible. He says, “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20). His coming, therefore, is as certain as “seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.” It is as sure as the truth that God reigns upon His throne.