Come, Lord Jesus E-Book

John Piper

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Bestselling Author John Piper Examines End-Times Theology and Scripture's Command to Love the Second Coming of Christ Many people are curious about the second coming of Christ—what it will be like, when it will happen, and what signs will come first. In his latest book, Come, Lord Jesus, John Piper addresses all these issues, but stresses that those who love the second coming of Christ will receive a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:6–8).  Piper examines key biblical texts around the second coming while encouraging readers toward a Spirit-awakened affection for Jesus's return. He also explores important questions such as, Could Jesus come at any moment, or must certain events happen first?; What does it mean to "Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour"?; and What should we be doing when he comes? With a special focus on the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and Peter, Come, Lord Jesus portrays not only the glory of the revealed Savior, but also the glorification of the resurrected saints.  - Essential, Christ-Exalting Eschatology: Piper guides Christians to examine whether they long for the appearing of Christ, and what this event will mean for Christians, non-Christians, and for Christ himself - Careful Exegesis: Piper pays close and precise attention to the words of Scripture, especially with a view to showing how Jesus and Paul were of one mind about the second coming  - Practical: The final 5 chapters are devoted to how Christians should live in this age between the first and second appearing of Christ - Written by Bestselling Author John Piper: Author of Don't Waste Your Life, Desiring God, and Providence 

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Come, Lord Jesus

Other books by John Piper

BattlingUnbelief

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

Coronavirus and Christ

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Desiring God

Does God Desire All to Be Saved?

Don’t Waste Your Life

Expository Exultation

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

Finally Alive

Five Points

Future Grace

God Is the Gospel

God’s Passion for His Glory

A Godward Heart

A Godward Life

Good News of Great Joy

A Hunger for God

Lessons from a Hospital Bed

Let the Nations Be Glad!

A Peculiar Glory

The Pleasures of God

Providence

Reading the Bible Supernaturally

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God (formerly A Sweet and Bitter Providence)

Spectacular Sins

Taste and See

Think

This Momentary Marriage

What Is Saving Faith?

What Jesus Demands from the World

When I Don’t Desire God

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

Come, Lord Jesus

Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ

John Piper

Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ

Copyright © 2023 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studios

First printing 2023

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-8495-4ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8498-5PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8496-1Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8497-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Piper, John, 1946– author.

Title: Come, Lord Jesus : meditations on the second coming of Christ / John Piper.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022011807 (print) | LCCN 2022011808 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433584954 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433584961 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433584978 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433584985 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Second Advent—Meditations.

Classification: LCC BT886.3 .P57 2023 (print) | LCC BT886.3 (ebook) | DDC 236/.9—dc23/eng/20220815

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022011807

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022011808

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-12-13 09:23:02 AM

To

George Eldon Ladd

the first to show me that

the whole New Testament

is eschatological

Contents

Part 1: Reasons to Love Christ’s Appearing

Prelude to Part 1: The Miracle We Seek: Love

1  All Who Have Loved His Appearing

2  How Can a Book Awaken Love for Christ’s Appearing?

3  The Glory of Christ as the Primary Reality of His Coming: The Heart of the Matter, Part 1

4  Experiencing the Glory of Christ with Joyful Amazement: The Heart of the Matter, Part 2

5  The Grace Being Brought to You at the Revelation of Christ

6  Will We Be Blameless at the Coming of Christ?

7  We Will Be Perfected Mind, Heart, and Body

8  Jesus Will Deliver Us from the Wrath of Jesus

9  In Flaming Fire, with Vengeance and Relief

10  Repaying Each for What He Has Done

11  Rejoicing in the Hope of Receiving Different Rewards

12  The Joy of Personal Fellowship with the Sovereign Servant

Part 2: The Time of His Appearing

Prelude to Part 2: The Time and the Love of Christ’s Appearing

13  Did Jesus Teach That He Would Return within One Generation?

14  What Does the New Testament Mean That Jesus Will Come Soon?

15  Is There an Any-Moment Rapture before the Second Coming?

16  Jesus and Paul: A Common Vision of Christ’s Coming

17  What Must Happen before the Lord’s Appearing?

Part 3: How Then Shall We Live?

