Remember when you were a kid and Christmas was coming? You put all your hope in it. You dreamed about it, talked about it, and made lists to send to all your relatives about it … until your parents got fed up and finally had to tell you to stop thinking about it.
Well, Christmas is coming again at the second advent of Christ, and it will be the best Christmas you’ve ever experienced. That’s why Peter tells you to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). Here are some of the presents — manifestations of grace — you’ll be getting at that Christmas:
1. You’ll be with Jesus. In the flesh! Many Christians think their relationship with Christ would be so much easier if Jesus was just standing in front of them. If they could just be with him, talk to him, and hear from him. When he comes back, that’s exactly what’s going to happen! Jesus said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). In Revelation 21, it says he’ll wipe every tear from your eye. Incredible! You’ll be comforted by Jesus himself!
2. You’ll see God bring justice. Life is unfair. There are so many times when people do things to you that are unjust and unkind. Maybe even wicked. Many are victims of abuse or fraud. Increasingly around the world, many Christians are victims of persecution. So it’s good news when Paul says, “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8).
Maybe you’ve had a knot in your stomach for a long time, because there are people who wronged you and they just got away with it. Nothing ever happened to them. That won’t last for long. God will bring his justice. And at the same time, there’s even more good news:
3. You’ll be saved from God’s justice. The truth is that we deserve God’s wrath just as much as the people who’ve wronged us. And so 1 Thessalonians 1:10 is such a great promise: “Wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” There’s a worldwide disaster that’s coming, and it’s going to be much worse than global warming, or nuclear war, or even the zombie apocalypse my kids are preparing for. God’s wrath is coming. And the only hope we have to escape it is to put our trust in Jesus, who took God’s wrath in our place when he died on the cross. We’ll be saved! But Satan won’t…
4. You’ll see Satan defeated. For good! He was defeated at the cross, but he’s still kicking around. So in Revelation, it says an angel is finally going to “seize the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bind him for a thousand years, and throw him into the pit, and shut it and seal it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer” (Rev. 20:2-3). And then Satan and “Death and Hades will be “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:10). Forever! Satan who tempts, discourages, confuses, and condemns you will be gone.
5. You’ll be transformed. Paul says, “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53). In this chapter, Paul says your life right now is like a seed that will be planted when you die. And when Jesus returns, you’ll grow into a plant. What he means is that you’ll always be you. When you plant an avocado seed, you don’t get a mango tree, and when you plant a mango seed, you don’t get a papaya tree. You’ll always be you.
But at the same time, Paul also says you’re like a planet that will turn into a sun. Do you realize how ridiculously small the earth is compared to the sun? It’s like a grain of sand next to a wrecking ball. Your life is going to be so much bigger and brighter when Jesus comes back. You’ll be transformed! Also…
6. You’ll see the earth transformed. Paul says, “Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:21-22). The world we live in is in childbirth. She’s going to give birth to something new, fresh, and exciting. Right now, she’s in the pains of childbirth. And it is painful: we hear about tragic earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis all the time.
But something better is going to be born. Think about the birth metaphor. A mother and daughter are different, but they look alike. The daughter has the same DNA as the mother, so she’s probably going to have the same eyes, hair, or skin. Which tells us that when Jesus returns, we’re going to be living in Earth 2.0. It will have all the best things you enjoy about the world right now, and none of the things you don’t.
7. You’ll be rewarded. Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done” (Rev. 22:12). Think about all the good things you’ve done, that never got recognized. You clean out the coffee maker at work every morning before anyone else arrives, and everybody just assumes that it happened by magic. Nobody’s ever thanked you for it. You help your kid with his math homework every night. The most painful thing you’ve ever done in your life. Nobody’s ever given you a medal for that, but you will be rewarded in heaven. “I will repay each one for what he has done.”