Christ’s Coming

But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21

Jude wrote these words of guidance to confirm his fellow Christians in the way of Jesus because some were corrupting and abandoning that way. Unfortunately, nothing really ever changes, and those who seek to be the church are always challenged to live their convictions well. Attempts to subvert the faith in order to align it with other human agendas, what Jude calls “ungodly lusts” (1:18), is a constant menace. We are all vulnerable to such temptation, because it is not really others corrupting the faith that I need to worry about, but my own propensity to do this. In the face of these realities, Jude reminds us to remain focused on the faith, to be constant in prayer, and to abide in God’s love.

This we do while looking forward to “the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ”, a phrase which alludes to Christ’s second coming. In fact, the spiritual disciplines that Jude advocates will hasten Christ’s coming, not in an end-of-history sense, but in an inner spiritual one. The coming of Christ happens from the inside out, rather than the outside in. 

If we think of Christ’s coming as strictly a future historical event, a yet-to-occur physical appearance, we are holding to its lesser meaning rather than the greater one. For sure, time as we know it, what was created by God as the framework for this universe, will reach a conclusion eventually, one which will culminate in the revelation of God the Son. But this single event, the final act of God’s creation, is much less important than Christ’s coming which begins inside us rather than outside us. Otherwise, we are waiting for a single day which may be millennia away, rather than welcoming each day as the day of his coming, a constant anticipation and “looking for” God’s Christ.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Matthew 24:42

Jesus constantly discouraged speculation about his coming in historical terms, with regards to a specific day or time. His “external” return was of no practical value to his disciples, but the disposition of being alert, watchful, and always conscious of his appearing is of immense importance. The coming of Christ in our imagination, the way we think of our life in this world as that we are constantly on the verge of a new age, the consummation of all things in heaven and earth in the Son, is the “inside” coming of hope that frees us from the imperfect present.