The Day of Christ

2015-02-16

This is a short study on what the Day of Christ means. This day, which is distinct from the Day of the Lord (a period of time), is the instantaneous time when Jesus Christ returns and gathers His people from the earth before the wrath of God is poured out onto the earth. While there are more than the passages listed below, this study looks at the phrases “Day of Christ,” “Day of the Lord Jesus,” “Son of man in his day” and like phrases. The contemporary Christian would call this gathering the “rapture.”

Luke 17:24-30: “For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

The day of the Son of Man is a time when God’s people are rescued before His wrath is poured out. The larger context here likens the Day to the removal of Noah from Flood judgment, and Lot from the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. One cannot mistake it; this Day is the same gathering that is also discussed in the Olivet Discourse.

1 Corinthians 1:6-8: “Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

As believers in Christ, Jesus works within His people, continually establishing the truths they confessed the hour they believed. When Jesus comes, we will be blameless.

1 Corinthians 5:5: “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

There was an unsaved person in the Corinthian church that was into very vile perversion, and everyone was tolerating his wickedness. Paul says to throw him out into the world, so that he can see his ways as wicked, and be saved from them.

2 Corinthians 1:13-14: “For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

When Paul sees the Corinthian believers on the Lord’s Day, he knows that all of the exhortation and patience with them will be worth it. When we see those we care about on that day, that they are saved, there will be great rejoicing.

Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”

The good work of salvation, from inception to completion, is a work of God. However, God performs it until the day of Jesus Christ. When are we a completed work? On the day of Jesus Christ!

Philippians 1:9-11: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

We are to spiritually progress until the day of Jesus Christ, not prone to sin but rather producing the righteous fruits that only Jesus can produce within us.

Philippians 2:15-16: “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

This is related to 2 Corinthians 1:14. For the Philippians to be there with the great throng of saints on the Day of Christ was to mean rejoicing.

2 Thessalonians 2:2: “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”

The Day of Christ is not going to come without warning; certain events are going to come first. Among these include a falling away (apostasy) and the revealing of the man of sin (antichrist).

Conclusion

I think the most important theme tracing through the above is that EVERYTHING that Christ is doing among us is in preparation for His coming. He is working in us that we might be blameless, producing righteous fruit, convicting the wicked to be saved from their sin. When we have persevered through life, or rather, when Christ has sustained us through troubling times, He will have a people for Himself that are prepared for the revealing of His kingdom. All of what we do by faith in Christ is in preparation for that Day. We cannot take our eyes off the great hope of the coming of Christ; it is the goal of human history and the realization for all that we hope.