Prelude to Part 3: Living between the Two Appearings of Christ

18  End-Time Alertness and Love for Christ’s Appearing

19  Patient, Joyful, Not Deceived, Not Alarmed

20  Coming Justice, Present Gentleness

21  Go to Work, Go to Church

22  End-Time Praying, for Yourself and the Mission

O Come, Lord Jesus, Come: A Hymn to Christ

General Index

Scripture Index

Desiring God Note on Resources

Part 1

Reasons to Love Christ’s Appearing

Prelude to Part 1

The Miracle We Seek: Love

The aim of this book is to help you love the second coming of Jesus Christ. The contents and title were inspired partly by the biblical prayers “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20), and “Our Lord, come!” (1 Cor. 16:22). But mainly the book was inspired by the heart affection beneath these prayers, which Paul expressed in 2 Timothy 4:8:

There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

A crown of righteousness is promised to those who love the second coming of Christ. We pray for his appearing, because we love his appearing. The prayer “Come, Lord Jesus” is rooted in something deeper: “I love your appearing!”

This book is about the reality that awakens such love and how that awakening happens. This love involves desiring, longing, and hoping. It is not an action of the body. It is a spiritual affection of the heart. By spiritual, I mean brought into being and formed by the Holy Spirit. It is not surprising that the Holy Spirit would bring into being the heart’s love for the coming of Christ, for the Spirit’s most essential work in the human heart is to glorify Jesus. Jesus says of the Spirit, “He will glorify me” (John 16:14).

Therefore, our Spirit-awakened love for the second coming is not a Christ-neglecting fascination with an event. It is a Christ-enthralled longing for his presence and glory. It is an extension of our love for Christ—the kind of love Jesus was seeking in Matthew 10:37: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Any love for the second coming that is not an extension of this supreme affection for Jesus himself is not the Christ-exalting work of the Holy Spirit. It is not the love to which Paul promised a crown. It is not what I am aiming at.

Therefore, this book aims at a miracle that the book alone cannot achieve—namely, Spirit-created affections. But that aim is no different from all Christian teaching and preaching and counseling and serving, which seek to build faith in Jesus, and rescue people from divine judgment, and stir up Christ-exalting righteousness. All such faith and rescue and righteousness are works of the Spirit of God (Rom. 5:9; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; 2 Thess. 1:11). Human means—like books—are not decisive. God is.

But human means are divinely appointed. When God intends to open the eyes of the spiritually blind to see the glory of Christ and his coming, he sends a human messenger and says, “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light” (Acts 26:17–18). That’s how God awakens love for the second coming. He opens the eyes of the blind to see the greatness, the glory, and the worth of Christ’s coming. He does it through the biblical truth about Christ’s coming and through human teachers who point to that truth. That’s what I aim to do in this book.

1

All Who Have Loved His Appearing

Let’s make sure that the biblical text where this book takes its stand can bear the weight:

I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:6–8)

Does the appearing referred to in verse 8 actually refer to the second coming of Christ, or does it refer to his first coming, his incarnation? Considered by itself, the word appearing (ἐπιφάνεια) can refer to his first coming. Of the five other uses of this word by the apostle Paul, four refer to the second coming (2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 2:13). But one refers to the first coming:

[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing [ἐπιφανείας] of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Tim. 1:9–10)

So there is nothing in the word appearing itself that demands a reference to the second coming. But four observations incline me to think that in 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul means “all who have loved his [second] appearing.”

First, the nearest use of the word, seven verses earlier, refers to the second coming: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:1–2).

Second, in verse 10 Paul contrasts those who “have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8) with Demas, who “deserted me, having loved the present age” (my translation). Calling attention to Demas’s love for “the present age” contrasts him with those who love the second coming of Christ, because the second coming brings the “end of the age” (Matt. 13:40; 24:3; 28:20). The second coming brings to an end the very thing Demas has come to love most. Those who love the second coming, however, prefer the arrival of Christ over all that this present fallen age can give.

Third, Paul’s reference to his being rewarded on “that day” (2 Tim. 4:8) creates the expectation that what follows will relate to “that day”—namely, the day of Christ’s second coming. (For Paul’s use of “that day” as a reference to Christ’s second coming, see 1 Thess. 5:4; 2 Thess. 1:10; 2:3; 2 Tim. 1:12, 18.) In this flow of thought, it would be strange for Paul to revert to the first appearing of Christ.

The fourth observation that inclines me to take 2 Timothy 4:8 as a reference to the second appearing of Christ, rather than the first, is that Paul sees the first appearing as precisely designed to fit us for the second. Notice how he argues in Titus 2:11–13:

The grace of God has appeared [ἐπεφάνη, the verb form of the Greek noun behind the word appearing], bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [eagerly1] waiting [προσδεχόμενοι] for our blessed hope, the appearing [ἐπιφάνειαν] of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Boiling it down, Paul says that the grace of God appeared the first time to bring into being a people who would eagerly wait for Christ’s second appearing with uprightness and godliness. In other words, the first appearing prepares us for the second. We have much to love about the first appearing of Christ. But as great as it was, climaxing in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, it was all designed to bring into being a people and a new reality that would find climactic expression at the second coming.

