When was the last time you were gripped by confident anticipation? Maybe you’re eagerly awaiting a visit with a loved one. Or a special event only days away.
Or perhaps you’ve waited so long for your expected moment that your anticipation has faded. You’ll be surprised when (if?) the day ever arrives. You may even be shocked because you’ve lost all hope—like Lucjan Salzman, a seventeen-year-old Polish prisoner in Wöbbelin, a Nazi concentration camp.
Inside those cruel gates, Lucjan anticipated death, never joy. But in April 1945, shouts of uncontainable joy rang through the camp. Lucjan ran toward the sound and found fellow prisoners cheering and leaping. Some danced while others hugged a group of American soldiers. The 82nd Airborne Division had come to set the prisoners free. The Nazis scurried out the back gate.
In an interview, Lucjan recalled the wondrous moment:
I also joined the crowd and yelled and screamed, and somehow knew that the day of liberation has come. It was a strange feeling for me, however, because . . . I was overwhelmed by this unexpected and unhoped for encounter of freedom, but at the same time, . . . I didn’t know what to make of it. . . . I was free, but what it meant, I wasn’t sure.1
Grasping the Magnitude
Lucjan’s last statement hits me. “I was free, but what it meant, I wasn’t sure.” I get it. He awoke that morning expecting only more cruelty, starvation, and the possibility of death. Then suddenly, the nightmare was over. Rescuers had come to lead Lucjan and the others home.
Home.
Could this be real?Can such a nightmare end in the blink of an eye?
I wonder if this is what it will be like when Christ returns to rescue us forever from sin, Satan, and death—and to lead us home. When Jesus comes, will we be any more prepared than Lucjan was to understand what we’re seeing or experiencing?
How can we grasp the full magnitude of what’s truly in store for us? Scripture speaks often of Christ’s glorious return, but how can we fully anticipate the wonders of what Christ’s return will bring? We’ve never lived free of sin in a sin-free world. The joys that await us will astound us.
Thankfully, we don’t have to grasp the full magnitude of Christ’s return to treasure it—or long for it. We can (and should) watch for Him like we watch for the arrival of our dearest love. Christ could come today. Or in a thousand years. No matter how long, I want to live ready and eagerly watching. But how do we live in a sin-soaked world bent toward evil and not become hopeless, like concentration camp prisoners? The answer is near us (in the Bible) and in us (the indwelling Spirit of God).
Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory
As God’s children, we have “the Spirit of truth” in us (John 14:16–17; Col. 1:27). Like the 82nd Airborne when they stepped into the enemy camp, set the prisoners free, and guarded them until they were home, the Holy Spirit came to us. He lives in us, teaches us, and guards us in the truth until Christ comes for us. His indwelling Spirit is the resurrection power we need to watch and wait for Christ’s return with confident expectation—no matter what the enemy does.
Imagine if Lucjan and his fellow prisoners had known the Allied Forces were coming soon. Every day they’d follow the Nazis orders but their eyes would be fixed on the horizon with growing anticipation. Every day would still be hard but easier because they knew that at any minute, they could be free. With the next sunrise, they could be going home. They’d taste, smell, feel, hear, and envision the wonders of home. And the enemy couldn’t stop them.
What awaits us in the kingdom of heaven far exceeds the wonders of this world but it’s hard to imagine. It’s beyond anything we’ve experienced. Through Jesus, the disciples enjoyed a glimpse of what it will be like to see God face to face. Jesus is God, after all, but His glory was veiled in flesh. They saw enough, though, to delight in His presence, grieve His leaving, and lose all hope when He died.
Living Every Day with Confident Anticipation
When Christ rose from the dead, his disciples’ hearts soared like Lucjan’s when his rescuers seemingly brought him back from death. The disciples celebrated, but what it meant, they didn’t fully understand. As time passed, they understood more and more. And what they understood transformed them. It also prepared them for the waiting. The long waiting.
After Christ rose from the dead, He gave His disciples work to do for His kingdom until He returns. What Jesus said to them, He says to us all: “Watch!” (Mark 13:37 NKJV). Keep alert. Stay awake. Be ready! “Surely I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20 ESV). Jesus didn’t say, “Probably or maybe, I’ll send someone at some point.” Christ said, “Don’t miss it! I’m coming.” Jesus isn’t sending someone else. Thousands of angels will descend with Him, but He’s leading the way. Christ Himself is coming for us. Soon.
While they waited, the disciples lived with confident anticipation. They didn’t have time to waste. He’d promised He’d be back for them. If death couldn’t stop Christ, no one could. Their enemies could do their best, but no person, no prison, and no persecution could destroy their hope.
Fix Your Eyes on Christ
Does it feel like Christ is slow in coming? More than 2,000 years ago, the first century church was already impatient for His return (2 Peter 3:8–10). For Christ, a thousand years is like yesterday, “like a few hours of the night” (Psalm 90:4). For us, though, a few hours of the night can feel like eternity—especially when we want to escape our present circumstances.
Instead of despairing or sighing, let’s fix our eyes on Christ. Let’s gaze on Him in the Scriptures until we can almost hear the trumpeters warming up their instruments and see clouds gathering for His return (Matt. 26:64). We’re one day, one hour, one minute closer.
He’s coming.
Rather than crumpling under the weight of this world, continually call to mind Christ’s promises. Live like the last drop of sand in the hourglass is about to fall, and Christ is calling His angels. Let’s think of His coming until we can almost feel the air electric with His power and the many thousands of His holy ones with Him (Jude 1:14).
He’s coming.
Instead of letting the bitterness of this world sour us, let’s imagine (if we can) the marriage supper of the Lamb until our mouths salivate with delight (Rev. 19:9). Let’s know Christ and His Word so well that shivers of confident anticipation ripple through our soul even within the confines of our darkest hours.
He’s coming.
Since history past, Jesus has done everything He said He would do, exactly when He said He would do it. More surely than the Allied soldiers came for Lucjan and the other hopeless prisoners, Christ is coming for us “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). Because the Sovereign Lord—the One who cannot lie, never fails, and rules in heaven and earth—assured us of this, how can we not wait with confident anticipation?
For a little while longer, we must live in our own Wöbbelin, far from our heavenly home, trapped in broken bodies in a broken world. For now, we’re surrounded by people lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief. Rather than despair, let’s walk in the confidence of the Holy Spirit who lives in us and empowers us. Let’s engage with the world but not live like it. Let’s love like Christ loved us, forgive like Christ forgave us, and sound the alarm of His coming while there’s still time. And may we share the gospel of salvation far and wide because when He comes, no one can scurry out the back gate. No one can escape His coming.
Are you ready?
It’s almost time to leap, shout, and dance. He’s coming!
Who knows? He just might come today.
Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and makes war. . . . And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev. 19:11,16).
Come, Lord Jesus!
1 “American Witnesses Audio Testimony Transcripts,” United States holocaust memorial museum, accessed September 28, 2023, https://www.ushmm.org/teach/poster-sets/american-witnesses/audio-testimony-transcripts; Bernard Little, “Exhibit Highlights American Witnesses of the Holocaust,” DVIDS, accessed September 28, 2023, https://www.dvidshub.net/news/419440/exhibit-highlights-american-witnesses-holocaust.
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