April 29. The day is at hand. The night is foregone. The day is at hand, Romans 1312. This

is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It's a word of hope to Christians who hate their

own sin and long to be done with sinning. It's a word of hope to Christians who long for the last

enemy death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 2014. How is it a word of

hope for all these? The night stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death.

And what does Paul say about it? The night is far gone. The age of sin and misery and death is

almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning. You might say

2,000 years seems like a long dawn. From one standpoint, it is and we cry. How long,

O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of how

long. It looks at world history differently. The key difference is that the day, the new age of

the Messiah has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age.

That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world.

Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle

of the ages is over. The kingdom is come. Eternal life has come. And when the dawn happens,

as it did in the coming of Jesus, no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn

draws out 2,000 years, as Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 8, do not overlook this one fact beloved.

That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.