Think about how hard it must have been as a member of one of the fledgling churches at the end of the first century, trying to weather the corrupting influences within and the growing harassment from without. You might be tempted to wonder if it was all worth it. And you might wonder where God was in the midst of all this chaos.
Then imagine you receive a letter one day addressed from the island of Patmos. It’s from John!
You crack open the seal and begin reading, finding out that John has recorded a vision given to him by God, a vision of the risen Lord Jesus. His first words to you are these. “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Rev 1:4).
Peace is precisely what you don’t have!
But John’s words were precise. First grace, then peace.
John, the beloved apostle, was cast aside to rot on an island prison, cut off from the people he loved and distressed by what he had heard about their situations. The churches of Asia Minor were feeling the hatred of Rome and the challenges of living faithfully in a faithless generation. What did they need to hear most?
It wasn’t a detailed account of future events, intended to be decoded centuries later. It wasn’t a threat of divine retribution to be meted out on the heads of those who opposed the message of Jesus. It wasn’t a lovely allegory to anesthetize the Church’s pain and suffering.
It was a portrait of the risen Lord Jesus, our Hope and our Future.
As we’ve seen throughout the Bible Story, the central plotline has always involved God’s plan to create a community of people who are rightly related to Himself and rightly relating to one another. The main character, as it turns out, is Jesus Christ. His identity is hinted at throughout the Old Testament, and then stated explicitly and emphatically in the New Testament.
In the final portion of the Bible Story, this glimpse into the future is revealed. In the world to come, God’s people will finally live the way God intended. Sin and evil will be eradicated. The corruption that infected God’s creation will give way to a new heaven and a new earth (more on that next week). We’ll have new bodies, incorruptible bodies and incorruptible minds.
So much will change and be totally new.
But this much will be the same, the central character will still be Jesus Christ.
It is the grace of God, most clearly made manifest in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, that is the only possible foundation for a peace that promises to last throughout all eternity. We enjoy the grace that is ours now, even as we eagerly await the peace that will be ours in time.
First grace. Then peace. Always Jesus.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are the First and the Last, and the Living One; You were dead, but You are alive forevermore, and You have the keys of death and of Hades. You are the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David and the Overcomer. You are the Lamb who was slain and whose blood purchased for God people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You are worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing. The kingdom of the world has become Your kingdom, and You will reign forever and ever. You are called Faithful and True, and in righteousness You will judge and wage war. You are King of kings and Lord of lords. You are the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. And You are coming quickly, and Your reward is with You.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus.
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