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 63)
The Plan Behind the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – The Predetermined Plan
The Plan Personified
We began this book by surveying what the Bible had to say about the Second Coming. We did so with the specific purpose of measuring its scope – that is, seeking to gain a sense of the breadth and depth of what is included in the Second Coming. We learned that the scope of the event was enormous and that this was primarily because it was the conclusion of a comprehensive plan for the restoration of the universe after sin and death had infected it. This plan was developed by God even before the creation itself. In other words, God foresaw what would happen to His creation and therefore planned ahead of time how He was going to redeem it. It was a plan to inoculate His creation against evil.
In the previous section of this chapter, we summarized the plan. In this section, we’re going to personalize it. To be more precise, we don’t have to personalize it; we just have to recognize how deeply personal it has always been – from the beginning of its formulation, to the last step of its execution.
“The Second Coming” is, of course, the shortened form of “The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.” In that understanding is the personalization of all that falls under the subject of “The Second Coming” or “the coming of the kingdom of God.” But it wasn’t just the Second Coming or the coming of the kingdom of God that was personally about Jesus Christ – rather, the entire plan was about Him. Let me justify that element by element.
The “Revelation” element was about the revealing of God through Jesus Christ. As the apostle John wrote:
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
And Jesus Himself said:
John 14:9 …“…He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
The “Restoration” element was also through Jesus Christ – all three sub-elements of it. That is…
- Our “relationship” with God is restored through Jesus Christ:
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
- Our “residence” is restored through Jesus Christ:
Ephesians 1:8 …In all wisdom and insight
Ephesians 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
Ephesians 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth…
- And the “rationale” for both our relationship and residence is restored through Jesus Christ:
Hebrews 13:20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
Hebrews 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
(I’ll resume with “Recordation” through Christ tomorrow.)
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