“Do Not Overlook This Fact”
[II Peter 3:8-13]
August 3, 2008 Second Reformed Church
Are you hurt this morning? Is trouble on the horizon? Are you unsure of how to make it? Do you wonder where God is? Why God’s Promises haven’t come to pass for you?
Peter was addressing Christians who were in exile – on the run. Some of them would be killed – others tortured. Peter, himself, was going to be crucified. Still, he wrote his second letter telling them to be strong in the Lord, to do the good works that He calls us to do, to remember that Jesus will return in His Resurrected Body as Judge. And this morning we heard him tell them – and us – “do not overlook this fact.”
Last week, we saw that the false teachers and non-Christians deliberately overlooked the fact of the Power of God’s Word. They knew that God’s Word called the earth into existence out of the water and then destroyed the earth in the water and then restored the earth for Noah and his family and the animals that he saved. They knew that the Promise of God is to come and judge the world and everyone in it with fire – to damn the wicked and purify the believers. And after this there will be a restoration – the meek shall inherit the earth – a perfect, eternal earth.
Still, there are times when Christians – maybe even you – have wondered: “Well, it has been over two thousand years. Maybe what we have believed is not true. Maybe we have misunderstood.” But Peter tells us “no,” we have not misunderstood – we have forgotten something – we are a people who forget, a people who need to be reminded over and over and over, and by the grace of God, we will be reminded until the day of His Return – “do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Peter quoted from Moses’ prayer, which we find as Psalm 90, “For a thousand years in your sight, is but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4, ESV).
What are Peter and Moses saying? They are saying that time is a creation of God. So, God exists both outside of time, and He works His Will in time, the greatest of which was His Incarnation as Jesus. God understands that there are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour and twenty-four hours in a day, and so forth. But God is also beyond and outside of time, existing in eternity past and future. You and I have never existed in a plane of existence without time, so we cannot really understand what that means. But perhaps we can understand what God said to Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV).
There is an aspect of mystery in God’s Plan. Our minds are not always able to understand why God works in the ways He does, why He doesn’t intervene at times, why one thing happens and not another. But we are creatures and He is the Creator. It is not our place to question God, only to understand what He has said and to trust Him. Paul wrote, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will the thing molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me this way?’” (Romans 9:19-20, ESV).
Will Jesus return as He promised? Will He come as Judge? Yes. And we can confidently say “yes” over two thousand years later as long as we don’t overlook this fact: God is God, and He is not constrained by time, like we are. God will carry out His Plan, and it cannot and will not be hampered by the number of generations that pass away or by our understanding of God’s Timing.
It’s not unlike the mystery of the Lord’s Supper that is before us. We confess that Jesus is spiritually present with us in the bread and the cup. We confess that He communes with us and gives us His Grace to strengthen us to be the Christians He has called us to be. We receive that teaching and these elements on faith. We cannot see Jesus’ Spiritual Presence. We cannot see Him give us Grace. We understand what we can, and then we trust in what God has said.
Still, God does tell us some things, and God does give us one reason why He does not come back as quickly as one might expect: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” What does this verse say? It has been brutalized by some to make it say that God does not want any human being to perish and that He has delayed His Return in the hopes that every human being will repent – that is not what this says.
What does Peter say? “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,” – “you” who? Who is the “you” in this sentence? It’s the people Peter is writing to. Who is he writing to? “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (II Peter 1:1b, ESV). The Lord is patient towards all those who receive faith and salvation through the righteousness of Jesus Christ – Christians. “Not wishing that any should perish,” – “any” who? “Any of “you” – that is all those who receive faith and salvation through the righteousness of Jesus Christ – those who will become Christians. “But that all should come to repentance” – “all” of who? “All” of “any” of “you” – that is all those who receive faith and salvation through the righteousness of Jesus Christ – those who will become Christians.
Peter tells us that one reason that God seems to have delayed His Return is that He is patient and waiting for all those who will believe in Him to come to belief. Jesus said, “[The Jews] will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24, ESV). And Paul wrote, “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand a mystery, brothers; a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:25-27, ESV).
Peter gives us one reason why Jesus has not yet returned: He is waiting for all those who will receive His salvation to receive Him, and then He will return. He knows those who are His – He is not waiting forever. He is patient, and He is waiting for the final one to come to belief in Him, and then He will return.
And when He returns, He will come like a thief – unexpected. “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.” The wording is such that we should understand the return and fiery judgment like this: if you have ever pulled down the blinds and let go, and it flew back up, everything rolling back up on itself – that is what the word “roar” indicates here in the Greek – Jesus will come suddenly and the fire will descend and the judgment will occur – as fast as you can say “roar.”
But, remember what we said last week – this should not make us fear. Christians should not fear the Return of Christ and the judgement of fire:
When Jesus returns, with all the mighty angels, bringing judgment and fire, Jesus will throw death, Hell, and the devil into the lake of fire, the wicked will suffer eternally, but the chosen of God will pass through the fire, they will be purified, changed, perfected, the dross will be removed from our gold, as will that of the heavens and the earth. Paul wrote, “[The glory will revealed to us.] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:19-23, ESV).
And John wrote, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God’” (Revelation 21:1-3, ESV).
If we know and do not suppress the Word of God, then our future is obvious to us: Jesus will return in His Resurrected Body, with fire, and He will call the fire down on the heavens and the earth to punish the wicked and purify His people. And then there will be a restoration – the earth and the heavens, and all the creation, and we who are God’s will be purified and perfected. And, according to the Word of God, we will inherit the earth. It will be like the Garden of Eden, only better, because, after the judgment, we will be unable to sin.
Peter ends this morning’s reading by saying that, if these things are true, “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”? And here are two curious things: in the first phrase, Peter says that if we understand the judgement of fire is coming, we ought to live lives of – and it’s plural in the Greek – very bad grammar, but he’s making a point – we ought to live lives of “holinesses” and “godlinesses.” Peter is telling us that holiness and godliness are not one time things – we cannot do one thing and achieve holiness and godliness – it is a process, it the changing of our whole lives into lives like that of Jesus. It is achieving holiness in every aspect of life and godliness in every aspect of life, which, of course, we won’t fully do until He returns.
But he says something else curious – if we pursue “holinesses” and “godlinesses,” we wait and hasten the coming of Jesus. Now, we can understand, from that thing we ought not to forget – that one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day – that we are to wait patiently for God to fulfill His Plan and return when the time is right, but how can it be said that we hasten the day? What Peter means is that as we become more like Jesus, we come closer to the reality that we shall live in after the judgment when the new heavens and the new earth appear. Which is exactly what Peter says:
“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.”
Since that is our great hope, let us not overlook the fact that we only exist in time, whereas God exist both in and outside of time. He is not slow, but is bringing everything to pass just as He planned. And He is being patient, waiting until the last person who is to come to belief in Jesus professes faith, then He will return.
Until then, let us trust in the promises of our God. Let us look forward to the restoration of all things. And knowing that Jesus is returning as Judge with fire, let us work hard on our “holinesses” and “godlinesses,” as we become more like Jesus, and look forward to that day when we are perfected, received into His Full Kingdom, and sin and death are no more.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we tend to forget that You are not constrained by time like we are. Help us to remember that You are the Creator, and time is one of Your creations. We thank You that You did not immediately return to earth, but patiently wait for all those You have called to salvation to receive Your Son. And now we ask that we would remember what is coming, both in judgment and restoration, and become like Your Son, by the Work of God the Holy Spirit in us. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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