Week 49 · Day 7: The Return of Christ
Even So, Come
The right response to the promise is longing, not indifference.
What the labels mean
- Scripture explicitly says
- This states what the biblical text itself says, in the passage being read.
- Direct quotation or allusion
- One part of Scripture quotes or clearly alludes to another. The citing reference is named so you can check it.
- Canonical theme
- A connection across the whole Bible. The passages develop the same theme; one is not quoting the other.
- Interpretive conclusion
- A conclusion drawn from the text. The reasoning is given so you can weigh it against the passage.
- Application
- A step, prayer or question for the reader. Not a claim about what the passage states.
Today’s verse
Loading Revelation 22:20…
Revelation 22:20
Today’s focus
The truth of the day
The very last words of the book of Revelation, and near the last words of the whole Bible, are a promise and a prayer set side by side. Christ says I am coming soon. John, and every reader who joins him, answers come, Lord Jesus.
This is the appropriate ending to a week on the return of Christ, and to the whole Bible's storyline. The correct response to the promise of his coming is neither calculation nor indifference. It is longing, spoken out loud, the same longing early believers preserved even in Aramaic as Maranatha, our Lord, come.
Today’s reminder
Scripture explicitly says- Christ himself makes the promise: I am coming soon.
- The fitting response is prayer and longing, not analysis.
- This prayer has been prayed by believers since the earliest church.
Deeper insight
What the passage says in its own setting
The word soon in Revelation does not necessarily mean immediately by human reckoning, since nearly two thousand years have passed. Peter addresses this directly in 2 Peter 3:8-9, saying one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and that his seeming slowness is patience, not delay, so that more might come to repentance. Revelation's soon is better read as certain and near in the sense that it could occur at any point, not as a guarantee of a short interval.
Paul closes 1 Corinthians with the Aramaic word Maranatha, which most scholars read as a prayer, our Lord, come, preserved in its original language even in a Greek letter to Gentile believers. That such an early, untranslated liturgical cry survived into Paul's letters shows that longing for Christ's return was among the very oldest and most instinctive prayers of the church, not a later theological development.
Christ connection
Where this leads to Jesus
Interpretive conclusionThe Bible's story, which began with God walking with man in a garden, ends with Christ promising to come and his people longing for it, so that the return of Christ is the resolution the entire narrative has been moving toward.
Reflection
ApplicationCan you honestly pray come, Lord Jesus, or would his coming today disrupt plans you are unwilling to surrender?
Today’s action
ApplicationPray Revelation 22:20 aloud today, slowly, and let it shape how you spend the rest of the day.
Today’s prayer
ApplicationEven so, come, Lord Jesus. Make me one who longs for your appearing rather than one who has grown comfortable without you. Amen.