One day everything is going to change. The things that we
think of as being unchangeable are going to crash. The sun, the moon, and the
stars are going to go wobbly. The seas will rage and foam. The earth itself
will become unstable with earthquakes because it will knocked off its
foundation. These are all things that have been worshipped by ancient man because
they truly are impressive. There is something of the almighty Creator that is
reflected in them. Modern man also is going to be surprised with the failure of
our more modern gods. Business, finance, government, education, and all the
other systems that humanity has built up are all going to collapse on this day
when everything changes. Modern man thinks that things are going to go on like
they always have been, or that we will even only get better as the years fly
by. But one day this will all come to an end.
The day that I’m talking about is the day when Jesus comes on
the clouds with great power and glory. All people will then be judged. Those
who have died will be resurrected. Those who are still living will be
transformed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
Those who are the children of God through the sonship that is given to them by
their baptism into Christ will be received into eternal glory. Those who remained
in their sins through unbelief, will remain in their sins eternally in hell. This
is the great climax that we are getting closer to with every day that passes.
It doesn’t matter if this is something that people want to happen or don’t want
to happen. It is going to happen regardless, because God is going to make it so.
There is no other way. Ever since the fall into sin,
creation has been groaning under God’s curse of death and decay. Trouble has
afflicted both man and woman in every sphere of life—medically, economically,
psychologically, sociologically, and so on. But also at that same time, when
God cursed the serpent, he promised to send the Messiah who would set Adam and
Eve free, once and for all, from sin and its wages of death. This is the story
of our existence. There are many other stories that try to compete with this
one true story. These other stories try to explain the meaning of life in any
number of different ways. But they are all half-truths at best, and therefore are lies. But they are lies that people have
loved to believe in, preferring them to the truth.
And so this is another way of summing up what is going to
happen on that day when everything changes: On that day people won’t be able to
believe in these other stories about the meaning of life anymore—these
half-truths at best, these lies. Up until that point people could believe or
disbelieve because it has not yet come to pass. But when that time comes, “at
the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow—those in heaven, those on earth, and
those under the earth; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.”
This future event doesn’t get talked about all that much,
even within the Christian Church, and this is not without reason. It is pretty
much the opposite of something that draws everybody together. Some think it is
a fairy tale. Some think it is an outdated, religious artifact. Some just don’t
want to think about it at all so that they can continue on with their life the
way that they have worry-free. Even believers find it a little scary, because
even if they are sure of their redemption and salvation in Jesus, the
unusualness of the sights and sounds take us out of our comfort zone. For these
reasons (and it wouldn’t be hard to come up with some more), the Bible’s
teaching about the great and magnificent day of the Lord that is so quickly
approaching us is either shunted off to the side or even deliberately ignored
altogether.
But we should not do that. It is understandable that
unbelievers would want to ignore this future event since it won’t go well for
them. But believers should not ignore it. When believers ignore the second
coming of Jesus they are ignoring their own fast-approaching final salvation.
If there has ever been a day that we have looked forward to, then we should
look forward to this day more. There are a lot of good days that we look
forward to in this life. We look forward to weddings and trips and parties and
the birth of children and grandchildren. But these very best of things are
nothing compared to the glory of the revealing of the sons and daughters of God
who have received their sonship by their baptism into the Son of God.
There is nothing compared to the greatness of that day when
everything else that people have worshipped instead of God is put down and
Jesus comes in great power and glory. That is when things will finally be set
right once and for all. Sin will be purged out of our bodies. The devil, the
demons, evil people, and whatever else is evil will be locked up forever in
hell—never able to break into God’s good creation ever again. The love of God
will pour down on his people like a warm spring sun making us lively and
limber. We will no longer have a thought of selfishness or bitterness or anger
or jealousy. The process of our hearts being healed that is begun in this life
will be finished by the power of the Holy Spirit. We will be merciful as our
heavenly Father is merciful. The curses of death and decay, disease and
trouble, and whatever else mars our happiness in this life will be finished.
Life will finally be the way that it should have been if all mankind had not
fallen in Adam’s fall and this one common sin infected us all.
And so if we have ever experienced exuberance and
exhilaration, if we have ever been joyful to the point of tears, if we have
ever had our heart pound with excitement, then realize that these are all
inadequate—merely shadows—compared to the greatness of that coming day.
It is only when a person understands the greatness of that
day that St. Paul’s words to us in our Epistle reading this morning can be
understood. He says, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present age are
not worthy to be compared to the glory that is about to be revealed in us.”
