Making Sense of Advent

In a recent article on “Observing Advent Aright,” Jonathan Gibson notes how the Bible speaks of Jesus’ coming (or advent) in two ways:  his first appearing through his incarnation and birth; and his second coming—the final advent of Christ at the end of time.

These two comings are very different from each other, and yet it’s important to keep them connected.  Jesus’ first appearing was, in several ways, obscure and quiet, but his second coming will be public and grand.  The tone of Christ’s first advent is captured by “O Little Town of Bethlehem”:  “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.”  But his second coming is well depicted by the hymn, “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending”:  “Ev’ry eye shall now behold him, rob’d in dreadful majesty.”

“If he came the first time in quiet humility to the few, he will come the second time in rapturous glory to the many.”  And yet, as Gibson notes, the Son of God’s two advents are inseparably connected:  Christ’s first coming was to inaugurate his kingdom reign (Mark 1:15) and secure redemption for his people (10:45); but only with his second coming will his kingship be fully realized and applied (2 Timothy 4:1).  “What Christ began to do in his first coming, he will return to complete in his second coming.”

In his classic work, “On the Incarnation,” the fourth-century theologian Athanasius sums up by spotlighting the first advent of Christ, the revelation of his Godhead.  He then asserts, “From the Scrip­tures you will learn also of His second manifestation to us, glorious and divine indeed, when He shall come not in lowliness but in His proper glory, no longer in humiliation but in majesty, no longer to suffer but to bestow on us all the fruit of His cross—the resurrection and incorruptibility.”

Gibson closes:  this Advent season, let us not separate what God has joined together—glad remembrance of Christ’s birth, and sure confidence of his future appearance to judge and reign.