“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
Hebrews 10:36-39 (NASB)
Christ is returning to take His children home and to judge the world in righteousness. No man knows the day or the hour when that will take place (Mt 24:36) but we have His promise that it will. When Christ returns He will find two kinds of people: those who live by faith and those who live by the flesh. Those who live by faith are His. Their living by faith is evidence of their regeneration. They have been born again (John 3). There will also be those who appeared to follow Christ at one time but later abandoned the faith. The Bible tells us that those people were never actually in Christ. They were never saved (1 Jn. 2:19). For those who do not trust in the savior, the promise of Christ’s return should be a terrifying thought. For those who have repented and believed on Him and are giving evidence of that in living by faith, the promise of His return is a wonderful and joyous reminder of God’s faithfulness to His children.
Questions for application…
How should the imminent return of Christ cause us to live?
What does 1 John 2:19 tells us about those who abandon the faith?
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