So I think Paul would say that the test of our proper affection for the first coming of Christ is the measure of our affection for the second. Or to say it another way, the test of our love for the Christ who has appeared is our longing for the Christ who will appear. Therefore, I believe I am building on a good foundation when I say that the aim of this book is to help people love the second coming of Christ. To such people, Christ, the righteous judge, will award the crown of righteousness.

Why a Crown for Loving His Appearing?

Why does Paul connect the crown of righteousness with love for Christ’s appearing? Why does he say, “The righteous judge, will award [the crown of righteousness] . . . to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8)? Why not say that the Lord will give a crown “to all who have finished their race,” or “to all who have fought the good fight,” or “to all who have kept the faith”? That is what Paul seems to be leading up to when he says in 2 Timothy 4:7–8:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who . . .

It certainly sounds as if Paul is going to say, “Not only do I get a wreath for fighting the good fight, but so does everyone else who . . . fights the good fight.” “Not only am I awarded a wreath for finishing the race, but so is everyone else who . . . finishes the race.” “Not only will the judge give me a crown for keeping the faith, but he will give that crown also to all who . . . keep the faith.” That’s what we expect. But that is not what Paul says.

He says in effect, “Just as I will receive a crown for the fight fought, and the racefinished, and the faith kept, so also will everyone else who . . . has loved the Lord’s appearing.” Why? Why does Paul replace “fighting the fight” and “finishing the race” and “keeping the faith” with “loving the Lord’s appearing”?

My suggestion is that welling up in Paul’s mind, as he thinks about his fight and race and faith, is his own decades-long desire for the Lord’s appearing that exerted such a keeping power in his life. In other words, as he thought back over the battles he had fought, and the endurance demanded by the marathon of his life, and the temptations to forsake his faith for the pleasures of the world, what rose in his consciousness was the sustaining power of the preciousness of what he saw coming at the Lord’s appearing. He loved it. And that love kept him.

Why Demas Did Not Finish

Two contextual clues show us that Paul was thinking this way. One is the link we have already seen between 2 Timothy 4:8 and what follows about Demas in verse 10:

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas deserted me, having loved the present age, and went to Thessalonica. (2 Tim. 4:8–10, my translation)

Demas did not fight on. He did not finish his race. He did not keep the faith. He is the opposite of what Paul is urging Timothy, and us, to be. He says to Timothy, “Endure suffering [fight!] . . . fulfill your ministry [finish!]” (2 Tim. 4:5). Don’t stop fighting and running. Paul gives himself as a model for Timothy to follow and Demas as a model not to follow. But the language he chooses to describe Demas’s faith is love language, not the language of fighting or running or keeping. Demas quit fighting and quit running and quit keeping, because he “loved the present age.” He did not love the Lord’s appearing.

So in the example of Demas, Paul makes explicit what is in his mind in verses 6–8, namely, the connection between what we love and whether we endure. He makes plain that promising the crown of righteousness to those who have loved the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8) is in perfect harmony with the promise that he would receive that same crown for his good fight and finished race and kept faith. They are in harmony because loving the Lord’s appearing was essential for his lifelong endurance. It was the root of that fruit.

Why the Itchers Did Not Finish the Race

Another contextual clue shows that Paul sees loving the Lord’s appearing as essential to fighting the good fight and finishing the race and keeping the faith. It is found in the preceding verses:

The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim. 4:3–4)

Here Paul prepares us for what he will say about Demas. The issue is that professing Christians will “turn away” from the truth. (Demas had seemed to be Paul’s faithful partner, Col. 4:14.) They will “wander off.” But why? The reason Paul mentions is not intellectual struggles or relational conflicts or sincere doubts. What he mentions is “itching ears” for teaching that will “suit their own passions.”

The word passions is simply the common word for desires (ἐπιθυμίας). It is the language of love. It is similar to 2 Timothy 4:8 (“have loved the Lord’s appearing”) and verse 10 (“having loved the present age”). The reason they “turn away” and “wander off” is that they love (crave, long for, desire) the wrong things. They quit fighting the fight. They stop running the race. They cease keeping the faith. Because, like Demas, they love this age. They do not love the Lord’s appearing.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Paul says his crown will be awarded because of a well-fought fight and a well-run race and persevering faith, while their crown will be awarded because they have loved the Lord’s appearing. These are not separate standards for awarding crowns. They are the same standard. In one, Paul focuses on the inner spiritual affection of love for the Lord and his coming. And in the other, Paul focuses on the resulting fight for perseverance.

