Won’t You Take Refuge in the Lamb?
As we approach Good Friday and consider the events leading to Jesus’ death on the cross, we rarely have His second coming, the Parousia, in mind. Our gaze is taken to the cross, and we reflect on His suffering, but not His glory to come. Yet when Jesus’ gaze was fixed on the cross, His eyes were set not only on His death, but also on His ascension and the consummation of His glory (Mark 14:61-62; Matt 26:63-64), the day when He will return to judge the living and the dead (2 Tim 4:1). No one will escape that day, not even the high priest who condemned Him to death, nor all the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders who rejected him. We now know that the high priest, chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders have certainly died before Jesus comes again. But although they are already in their graves, they will rise when Jesus returns to be condemned (John 5:28-29).
On that day, every eye will see Jesus, even those who pierced Him (Rev 1:7). On that day, what Jesus said to His accusers during His trial will be fulfilled: “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:62; Matt 26:64). On that day, the one and only Messiah of God, whom they have rejected, will come with power and great glory as King of kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16) and as the Judge (Matt 25:31-46). And what kind of day would it be for those who have rejected Him? It will be a day of mourning (Matt 24:30), for they have rejected the Son of God who died on the cross, and God’s wrath remains on them (John 3:36). They will be cast into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, experiencing the second and eternal death (Matt 13:42; Rev 20:13-15).
“On that day every eye will see Jesus, even those who pierced Him.”
The cross of Jesus Christ and His Parousia are inextricably intertwined. Jesus’ work on the cross not only saves us from our sins, but also from the coming fury of the wrath of God Almighty that He will bring about on His Parousia (Rev 19:15-16). On the cross of His first coming, He suffered the wrath of God for sin (Isa 53:4-5) so that those who believe in Him shall be saved from the wrath of God that He will bring about in the glory of His second coming (2 Thess 1:7-9). In Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus calls His hearers to reconcile quickly with their adversary before they are taken to court and suffer their due punishment. The fact is, sin makes us God’s adversaries (Rom 8:7), and we need to be reconciled to Him quickly before the day of judgment. God has set Jesus Christ not only as the Final Judge but also as the only Way of reconciliation with Him (2 Cor 5:18-21), and this work of reconciliation is completed by His sacrificial death on the cross (Isa 53:4). God has set His term of reconciliation, and there is no other way to be reconciled with Him. Your good works, activism or religiosity cannot save you from God’s wrath; only the blood of Christ can wash your sins and make you white as snow (Isa 1:18; Rev 7:14).
Friends, as we approach Good Friday in this troubling time, I implore you not to delay: Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. God has provided the Way of reconciliation with Him, and it is only through Jesus Christ. Why should you insist on making your own way back to God? Your way is not God’s Way, and God’s Way is higher than your way (Isa 55:8-9). Receive Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), before He returns as the Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5), who will judge the world with justice (Acts 17:31). And this day of His return, His Parousia is near. There is no need to deny it: Wars and rumours of wars are indeed one of the signs of His Parousia. God has decreed that nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, as we get closer to His Parousia (Matt 24:6-7). At any rate, a day spent on this earth is a day closer to His Parousia, and that day will either be the day of mourning or the day of salvation (Heb 9:27-28). Which one will it be for you? Will it be your day of salvation? As it is written in Psalm 2:12: “Kiss His Son, or He will be angry, and your way will lead to your destruction, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” Why not take refuge in the Son of God who died on the cross? Why not take refuge in the Lamb who was slain for us (Rev 5:6; Eph 5:2)?
“...they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”