Business as Usual

Business As Usual?

"Finally! I'm through with college! I have a great job prospect with a promising company. With the money I'll make, I can move from my apartment into a house in no time."

"The kids are doing great in school. The house is almost paid for. My career is just starting to take off. The family is comfortable and content."

"I'm settled into a retirement I've worked a lifetime to achieve. My husband and I are able to travel and do the things we've waited years to do."

Cruise control. That's what life seems to be on most of the time. We set goals, achieve them, and go along at a steady pace. Sure we have our ups and downs, but all in all, life is pretty much business as usual.

Or is it?

Bad to Worse

Beyond our personal lives lies a broader, disturbing picture: America ranks among the world's highest in divorce rates, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, murder, crime, AIDS, and the habit of taking others to court. Forty years ago, the big discipline problems of our school-aged children were talking, chewing gum, making noises, and running in the hall. Today the problems are vandalism, drug abuse, robbery, assault with deadly weapons, rape, and murder of fellow students and teachers.

Each evening, the news beams a consistent message: Life is not business as usual.

This upheaval in society was predicted almost 2,000 years ago as a prelude to the end of the world. The Bible talks about a time when people will be "lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

This increasing downslide has one purpose: the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Return and Resurrection

When He lived on this earth, Jesus promised to return:

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2, 3, NASB).

Jesus also promised a resurrection of the dead at the time of His return:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. . . . Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment" (John 5:25, 28, 29, NASB).

Prophecies of Christ's Return

Writing of salvation, Peter, a biblical writer, told of the Bible prophets' study in determining to what time in history their prophecies of the suffering Messiah applied (1 Peter 1:1012). They discovered that the fulfillment would not come in their time, but in the future.

Peter explained that a significant part of those prophecies came to pass during his generation: the Messiah's suffering, death, and resurrection, which provided the salvation the prophets earnestly studied.

The Messiah's return, the final most significant prophecy, has yet to be fulfilled. Now we await the final revelation of Jesus Christ.

Through faith [we] are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:5-7).

Be Ready

How then can we be ready for the Second Coming when we don't know when it will happen? By watching signs? No, for that implies an attempt to put off preparation till the last minute. We can be ready by being alert - maintaining constant readiness for His coming by faith in Christ, obedience to His teachings, and godly living.

Jesus likened our readiness for His return to a faithful and wise servant whose master put him in charge of the other servants, "to give them their food at the proper time" (Matthew 24:45). Jesus said, "It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions" (v. 47).

Jesus also told a story about ten virgins who expected to attend a wedding feast (25:113). When the bridegroom arrived, five of them were welcomed to the feast because they were ready to meet the bridegroom, but five were turned away because they were not ready. They had not taken any oil with them to keep their lamps lit (vv. 3, 11, 12).

Jesus' conclusion to this story: "Therefore keep watching, because you do not know the day or the hour" (v. 13).

Be Prepared

Admission to the kingdom, which Jesus compared to a wedding banquet, depends on being prepared. In the story, preparation was not only having a lamp with oil, but also having lamp and oil ready at the time the bridegroom came. Notice those who were not ready were not allowed in even after they purchased oil (vv. 10, 11).

The five unprepared virgins were negligent; they had let their time of preparation pass. This is the reason Paul, another biblical writer, appeals to us, "We urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. . . . I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:1, 2). In other words, we must not delay in accepting the grace of God, which leads to eternal life.

In today's culture, admission to fine restaurants and private clubs requires ties and jackets for men and dresses for ladies. Likewise, the wedding banquet in the coming kingdom requires certain dress: "Fine linen, bright and clean. . . . (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)" (Revelation 19:8). Godly character forms the attire worn by those who enter Jesus' kingdom.

Jesus described those who don't "dress" properly for the wedding banquet: "When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless" (Matthew 22:11, 12).

As a result, the man was cast out of the wedding banquet (v. 13) and was not given additional time to prepare himself after the banquet began.

"What's in It for Me?"

How will being prepared for the Second Coming affect you personally?

The Bible states that the "dead in Christ" (Christians asleep in their graves) will rise from the dead at Jesus' return, and those "alive and in Christ" also will be changed at His coming.

This change will rob death of its sting:

The mortal (what is subject to death) will become immortal.
The perishable (what is subject to decay) will become imperishable. This encourages us that death will be "swallowed up in victory" (see 1 Corinthians 15:5158).

All your lumps and bumps, all your imperfections will be replaced with eternal perfection. The best has yet to be revealed!

Tent Dwellers

In one of his writings, Paul wrote of the hard knocks he had experienced and clearly expressed the difference between our present life and eternal life. Our present life, he said, is like a tent. As long as we live in it, we will long to live in our heavenly dwelling (eternal life, 2 Corinthians 5:13). When Jesus returns, this temporary life will be replaced by eternal life:

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (vv. 4, 5).

Life pulls at you. Life may wear you down. As if hearing our frustration, Paul wrote these words in Romans 8:18: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

Colossians 3:4 summarizes what is in it for you: "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

Ready or Not . . .

Are you locked in a routine of "business as usual"? If so, the return of Christ will catch you off guard. The prophets said He is coming. He promised to return. The dead are waiting for the resurrection.

Who are the ones who will enter the New Jerusalem one day? Jesus identifies them as those "who . . . have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). Simply put, they believed Jesus died for their sins. They accepted Him as Lord, and He replaced their filthy rags (sinful life) with clean clothes (new life), garments fit to be worn in the presence of Christ our King.

The result of being alert and ready for Jesus' return is having your death sentence reversed and your life restored. Don't doubt. Believe it and live!

A version of this article appeared in the July/August '95 issue of the Bible Advocate magazine. For a free subscription, contact us at BibleAdvocate@cog7.org. Scripture quotations were taken from the New International Version, except where otherwise noted.

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