We continue our reflections on what it will be like when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory during the Second Coming. After the snatching up of God's people (The Rapture—1 Thessalonians 4:13-17), God's anger will be unleashed on those who refuse to repent and accept His forgiveness. We may hesitate to think of an angry Lord Jesus, but that is the truth Paul the Apostle wrote about, along with other prophetic writers:
7This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; emphasis added).
When God first began to deal with me about my eternal destiny—specifically, where I would go when I die—I had a vision of the Lord Jesus coming on a white horse in the sky with angels, while I cowered in fear on the Earth, desperately looking for a place to hide. I was terrified that I would be found on the wrong side when He came to judge.
The prophet Zephaniah also speaks of this fiery event. The Lord will assemble the nations and unleash His fierce anger:
“Therefore wait for me,” declares the LORD, “for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger” (Zephaniah 3:8; emphasis added).
Jesus will appear in blazing fire with His powerful angels (Isaiah 66:15), pouring out vengeance against those who do not know God. My perception of Jesus changed after I came across those words. The Lord instilled in me a fear of Him, which moved me to seek His salvation before judgment could find me. After becoming a Christian and contemplating the truth of the Word of God, I realized He had been working in my life for several years, but I had not listened. He was the One who had found me rather than my finding Him. It took me several years to awaken to His gracious invitation that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). You who are reading these words, is it mere coincidence that you have encountered these meditations, or is it because God has been drawing you to Himself? There are no coincidences with God.
His arrival will coincide with the gathering of all those who have called upon Him for salvation. Jesus makes it clear that these two events will occur on the same day, namely, the gathering of the saints and the fire of judgment (Luke 17:26-29). The prophet Zephaniah informs us that His delight will be upon those who have called upon the Lord. The Lord will sing over His bride:
The LORD your God is with you; he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).
When Jesus arrives in the fire of His jealousy, there will be a separation between sheep and goats (God’s people and the unsaved), as stated in Matthew 25:31-46. He longs for the moment when His people will see His face, and the city of the New Jerusalem will resemble Eden, with God walking alongside man in the cool of the evening: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). What a day that will be! Keith Thomas
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