Run With It: The Day of the Lord will Come

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

The Day of the Lord will Come

2 Peter 3:10-14 ESV

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

One day this earth as we know it will be no more. God will judge the earth and all that is in it and all will be destroyed. And not one of us knows exactly when that day will be, although those of us who are walking with Jesus should know when the time is near by the signs of the end of all things that we see taking place that the Bible told us would happen prior to our Lord’s return and the end of all things on this earth.

And if we have a biblical understanding of our salvation, that it is not a one-time event which takes place in our lives which secures us heaven when we die regardless of how we live our lives on this earth, but that it is progressive sanctification which will not be complete until Jesus returns to take his bride to be with him for eternity, then we will understand that how we live on this earth does matter for eternity.

And so this passage will make sense to us when it talks about what sort of people we ought to be in living lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. And it will make sense to us that we are to be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And if we know the Scriptures, we know this is not in status only, but it is in action and in practice that we are without spot or blemish.

In other words, for those who are believing the “cheap grace gospel,” which tells them that all they have to do is “believe” (undefined) in Jesus and now heaven is secured them and it cannot be taken away from them no matter how they live on the earth, this passage and others like them must generate some type of confusion in their minds, or else they must just ignore such Scriptures as this, for how else do they hold on to their faith?

For, the Scriptures make it quite clear that our faith, if it is genuine, results in our obedience to our Lord and in our submission to his will for our lives, and in us forsaking (casting off) our sinful practices in order to walk in holiness and righteousness, in the power of God, by his Spirit. And the Scriptures teach if this is not our practice that we don’t have the hope of spending eternity with our Lord in heaven.

And that is what this passage in 2 Peter 3 is emphasizing, too, that our walks of faith do determine where we will spend eternity, which is why we must be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And he is not addressing the “unsaved” here, for this is addressed to the “beloved” of God. This is talking to Christians. We must walk in obedience to our Lord and not in sin, and we must continue in our Lord and in obedience to him faithful until the end if we want eternal life with God.

But this is not us trying to earn or to deserve our own salvation. This is not anything that any of us can do in our own flesh. This is the working of God’s Spirit in our lives, and this is about us cooperating with the working of the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit to walks of obedience to our Lord, in faithful surrender to him and to his will for our lives. We have to join the Lord in his work and do what he says, but he will empower us from on high to do so.

So, during our lifetime on this earth, while we wait for our Lord’s return, we are to be living holy and godly lives, pleasing to our Lord. We are to be living lives which are separate (unlike, different) from the world and unto God because we are being made to be like God in his righteousness and holiness. And we are to no longer walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin, but now we are to walk according to the Spirit in obedience to our Lord Jesus.

But if we reject this teaching, and we decide to go our own way, instead, and if we follow a gospel created in the minds of humans, and not the gospel of Christ, and so we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and we do what is against our Lord’s commands, and so we are not walking in obedience to our Lord, then we need to know that the Bible teaches that we will not inherit eternal life with God. So, we need to take this to heart, for the time is drawing near for our Lord’s return and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Rev. 2-3; Rev 18:1-6; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15]

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Lyrics: Sarah F. Adams, pub. 1841

Vs. 6: Edward H. Bickersteth, Jr.

Music: Lowell Mason, 1856