The Amazing Resurrection of the Dead预览

How should we be ready?

Why doesn’t the Bible give more precise details about the Day of the Lord, such as when it will happen? Well, if we knew that, there’d probably be thousands of mass conversions the day before! As it is, we need to be ready every day, just in case it will be the Day.

So John the apostle warns us, ‘And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming (1 John 2:28). How dreadful—literally ‘dread-full’—to be unprepared.

What if the trumpet sounds when we are engaged in some sinful or unworthy activity? What will we say on that Day if we are found in a compromising position or even worse, deliberate sin? What if we have not been faithful or holy?

Revelation describes the great ones of the earth crying out in panic for the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:15-17). What kind of terror must be in their hearts to act in such a way!

The term ‘holy’ literally means ‘set apart’ for God. That is why the Hebrew high priest wore a gold plate on his forehead bearing the words ‘Holy to the Lord’ (Exodus 28:36-37). His life was devoted to God’s service with little interaction with the world.

In Christ, we, too, are a royal priesthood, a holy people (1 Peter 2:9). We are called to holiness (Ephesians 1:4). We are to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15). We may be ‘in’ the world, but we are not to be ‘of’ the world (1 Corinthians 5:9-11).

We have no fellowship with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14). We must distinguish between the holy and the common (Leviticus 10:10; Ezekiel 44:23).

This is not to say that being unprepared will keep us out of God’s kingdom. Our redemption is in Christ, not in ourselves. But the Day of the Lord will expose every sin so seriously that some believers will be like a householder who escapes a house fire with nothing but the singed clothes on his back (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

All those who hope in Christ, says John the apostle, purify themselves as Christ is pure (1 John 3:3).

To go back again to 1 John 2:28, the simple solution is to abide in Christ. ‘Abide’ is a word not commonly used these days, but the concept is important. It means to remain, to stay, to continue, to dwell, to tarry, to linger. To linger longer in his presence, in prayer, in the Word, in fellowship, in service. Fundamentally and primarily, no matter what we are doing, to remain in Christ.

Like the branches of a vine, we simply abide in him (John 15:1-7). How much sweeter to do this, than to be a broken branch and to fall like twisted sticks, ashamed on the Day of his coming.

What next?

How does this apply to your life right now? What practical things can you do about it?

Read (aloud), record, repeat, and recall1 John 2:28.