How Important Is It to Love the Second Coming?

This relationship between loving and fighting is so important for us to see because it shows how crucial it is that we love the Lord’s second coming. This love is not marginal. It is not optional. It is a means by which Christians are kept from falling away. It is a condition of the Christian heart that protects us from the destructive Demas-like love for this age. It is a thrilling glimpse of the prize at the end of life’s marathon that keeps us running (Phil. 3:14). Loving the Lord’s coming is an extension into the future of loving the Lord now. And loving the Lord now is essential to being a Christian.

The closest New Testament parallel to 2 Timothy 4:8 is James 1:12:

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

2 Timothy 4:7–8

steadfast under trial

fought the good fight, finished the race

the crown of life

the crown of righteousness

those who love him

those who loved his appearing

Two key differences in wording confirm how much is at stake in loving the Lord’s appearing. James speaks of loving the Lord himself where Paul speaks of loving the Lord’s appearing. And James promises a crown of life where Paul promises a crown of righteousness. These are not contrary pictures. Both teach that what is at stake in loving the Lord and his appearing is final salvation. The “crown of life” signifies the final inheritance of eternal life (cf. Titus 3:7); and the “crown of righteousness” signifies that this eternal life is the inheritance of those whose saving faith was confirmed by the fruit of righteousness.2

Therefore, loving the Lord Jesus, and its extension in loving his coming, is an essential mark of a true Christian. Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!” (16:22, my translation). In other words, no one is a Christian—no one is saved—who does not love the Lord Jesus. And it is striking that just as Paul links loving the Lord with the Lord’s coming in 2 Timothy 4:8, so here he links notloving the Lord with the Lord’s coming: “Let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!” In other words, just as the crown of righteousness is awarded to the lovers of Christ at the day of his coming, so will the curse be pronounced on the nonlovers of Christ at the day of his coming.

Place of Grace

Someone might stumble over the fact that the very next verse in 1 Corinthians 16 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you” (16:23). One might ask, “How can Paul make love for Christ essential for escaping God’s curse, and then declare that grace is the way Christ relates to his people?”

The answer has two parts. First, grace is the divine power that gave us spiritual life in the first place so that our hearts were able to love Christ (Eph. 2:5). “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14). Second, the ongoing blessings of grace flow to us in the channels of love for Christ that grace itself has created. This is why Paul says in Ephesians 6:24, “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” Loving Christ (and thus his coming) is the channel through which more grace flows to us. This is also why both James and Peter say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). The point is that even though grace is what created the humility in the first place, it is to the humble that God gives “more grace” (James 4:6). When the apostles speak of God’s grace flowing to those who love Christ (Eph. 6:24), and grace flowing to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5), they are not describing different hearts—one humble and one loving. There is one Christian heart. It has been brought low in humility, and it loves Christ and his coming.

Therefore, when Paul says that the person who does notlove the Lord will be cursed at his coming, and the person who loves the Lord will receive a crown of righteousness at his coming, he is not undermining or contradicting the decisive role of sovereign grace. God’s grace is the mighty plan and power that, before the creation of the universe, had guaranteed the salvation of God’s people. “[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Tim. 1:9). The grace that gave us life and revealed to us the infinitely precious glory of Christ—in his person and in his coming—was given to us before the universe was created.

Love for the Second Coming Is Essential

The point we are stressing is that love for Jesus and, by extension, love for his coming, are essential to being a Christian. Jesus himself taught this truth more than once. He said to the Jewish leaders, who claimed to know God but rejected Jesus, “If God were your Father, you would love me” (John 8:42). In other words, if you don’t love me, you don’t have God as your Father. And as we have seen before, Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). What that verse makes clear is that loving Jesus cannot be reduced to doing external things that he commands. That is not what love for father and mother and son and daughter means. This love is what we have called an affection of the heart, not a set of deeds done by the body. And in the case of love for Jesus and his coming, it is a spiritual affection—a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Without this love, God is not our Father, and Jesus is not our Savior.

Means to a Miracle

Perhaps it is obvious, therefore, why I am pursuing a deeper, more authentic, more unshakable love for Christ’s coming, and would like to bring you with me. The aim is that we experience a Christ-enthralled longing for his presence and glorification. Only a divine act in our hearts can bring that about. So the question we turn to now is, How can a natural act, like writing or reading a book, be a means to that miraculous end?

