Belt up!

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The first ever Christmas marked the start of a very long interval between two world-shaking events. We are still living in that interval. It is the space between the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This gap seems overlong to those who yearn for Christ’s second coming to put an end to all the injustice in the world, which seems to go unpunished now. Yet, if we only knew it, there is no idleness or delay in heaven. We read in the Bible that Christ is praying continually for us to His heavenly Father. “Jesus ... is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

There’s another biblical description of Jesus in this interval time which rarely gets a mention. In Revelation 1:13, John the Revelation-writer, exiled for his faith on an island, heard from behind him Jesus, commanding him to write messages. He turned to look at Him. What he saw was “someone ‘like a son of man’, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden sash round His chest”. This is the garb of a priest ready for action. The earthly priests in the Jerusalem Temple were busy people, always occupying their time with the ritual sacrifices and other duties they had to perform. Our great heavenly High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, is just as active.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes, “Well it is for us that [Jesus] has not ceased to fulfil his offices of love for us, since this is one of our choicest safeguards that he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Jesus is never an idler; his garments are never loose as though his offices were ended; he diligently carries on the cause of his people. A golden girdle, to manifest the superiority of his service, the royalty of his person, the dignity of his state, the glory of his reward. No longer does he cry out of the dust, but he pleads with authority, a King as well as a Priest.”

Our Lord is an example to us all. This year will present us with many opportunities but also many pitfalls. Are we dressed for service? The apostle Paul reminds us to “Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist” (Ephesians 6:14). If we fail to equip ourselves in this way, we can be easily tangled up with the things of this life, and tripped up by the snares of temptation. If in heaven Jesus is always dressed for action, much more should we be on earth.

And there is timely encouragement for us. Our ever-active God is working to bring us to completion, to full fitness to be with Him for ever in His kingdom. Philippians 1:6 “... he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”.