The Return of Christ in Paul
The earliest letters of Paul are the Epistle to the Galatians and the two Epistles to the Thessalonians (c. A.D. 48-50). Every attentive reader knows that the theme of the second coming is found in every chapter but one of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The teaching also features strongly in 1 Corinthians 3 and 15; Philippians 3:20; the letter to Titus, and 1 and 2 Timothy. Different verbs are used for the event, but the same idea is in view. To this we may add Romans 8:19. These passages do not serve only as anticipations of a great event; they speak of the culmination of something. (After this there is the Bema Seat – 2 Cor. 5:10).
If we take the Thessalonian Epistles as our starting point, we can see the different uses the apostle puts the doctrine of Christ’s second advent to. First there is the aspect of patient waiting (1 Thess. 1:9-10). The coming of Christ “delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thess. 1:10). What this wrath (orge) is we are not told. It may be the wrath of the second coming or the “revealing” (apokalypsis) itself as per 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9, or it may more generally be “the Day of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:1-3, 9). It may also denote the Tribulation if one allows that Paul might have had that in mind.
Paul also relates the coming (parousia)[1] of Christ to our sanctification (1 Thess. 3:13; 5:23). In 1 Thessalonians 2:19 he writes,
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming (parousia)?
As I understand the passage Paul is saying that the saint’s fellowship in the presence of the Lord will be ample reward for their endeavors, when they all participate in Christ’s “kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 2:14).
I Thessalonians 4:13-18 is a little unusual amid the other references. For one thing there seems to be a difference between 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and 5:1-2. In the latter text the saints are well aware of the doctrine Paul is referring to, but in chapter 4 they seem to be being told something new (“I do not want you to be ignorant…”). It seems best to look at this text separately therefore.
Paul wrote about the return of Jesus as the great hope of the saint (Tit. 2:13). But he also saw it as the great hope of the earth. These two things are brought together in Romans 8 where he envisages a transformation of the saints that triggers environmental changes, thus bringing the believer’s hope into the realm of the larger Creation Project:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. – Romans 8:18-19.
Here the apostle is contrasting the troubles of life with “the glory which shall be revealed in us.” He personifies the created order as straining in expectation for something he calls “the revealing of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19). So, Paul says that the humanity which in Adam originally came from the earth (Gen. 2:7), becomes the hope of the earth’s chances of regeneration. Creation’s regeneration hinges on the glorification of saved humanity.[2]
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. – Romans 8:20-23.
Paul’s reasoning here is “that the creation was subjected to futility” as a consequence of the Fall. When one looks at Genesis 1 it becomes clear that the first five days of creation and the first half of the sixth day were all preparation for the creation of man in Genesis 1:26-27. What God does next brings home to us the connection that Paul refers to in Romans 8 between human glorification and the world’s regeneration. God explicitly puts the responsibility for creation into the hands of man as His image in Genesis 1:28-30. Therefore, the fact that the fortunes of man and those of his natural environment are still intertwined at the second coming is important to notice. But someone might ask, “where is the second coming in Romans 8:20-23?” It is found in the doctrine of “the redemption of the body” (Rom. 8:23). To see this more clearly consider two texts from 1 Corinthians 15:
But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. – 1 Corinthians 15:23.
The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. – 1 Corinthians 15:47-49.
The context concerns the resurrection body. In 1 Corinthians 15:23 we are told that we shall receive a body similar to Christ’s resurrection body “at His [second] coming.” Hence, “the glory which shall be revealed in us” and “the revealing of the sons of God” which Romans 8:18-19 speaks about occurs when Jesus returns. Many read 1 Corinthians 15:47 as a reference to the first coming, but eschatological note is unmistakable. We “shall…bear the image” of the resurrected Jesus.
Again Philippians 3:20-21 says,
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
The Christian has been born into “this present evil world” (Gal.1:4), but they no longer belong to it. They possess the right to enter heaven; a right bought for them by Jesus Christ. And according to Philippians 3:21 it is Christ who will “transform our lowly body” by glorifying it. The apostle John will echo this truth later in the first century (1 Jn. 3:2).
We do well to take stock of the importance that Paul places on Christ’s second coming. He pins all of our hopes upon it. Therefore, it is simply untrue to assert that for Paul “the linchpin of Paul’s eschatology is the proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah,”[3] if this identification does not place great emphasis on His return. This is borne out by the preceding passages and the weight of hope they bear.
[1] From Paul’s usage of the two verbs here I believe the “revealing” and the “coming” of Christ are the same event.
[2] This earthly regeneration is guaranteed by its connection with the glorification of believers, which is locked-in by the decree of God. See Romans 8:30.
[3] L. J. Kreitzer, “Eschatology,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne and Ralph P. Martin, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1993, 256.
