Chris' Corner -- Sunday, November 15, 2020
God lives in timeless eternity. Time means nothing to Him. Peter wrote, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). This concept is hard for humans to comprehend, because our entire existence is regulated by time.
In this context, the apostle continued to explain that the end of all things will be coming. God will not delay when the time for the end arrives. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). So even though time means nothing to God, He is bound by it when it involves His creation (Acts 17:25, 26, 31; Galatians 4:4).
By its very nature, time is not forever. God warns all of humanity about the day when time will end. It will cease to exist. It will have served its purpose. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
Once again this truth from God is hard for us to comprehend. Multiplied generations have lived on this earth year after year through its times and seasons. Humans have been gazing up into the heavens for thousands of years. Now to think everything; the earth, stars, planets, galaxies, and the entire universe will be burned up—gone forever.
With our limited human mind, it is impossible to even scratch the surface of understanding God’s limitless, infinite mind. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).
In his second letter, Peter was given this information so he could tell us to value the spiritual over the physical. Everything physical no matter how small or large, will be destroyed. But there is more to our existence than this. We have a soul that lives within in us and will survive the destruction of this world.
Peter said we must consider how we live now. “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…” (2 Peter 3:10-11). Living in obedience to God in this present world is the key to our survival. When we leave this earth regulated by time, we enter into eternity.
Paul said, “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
Our spiritual existence is more valuable than time spent in this physical world. Even though the earth and everything in it will be burned up, one of the greatest promises God has made involves our physical body. When Jesus appears in the clouds on that last day, just before the world is burned up, He will raise the dead with an incorruptible body (1 Corinthians 15:353-49). Those living on that final day will also receive their immortal body. Together we all will ascend to be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
As we leave this earth behind, with its orbit in the solar system, in the midst of the galaxy we have called home, God will unleash fire that will destroy it all. We will not look back. We will be unaffected. Our eyes will be fixed on Jesus as we enter into God’s great home of Heaven.
We believe the sentiments of the old Jim Reeves song: “This world is not my home I'm just a-passing through…”