When St. Paul says this, he is really saying something, because he was no
slouch at suffering. There wasn’t hardly a single aspect of his life that was
not tarnished by suffering. Physically he had many troubles. He almost died
many times. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, and shipwrecked. Emotionally he was
disappointed by those he loved and trusted. He was denounced as a false
teacher. Mentally he bore up under tremendous strain—unable to sleep, unable to
be at peace. He also had that mysterious thorn in the flesh, a messenger from
Satan, that he pleaded with the Lord to remove from him. So it was not as though
St. Paul was sitting in an air-conditioned office somewhere, pleasantly passing
the time. He was wracked with more pain than any of us ever have been. In fact,
when Jesus calls him to be an apostle, he says that St. Paul is going to suffer
greatly. But what he is saying in our reading today is that the glory of fully
entering into the sonship that has been given to us is so great, that all these
other things are merely slight momentary afflictions.
He goes on to say that the whole creation is straining its
neck and standing on its tippy toes, looking for this glory that is about to be
revealed. The whole creation was affected by the fall into sin, and so it has
been groaning and lamenting under the slavery of death and decay that has been
placed upon it against its will. That is why it is so excited for this coming
Day when everything changes. Unbelievers spend a great deal of time trying to
talk themselves and others out of understanding the terribly plight that we
have fallen into as sinners. They try to make lemonade out of the lemons. They
try to undo the terribleness of death. They philosophize and philosophize,
trying to find enough goodness to outweigh the evil that touches each one of
our lives in many different ways. But all of this does no good. The best that
it can do is to make us insensitive to God and his Word. It’s like anesthesia.
It puts us to sleep.
According to St. Paul’s words, though, the creation is far,
far from being asleep. It is craning its neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the
new heavens and the new earth that has been prepared for those who love God.
Another image that St. Paul uses is being in childbirth. How many of you
mothers were asleep when you were giving birth? It’s hard to imagine anything
further from being asleep than giving birth. And this is a very apt analogy.
Giving birth is not the pleasantest way to spend one’s time. In fact, this was
part of the curse that was pronounced on women in the Garden of Eden. There is
groaning and bitterness and even a good deal of fear. And yet, as Jesus says,
once the child is born the mother forgets all of that anguish because of the
joy that a new human being has been born. There isn’t a single one of you
mothers who wouldn’t gladly go through labor again so that you could enjoy your
beloved child.
And so this is the posture that we as Christians are to have
towards our future. It is at the same time realistic and hopeful. It is
realistic in the way that it honestly assesses the evil, curses, and pains of
this present age. It is hopeful in the way that we understand that all of these
things are going to pass sooner or later. Then we will enter into the fullness
of our new life in heaven.
This is different from the unbeliever. The unbeliever does
not know of the new life that is given to them in Jesus as a gift. That means
that this life is everything. If this life is everything, then you had better
make sure that it is as good as you can possibly make it for yourself. This is
why people stab each other in the back, and step on them and push them down on
their way to the top. This is why people won’t love and sacrifice for the good
of anyone else except themselves and a few of the others in their itty-bitty
circle. And what if, after all of this, there is still disease or misfortune or
impending death? They can’t afford to say anything truthful. They escape into
dreams and fantasies like, “The sun will come out tomorrow,” or “Follow every
rainbow, until you find your dream.” A lot of people are comforted by these
empty phrases, but that comfort is a false comfort. These words have absolutely
no power to save, nor are they even true. They are half-true at best, and
therefore lies.
St. Paul doesn’t lie. In fact, he speaks a lot about true
things that other find amazing. For example, he boasts of his weaknesses and
failures. He doesn’t shy away from those things that he has been unable to
overcome by sheer will-power and gumption. In the chapter of Romans just prior
to our reading today he speaks about the way that he can’t keep God’s commandments.
He says that the things that he wants to do are the things that he doesn’t do,
and the things that he doesn’t want to do—those are the very things that he
ends up doing. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” he asks!
That is not a happy shout for joy, nor is it pleasant dinner conversation. But
anyone who has ever tried to stop sinning, will know the truthfulness of what
he says there.
But he can afford to be truthful about his own weakness,
failure, and sin, because he has a good and powerful Friend. Immediately after
he asks who will deliver him from this body of death he says, “Thanks be to
God who delivers me through the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is his strong Friend.
And so he speaks the truth on all accounts. He speaks of his inability and
lostness. That’s true. He speaks of the one, true, merciful God who promises
forgiveness, life, and salvation to us. That’s true too. One day God will bring
us into the fullness of this salvation and the glory of it will be beyond our
wildest dreams. The Scriptures say, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it
entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for
those who love him.”
As Christians it is all-important that we inculcate and
thoroughly digest what is true. Our Epistle reading today gives us the true way
that we should live our lives. We should not lie or deny or explain away our
sufferings. Instead we should understand them as birthpangs for the life that
is to come. This is how we can understand every misfortune that happens to us.
All these things teach us that this life is transitory. We are but strangers
here. Heaven is our home. And so we will not lose hope. What comes after the
birthpangs is the birth itself. The new life that we will have will make all
the sufferings of this present age seem as though they are slight momentary
afflictions. The weight of glory in the presence of God will be our joy. May
God hasten that day. Amen.
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