Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Implications of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 45)
The Scope of the Second Coming
Chapter 3 – Themes of the Second Coming
The Resurrection
No theme of the Second Coming of Christ could be more personally relevant to a human being than the theme of resurrection. Death has always been humanity’s greatest obstacle. In Old Testament times, the hope of life after death was already present. Here’s the prophet Isaiah (8th century BC) expressing that hope.
Isaiah 26:19 Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
The prophet Daniel (6th century BC) stoked that hope while also speaking in metaphorical fashion.
Daniel 12:2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
(Everyone goes to heaven but not everyone has a good reputation there. Your name follows you.)
By the 1st century AD, pious Jews – especially the Pharisees – were full of hope about the resurrection. However, there were two important aspects of the resurrection about which they were ignorant until they encountered Jesus. First, Jews thought resurrection would be to earth, whereas Jesus taught that it would be to heaven. Second, they didn’t realize that Messiah would be raised from the dead before anyone else. Jesus demonstrated that it would be a two-step process: 1) Messiah first, and 2) everyone else at the end of the age, which was the coming of the kingdom of God.
Even in the old heavens and earth, Jesus was able to rise to heaven because He had come from there. For the rest of us, however, we couldn’t claim to be going home like He was. Rather, it took a whole new heavens and earth for us to be able to join Him. We must never forget that if the Second Coming did not occur when Jesus said it would, there is no way we’d going to heaven because Sheol/Hades is still below and therefore, it’s still our destination at death. I’ll explain more about this when we get to “Implication: His Kingdom Has Come.”
Adoption
One of the lesser known themes of the Second Coming is adoption – specifically, the adoption of sons. It is nonetheless an important matter, being integral to God’s overall purpose for the human race. He wants to be the Father of all, and the Second Coming is the means He used to accomplish that purpose. Paul knew that God’s adoption of humanity was an element of the Second Coming. Notice in this passage how he shows the connection between our adoption and the new creation that was coming:
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
Romans 8:23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
Notice also how he shows in another letter how this adoption had been God’s plan from the very beginning.
Ephesians 1:4 …He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
Everyone goes to heaven because resurrection is rooted in Jesus – not in our individual decisions about Him. In the New Testament age, Jesus adopted the willing; but when the kingdom of God arrived, He adopted the entire human race. Remember? That’s when He inherited the nations. About this theme, too, I’ll explain more in “Implication: His Kingdom Has Come.”
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