1  This Greek verb, προσδέχομαι, in most of its uses carries the connotation of waiting with eagerness, or gladly welcoming, Mark 15:43; Luke 2:25, 38; 23:51; Rom. 16:2; Phil. 2:29; Heb. 10:34; Jude 21.

2  The term “crown of righteousness” could possibly represent the final act by which God declares us to be justified. But I have taken it to mean an award for a life whose justifying faith was confirmed with the fruit of righteousness. I do this for two reasons. One is that Paul’s use of the term “righteous judge” in 2 Tim. 4:8 is not based on a courtroom scene (suggesting justification) but on an athletic scene where the judge is rightly deciding if the athletes fought and ran by the rules. “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Tim. 2:5). The other reason is that awarding Christians a crown for a life marked by the fruit of righteousness is what Paul, and the rest of the New Testament authors, taught. Such teaching simply acknowledges that “faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26), and we are saved “through sanctification” (2 Thess. 2:13), and there is a “holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14), and “whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:10). This is not perfectionism. We will not be perfect until we see the Lord Jesus face-to-face (Phil. 3:12; 1 John 3:2). And it is not justification by works. It is the uniform teaching of the New Testament that to enter heaven one must have a wedding garment (Matt. 22:11–14) and that garment is “the righteous deeds of the saints” (Rev. 19:8). These “righteous deeds” do not earn heaven or replace faith as the sole instrument of God’s being 100 percent for us. They are the “obedience that comes from faith” (Rom. 1:5, my translation; Heb. 11:8), the “[works] of faith” (2 Thess. 1:11). They are the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). Or, as Paul said in Phil. 1:10–11, Christians will be found on “the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness.”

2

How Can a Book Awaken Love for Christ’s Appearing?

Since the aim of this book is to help you love the second coming of Christ, how can that actually happen? How can the natural acts of writing and reading a book result in the supernatural experience of love for Christ and his coming?

Loving the Appearing of Christ Is a Work of the Holy Spirit

In chapter 1, I argued that what the Bible means by love for Christ’s second coming is not a merely natural fascination with an astounding event. Rather, it is a Christ-enthralled longing for his presence and glorification. That Christ-enthralled longing is a supernatural experience. It is a spiritual affection of the heart that the fallen, sinful human heart cannot produce. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul explains that “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The “natural person” is simply the normal person who does not have the Spirit of God inhabiting and transforming his heart by faith. Jude described the natural person like this: “These are natural people, not having the Spirit [ψυχικοί, πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες]” (Jude 19, my translation).

Another way of describing the “natural person” is to speak of him as having “the mind of the flesh” or being “in the flesh.” Flesh, in Paul’s ordinary use of the word, refers to fallen human nature considered as independent from God and uninfluenced by the indwelling Spirit. In this condition, people are at odds with God. And in that condition of alienation and resistance, they do not and cannot submit to God’s instruction. So Paul says:

The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Rom. 8:7–9, my translation)

The point I am drawing out of Paul’s teaching about the “natural person” and the “mind of the flesh” is that none of us will ever discern or embrace the greatness and beauty and value of the coming of Christ without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We may be fascinated with prophetic thoughts, or captivated by end-time predictions, or agitated by a fearful future. But none of that requires a supernatural transformation of the fallen human heart. So without the work of the Spirit, we will not love the second coming as Paul intends in 2 Timothy 4:8. We will not experience this love as a Christ-enthralled longing for his presence and glorification.

Seeing the Glory of His Appearing Creates the Savoring

So we turn back to the question raised above: How can the natural acts of writing and reading a book result in the supernatural experience of love for Christ and his coming? I answered in chapter 1 that God opens the spiritually blind eyes of natural people to see the greatness, the glory, and the worth of Christ’s coming. He does it through biblical truth about Christ’s appearing and through human teachers who point to that truth. He does it, for example, through books.

So I am saying that authentic love for Christ’s coming is awakened and intensified by the spiritual sight of Christ’s greatness and glory and worth in his coming. There is a seeing that creates the savoring. There is a spiritual light that creates the sweetness of the longing. Paul spoke of “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you” (Eph. 1:18). This knowing is not the kind of knowing that the devil has. The devil knows about the second coming and the day of judgment. We know this because when Jesus intruded on the devil’s domain, the demons complained that he had “come here to torment us before the time” (Matt. 8:29)—that is, before the day appointed for their final judgment. They know very well what the second coming of Christ will mean for them.

