ADVENT - ALREADY & NOT YET

2 Peter 3:1-10

3 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. 

3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Carefully applying today’s lectionary text can help us cultivate hope during Advent. But first, some background.

In his lengthy defense against false teaching, here Peter equips his audience for battle against the mockery that, since Christ hasn’t returned, he never will. The Christian claim of a final return of Christ to judge all things flew in the face of how many ancients understood history. In the ancient pagan world, history was understood as a cycle. The world was eternal, and time would keep going round and round in a circle, called an infinite return. When encountering the Christian claim, some pagans might retort that “everything goes on as it has since the beginning.” 

Peter reminds his audience of a shared consensus across cultures. Even the ancient pagans affirmed that a great flood once brought everything that preceded it to an end. Therefore, the same God who sent the flood on the world will send something else. Instead of water, the world will be judged in fire. 

History has an end. Aside from ideas (seemingly Christian or otherwise) that the space-time universe will come to a crashing halt, and fear about how (nuclear fallout, economic crises, global conflict, AI takeover…), there is a distinctly Christian view of the end. Contrary to Peter’s critics, and even critics today, history has a destination. It tells a story. It has a beginning and an end. However, the end isn’t a what, but a who. The end is Jesus (Rev. 22:13).

Until Jesus returns, we can be thankful that he exists alongside the Father outside of time. He has seemingly endless patience to allow for more to come to repentance. 

However, when Christ comes, no one will see it coming. Here, we aren’t talking about some secret rapture, a stealing away of God’s people. Rather, just as a thief comes without warning, so will Christ’s coming be.

The word for “coming” used in verse 4 is the word parousia. It refers to Jesus' “royal appearance” when he comes back to judge and purify all creation. Another way to  translate this word is “advent.” It’s easy to mistake the “advent” or “coming” of Christ for the complete destruction of earth. Instead, the word parousia is about the arrival of the kingdom on earth. The advent of Christ’s return won’t completely discard earth to take us away to heaven. After all, heaven isn’t our final destination, but rather a new heavens and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). In other words, God’s kingdom being fully present on earth as it is in heaven.

When Christ returns, he will cleanse the world with fire. Fire in scripture is not merely destructive, put purifying. In this sense, the old creation will be destroyed just like impurities are melted in the furnace. In the fire (which is none other than the Holy Spirit), nothing will last but God’s new creation.

Yet, in the first Advent, we reflect on the fact that God’s new creation has already begun. Since the incarnation, God’s kingdom has arrived on earth. It arrived in Jesus, the true king. And ever since Jesus’ ascension, all of the following have been true: Christ reigns over heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18); We are in the last days (Acts 2:17); and we are to wait in hopeful expectation for his return in glory. 

Advent is a reminder that Christ’s incarnation wasn’t in vain. Jesus didn’t arrive just to announce he’s coming back again. In this way, Advent isn’t merely a reminder of the not-yet promises of God’s kingdom, but the already. We live in a world that has experienced the advent, the arrival, of God’s kingdom. Yet we wait for it to come in its fullness. And since we have a taste of it now, we have hope for what is to come.

Hope is not optimism. Neither is it blind. Hope looks at the world and recognizes that it is fallen, that it needs redemption. But Hope also recognizes our current reality. We’re already partakers in the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is in us, making us into new creations as he did before (Gen. 1:2). The Spirit is our deposit (Eph. 1:14), Christ’s own presence with us, until his appearance. This is good news.

Since we inhabit tumultuous times, it’s easy to get fixated on just the end. But Peter reminds us of a truth from Psalm 90:4. A thousand years is like a day to God. He isn’t bound to time. Time answers to Him. And we can trust God to save all those he intends to before that final day.

So then, our posture today ought to be no different than Peter’s. As we groan, as creation groans, surrounded by false solutions, we remind the world through our lives that God’s kingdom has broken in. And we place our hope in Christ’s return to purify the good world he created. After all, Peter wrote that we wouldn’t have anxiety but “wholesome” or “delightful” thinking on the topic (2 Pet. 3:1). So let’s delight in Advent, both in the already and the not yet of God’s kingdom.