If you and I knew that the rapture is going to be on a certain day, 3 1/2 years from now, we would all set our alarm clocks and go to Vegas. Listen, the reason why we don’t know the day and the hour is so we will be ready now, and live a holy life now. The timing of the rapture affects how we live today. Pre-tribulation believers fulfill the calling of Colossians 3, “If then we are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of Earth.”
The rapture is our blessed hope, and provides peace in this chaotic world, as 1 Corinthians 15 is talking about. As Titus 2 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing in the cloud of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” It also encourages holy living, and the desire to fulfill our calling while we remain on this world.
We have all heard someone say something along the lines of the Christian life being restrictive and boring. While there are definitely prohibitions within the Christian life – activities for us to avoid – none of them diminish the quality of life of anyone who adheres to them. The Bible says “do not be drunk” (Ephesians 5:18). No one who follows this will ever have a hangover or regret a poor decision made while drunk – not that the sober don’t make poor decisions.
The Bible says sexual intimacy is for married men and women only (Hebrews 13:4). No one has ever regretted waiting until marriage or honoring this directive. Nor will any marriage experience the pain of adultery when the covenant is honored by both people.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 KJV – “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.”
Yes, being a Christian is sometimes hard. Yes, being a Christian will always be counter-cultural. But boring? Never! Restrictive? Not even close! It is the freest way to live.
1 Peter 4:3 KJV – “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:”
Peter says that living like the world, doing what the unsaved world does, is a waste of time. However much time we spent doing it in the past was enough wasted time. On top of all these things is that we live a life laboring and toiling for the gospel, being hated by all for His name’s sake, watching the world unravel while we await the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Think about how you feel, act, and think when you are about to go on vacation or a long weekend. Think about how the excitement builds the closer you get to that much needed and long awaited break from the constancy of everyday life. As a Christian, we get to live like that every day!
Matthew 24:36 KJV – “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 KJV – “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
One day when we wake up, it will be that day – that day when everything changes forever. The knowledge of that future moment makes living a morally pure life today, a life that is sober and watchful, a life that is obedient and reverent, the most exciting life that there can be in this fallen world.
But unlike the time off or the vacation plans you mark on the calendar and count the days until they arrive, every day is a candidate for the moment and twinkling of an eye experience that awaits us.
2 Peter 3:10-13 KJV – “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
No one who has lived for the Lord will ever regret it. No one who has lived for the Lord has missed out on anything in life that would make it better. Maybe this is a tough season for some who are reading this today. If that is you, just remember that a day is coming which will be the day when everything gets better forever, and today could be that day.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