That kind of knowing is not our goal. We do not need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened by God in order to know the way demons know. That is natural knowledge. It does not require the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul was not praying in Ephesians 1:18 that God would enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we could share the knowledge of demons. He was praying for a kind of “knowing” that only the Holy Spirit can give. He was praying for a knowledge of the reality of our hope that would actually produce rejoicing in our hope! He was praying for the supernatural experience of desiring and loving our hope. He was praying that we would love the appearing of Christ.

And that loving is the effect of a spiritually illumined knowing. If our love for the second coming were conjured up by methods that short-circuited a knowledge of truth, the love would not honor Christ. The affections that magnify Christ are affections awakened by a true sight of Christ—a true knowledge of Christ. So it is with the second coming. The only love for Christ’s appearing that honors Christ is love that is awakened by a true knowledge of his appearing.

So the natural act of providing knowledge (like writing this book) goes hand in hand with the supernatural experience of seeing the greatness and glory and worth of Christ through that knowledge.

News, Glory, and Light

Paul illustrates this connection between supernatural sight of glory and the natural knowledge of the truth. He says:

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:4–6)

Verse 4 describes what people are blinded from seeing. Verse 6 describes the overcoming of that blindness by God’s supernatural intervention. Verse 4 has three elements.

First, there is gospel, that is, “good news.” There is real, factual news. There are objective facts about who Christ is and what he has done. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4, “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel . . . that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” This is real, objective, factual news.

Second, there is “glory.” Paul refers to “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). The news is objective fact, but it communicates more than mere happenings. It carries in it a glory—a beauty, a radiance, a worth, a greatness of Christ. Rightly told, the news of Christ is a window onto the glory of Christ. But a person can hear the news and not see the glory for what it is.

Third, there is “light” that may or may not be seen by those who hear the news of this glory. Paul speaks of “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). This light is what Satan, “the god of this world” (see also John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Eph. 2:2), conceals if he can. He is not as concerned whether people hear the news, or even whether they hear the news told so as to point to Christ’s glory. To be sure, he hates the news and the glory. But a person can hear the “gospel of the glory of Christ” and still be firmly in the bondage of Satan. But if a person sees the light of that gospel of glory, Satan has lost him. He is born again. He belongs to God. Seeing that “light” is a supernatural experience.

This miracle of sight is described in verse 6. Again, there are the same three elements.

First, there is the news, only this time it is called “knowledge.” This is the objective content of the truth about Christ and what he has done.

Second, there is “glory.” Just as verse 4 spoke of “the gospel of the glory,” so verse 6 speaks of “the knowledge of the glory.” In verse 4, it is the “glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” In verse 6, it is the “glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” It is one divine glory—Christ’s glory as he images God the Father, and God’s glory as he shines in the face of Christ. One divine glory.

Third, there is “light.” Only here in verse 6, God enables the heart to see it. Satan’s blinding is overcome. “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” “The knowledge [or news] of the glory” is now, by God’s intervention, communicated as a kind of “light” that reveals the glory as glorious to the heart of the one who sees it. The heart’s experience of this light goes beyond anything the “natural person” or Satan can experience. This is a seeing that compels savoring. This is a seeing that becomes treasuring.

And when this seeing is a seeing of the glory of the second coming of Christ, it is a seeing that becomes a loving. This is how it happens that any of us “have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the coming of Christ. That experience of God’s heart illumination is called, by Paul, loving the appearing of the Lord. It is a spiritual affection rooted in real, glorious, objective facts revealed in Scripture. It is mediated through true knowledge of those facts. This is how a book may become the means of your loving the second coming. Thus, the natural act of providing knowledge (like writing this book) goes hand in hand with the supernatural experience of seeing the greatness and glory and worth of Christ in his coming.

Example of Peter and John the Baptist

What we have seen from 2 Corinthians 4:4–6 is also visible in a remarkably different way in the teaching of Jesus. Here again, we see that when our aim is a supernatural experience of objective reality, there are always two steps to get there. One is natural; the other is supernatural—the natural presentation of the reality to our minds, and then God’s supernatural illumination to cause us to see divine glory in that reality. Consider an illustration of these two steps in the ministry of Jesus.

