God’s perspective of time and ours are very different
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Peter 3:8-15a
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OBSERVE:
Any serious student of the New Testament soon becomes aware that the concept of the parousia, that is, the second coming of Christ, is built into the DNA of the Gospel. It is inescapable and inevitable.
However, even in the early church there were already those who were beginning to question this comforting doctrine, primarily because in their minds it was simply taking too long.
Sometimes in these lectionary snippets of Scripture we lose the full context. Earlier in this chapter, Peter has posed the problem to which he is giving an apostolic answer:
in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
Even within a generation of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and the birth and expansion of the church, there were scoffers who were second guessing the teaching of the return of Christ!
Peter’s response is nuanced, and careful. He doesn’t venture an opinion about when it might happen. Instead, he reminds the Christians that God’s perspective of time and ours are very different. He makes an obvious reference to Psalm 90, which is a haunting meditation on time and its consequences. Psalm 90:4 says of the Lord:
For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past,
like a watch in the night.
So, Peter is advising them that people need to have a more eternal perspective. Moreover, the reason for the perceived delay is that God is merciful! The longer it takes for the end to come, the more opportunity there will be for repentance!
The language that Peter uses to describe the end is dramatic and apocalyptic. He uses the same metaphor that Jesus and Paul use — that the end will come stealthily, like a thief; but that it will also be a violent conflagration.
So, the application to the church is simple:
Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God.
There is a fascinating alternative translation to the latter half of this verse:
awaiting and hastening the presence of day of God
(transliterated from The Revised Standard Version Interlinear Greek-English New Testament).
This translation actually implies that how Christians live may speed up the coming of the Lord!
The bottom line, however, is that for Christians the Day of the Lord is not to be feared but welcomed. For the Christian it is not a day of destruction but of the joyful consummation of history:
But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
APPLY:
There is an awful lot of theology packed into these verses.
First, we have to reckon with the same problem that Peter was addressing — why has the second coming of Christ seemingly been delayed? I mean, from our perspective it has been forever! Two thousand years!
So, we must address the issue of time and eternity. The biblical answer to our dilemma is that God doesn’t see time the way that we do. Some theologians like John Wesley would argue that for God all time is eternally now. So, relative to God, our perception of time is like that of an ant’s compared to a human. Stop and think — even a dog ages faster than we do as humans. How much greater is the difference between God as an eternal being and ourselves as finite mortals of no more than 70 or 80 years?
Peter isn’t necessarily arguing that we should impose a literal calendar on God’s timing — i.e., that one day is a thousand years to God, therefore it has only been two days from God’s perspective since the time of Christ’s earthly ministry. Rather, he’s saying that God’s time is not our time. God transcends time as the Eternal One.
Ultimately, though, Peter is making the point that if there is a delay, it is only because of God’s infinite patience, and his love for sinners:
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
By the way, this is not a claim for universalism, that everyone will be saved. There is too much evidence in scripture to the contrary — many will reject the salvation that God offers. However, it is a stern rebuke to the notion that some are chosen for salvation from the beginning and others are damned — God’s earnest desire is that all might come to salvation who will come.
There is another challenge that this provides us — those of us who are earnestly looking forward to Christ’s return are not to be slackers, or complacent. We don’t know when he will come, but we are to live holy, godly, spotless, blameless lives as we look forward to the:
new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
There is a moral demand to the Gospel that we cannot escape.
Wiser minds than my own will have to parse out the variant readings in verse 12. One reading is that by living holy lives we may speed its coming, the other that we are:
looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God.
These two translations have very different implications — one that by our active participation in the process we may have an impact on when the kingdom may come. The other is more passive, that we are to simply wait eagerly, while we live the holy lives to which we are called.
I don’t know that it matters much, unless you subscribe to the notion that there is a realized eschatology. By that I mean that there may be times when the kingdom of God seems to “break in” to our midst, when we become aware that God is present, perhaps in a moment of worship, or a tender moment with loved ones, or in an act of ministry. Jesus said many times in the Gospels that the “Kingdom of God has come near.” This has also been translated “in your midst,” or “among you,” and even “within you.” In other words, the Kingdom of God can be realized now, at least in part, even though it is not yet present in its fullness.
One example of a preacher who seemed to believe this is Martin Luther King Jr., who said in his famous “I Have a Dream” sermon:
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day (emphasis mine) when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Bottom line — we are to live holy, blameless lives by God’s grace, seeking to bring others to the point of repentance and faith, as we await the fullness of God’s kingdom at the consummation of history.
RESPOND:
I sometimes find myself wondering why history has been allowed to meander along for two thousand years since the coming of Christ. But Peter’s answer makes sense to me — that God’s eternity transcends my time; and his plan to bring as many as possible into his kingdom is much more patient and loving than I am. My part is to live the holy, blameless life and bear witness to his Gospel every day. That is more than enough challenge for me! I can only live that life through his grace. And that is how I must wait for his coming — in patient grace.
Lord, thank you for your promise to return. But thank you also for your patient love that seeks to save as many as possible who will turn to you. And thank you for your patience with me when I was wandering and lost. Come when you are ready, and when we are ready for you! Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Keeping An Eye On Time” by Ian Foss is license under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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