Here are some more thoughts about expecting and enduring faith and finish lines that relate to Jesus coming again. Consider that Jesus’ return is a finish line, and we do not know where that finish line is in regard to when it will happen. If we were to expect it to happen on a certain date or within a fairly short time span, we would live our lives very differently. One area would be how you would handle your finances. For example, you would not save for retirement or anything really that would take place after that time period. And if it turns out that Jesus does not return at that time, you would be in trouble because you prepared for a finish line that did not occur.
On the other hand, since we do not know when Jesus will be coming back, we could make the mistake of living our lives as if he was not coming back at all. Our lives would then have nothing to do with the possibility of His return. We would live our lives with the same concerns and priorities as people who do not believe in Jesus.
Faith in the return of Jesus, and the possibility that it could happen in our lifetime, should inform how we live our lives. We are to try and live lives that are in line with how Jesus will remake the world when He comes again in power. Or another way to think about it is how Jesus will view our lives when He comes in power. Since we do not know when this will happen, saving for something like retirement is a wise thing to do that Jesus will not disapprove of. But our spending on pleasures in relation to our charitable concern for the poor may well meet with His disapproval. That is an area that living in the awareness of His return should cause us to make different financial choices than people who do not believe in Jesus.
When it comes to how we do our work, the here/not yet aspect of the kingdom of God adds another dimension. It is not just that Jesus will come again and judge our work. There is the possibility that He will use His power to make our work far more effective than we would expect to be able to accomplish in this age. We might have an experience of the here kingdom in which the outcome is more reflective of living in a world where Jesus is Lord, than a world that is in rebellion against God.
Or we might have the experience of the not yet kingdom in which our efforts to make the world more like the kingdom of God fail precisely because we live in a world that is in rebellion against God. And in this instance, Jesus does not add His power for the desired outcome.
The reality that either one of these outcomes is possible is extremely challenging. Are we to increase our powers of discernment and hearing God’s voice so that we know which situation we are facing and we can then act accordingly? Or, similar to the return of Christ, are we to know that both of these are possible outcomes (like we know that Christ is coming again) but we are not to know which situation we are facing (like we are not to know when Christ is coming again)?If it is the latter, then we need to conduct our work in a manner that allows for either of the outcomes.
What would that look like? I am not sure, but I look forward to wrestling about this with people in real-life work situations. I do believe that it will look different than how it would look if we knew whether we were going to have a here kingdom experience or if we knew we were going to have a not yet kingdom experience. It will be a way of conducting our work that is shaped by holding those two outcomes in tension.
I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.