There came a point for John the Baptist when the ministry of Jesus fell short of his expectations of how the coming Messiah would act. John was in prison, which itself was troubling, if the messianic kingdom was about to dawn. From prison, therefore, he sent word to Jesus and said, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matt. 11:3). What was at stake here was John the Baptist’s faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

At this point, Jesus might have prayed for John that God would supernaturally illumine his heart to see the self-authenticating glory of Jesus in the facts that John already knew. In fact, Jesus may have done just that. We don’t know. But we do know what Jesus definitely did. Jesus said to John’s messengers:

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. (Matt. 11:4–6)

In other words, Jesus made sure that John had the facts. The news. The knowledge.

Now compare this transaction between Jesus and John the Baptist to a transaction between Jesus and Peter. Instead of waiting for Peter to ask Jesus about whether he was the Messiah or not, the way John did, Jesus takes the initiative and asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” To which Peter replies, “You are the Christ [Christos is Greek for Messiah], the Son of the living God.” To this Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:15–17).

Jesus recognized in Peter’s answer that a miracle had happened. God had “revealed” something to Peter beyond what “flesh and blood” could see. It was more than factual knowledge that men and devils can attain by their own resources. It is more than the mere fact that Jesus is the Son of God. The devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God. Hence the unclean spirit says to Jesus, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). But the devil’s knowledge is a hating knowledge, not a loving knowledge. The devil “knows,” but “he does not . . . know as he ought to know” (1 Cor. 8:2).

The devil had not seen Jesus as gloriously precious. He had seen him only as an offensive threat. He had not seen the magnificence of Jesus as the magnificence of a treasure. But Peter’s recognition of Jesus went beyond what natural men and devils can see. His sight was “blessed.” The devil’s wasn’t. “Blessed are you, Simon.” He was blessed because his sight was a God-given transforming sight of Christ. He had experienced the miracle of 2 Corinthians 4:6. God had “shone in [his heart] to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Now consider what these two encounters—with John the Baptist and with Peter—teach us about natural knowledge and supernatural love. They show that when our aim is a supernatural experience of objective reality, there are always two steps to get there: one natural, the other supernatural. Both John and Peter needed factual knowledge about Jesus. They needed a natural presentation of reality to their minds. Peter had this knowledge from living with Jesus as a close disciple. John was reminded of it by Jesus: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” And both needed the supernatural intervention of God to illumine natural knowledge with the kind of “light” that would turn a Jewish wonder worker into a treasure of infinite worth (Matt. 13:44).

What then is the answer to the question we posed at the beginning of this chapter? Since the aim of this book is to help you love the second coming of Christ, how can that actually happen? How can the natural act of writing and reading a book result in the supernatural experience of love for Christ and his coming? Now we have seen the answer. It can happen if I communicate accurately “good news” and “knowledge” about the glory of Christ in his coming, and if God shines in your heart with the divine light of that glory (2 Cor. 4:6). It can happen if I tell you accurately the glories of the second coming that are really there in the Bible, and if God reveals their heart-satisfying worth, which flesh and blood cannot (Matt. 11:1–6; 16:17). In other words, it can happen if I impart objective truth through my writing, and if God imparts spiritual light through your reading.

Foundations of Truth about the Second Coming

You can see an implicit assumption in what I just said, which I want to make explicit with some explanation. I am assuming the truth of biblical teaching about the second coming. I am not assuming it without reason. But that reasoning is in another book, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness.1 Here I am assuming that what the Bible teaches about the second coming is true. If you have questions about that, one way forward is to read this book in order to “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). Test to see if I handle the Scriptures accurately, and read with the prayer that God would confirm to your mind and heart what is really true. In other words, the book itself might be a means God uses to increase your confidence in the Scriptures.

One of the reasons I linger here to emphasize the truth of Scripture is that this is what the apostle Peter does in his second letter when he begins to deal with the question of the second coming of Christ. Peter is about to address skeptics who asked, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4). But before he gives his answers to their skepticism, he lays the foundation of his truthfulness.

He lays two foundations: first, his own eyewitness experience of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration and, second, the confirmation of Old Testament Scriptures, which were inspired by God. I will deal with Peter’s teaching about the second coming in chapter 20. Here I am only pointing out that he is eager to lay foundations for the truthfulness of his teachings, which is what I want to do as well.

He says, first, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). Peter is aware that people are led astray by end-time myths. He wants no part of it. He is not a myth maker or a myth follower. His claims to truth are based on his own eyewitness experience of Jesus’s teachings and actions.

His reference to seeing Christ’s “majesty” refers to his being with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–8). “When . . . the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’ [Matt. 17:5], we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Pet. 1:17–18). We will deal in chapter 13 with why Peter connects the transfiguration with the second coming (“the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 2 Pet. 1:16), but for now the point is simply this: Peter wants to distance himself as far as possible from speculative myths. He wants only to teach truth for which there is good reason. He wants a reasonable foundation under all that he says. I share that goal.

Second, he moves from the foundation of his own eyewitness experience of Jesus to the foundation of the inspired Scriptures, which for him meant the Old Testament (although he refers in 3:16 to the letters of Paul as part of the Scriptures). He says:

And we have the prophetic word [the Scriptures] more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention. . . . For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Pet. 1:19, 21)

This is one of the clearest teachings in the Bible concerning the divine inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures. Peter believed, with good reason (Jesus believed the same, Matt. 5:17–18; John 10:35), that the authors of the Old Testament were not acting on their own. They were carried along by the Spirit. What they wrote was not only their word. It was God’s. Therefore, Peter was eager to lay a double foundation under his teaching about the second coming—namely, the eyewitness accounts of Jesus and the God-inspired Scriptures. I share Peter’s eagerness. And I share his confidence in the eyewitness stories of Jesus and in the inspired Scriptures.

Words That Will Never Be Shaken

I cannot move on without drawing attention to the very same concern of Jesus to make sure we see his own teaching as a rock-solid, unwavering ground for our understanding of the second coming. In the longest and most detailed treatment of the end times in the New Testament Gospels, namely Matthew 24, Jesus says this: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (24:35). Jesus was aware that all kinds of false prophets and false christs and false teaching would challenge a right understanding of the second coming (Matt. 24:10–11, 24). Therefore, he wanted to emphasize that in all the shaking of the world that will come, his words will never be shaken from their truthfulness. There is a good foundation for knowing what we need to know about the second coming.

Savoring the Truth We See

When I say that this book could be a means of your loving the appearing of Christ, if I impart objective truth through my writing, and if God imparts spiritual light through your reading, the objective truth I have in mind is nothing other than what the Bible teaches. I claim no authority of my own. If I am faithful to what the Bible teaches, I have good hope that God will be pleased to do his miraculous light-giving work so that many will not only see the facts of Christ in his coming, but see them as glorious and precious—more precious than all this world. That is my aim—that you would savor the truth you see, and that all of us would find ourselves among the number of those “who have loved [the Lord’s] appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).

1  John Piper, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).

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The Glory of Christ as the Primary Reality of His Coming

The Heart of the Matter, Part 1

I have argued that love for the appearing of the Lord Jesus is a spiritual affection—an affection, or heart feeling, created (in its origin) and formed (in its nature) by the Holy Spirit. One implication of this is that there are different kinds of affections—kinds of love—for his appearing. Some of these are not spiritual and are not the love to which Paul promises a crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). So my goal in this book includes the effort to prevent a kind of love for the second coming that has catastrophic results.

Helping Us Avoid Catastrophic Results at His Coming

What I mean by “catastrophic results” is what Jesus warns about in Matthew 7:21–23. He says that on “that day”—the day of his coming in judgment—some of those who seemed to love his appearing will be shocked that they are turned away from Christ’s presence:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

The reason I say that these false disciples seemed to love the Lord’s appearing is that they wanted to be included on “that day.” They wanted in. They called Jesus “Lord.” They may have sung a worship song like I did in the 1980s: “I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you. O my soul, rejoice.” But Jesus turns them away. In spite of all their religious affirmations (about his lordship) and all their achievements (in doing “many mighty works”), he says that their works came from a lawless spirit. They were not humbly submissive to God and his laws. There was a controlling streak of independence. Concerning their worship songs, in effect, Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Matt. 15:8–9). How shall we love the appearing of the Lord Jesus in a way that avoids this catastrophic result on the day of his coming?

Heart of the Matter at His Coming

One answer is to ask honestly what we really love about the appearing of the Lord and then to compare that to what he will really bring at his coming. Or to say it another way, does our love for his coming fit with his purposes in coming? In a sense, the entirety of this book is an effort to help us answer this question. But in this chapter, I want to penetrate to the heart of the matter, that is, the heart of Christ’s ultimate purpose in coming again. This purpose will be the test of whether our love for his coming fits with his purposes in coming.

The heart of the matter has to do, first, with the primary, objective reality of the Lord’s coming, which is his glory—by which I always mean himself manifest as glorious. We are going to see that there is an astonishing focus on the Lord’s glory at his coming. That’s why I call it the primary objective reality. But the heart of the matter that I am talking about consists not only in the objective glory of Christ but also, secondly, in our experience of that glory on the day of his coming.