April 29.

The day is at hand.

The night is far gone.

The day is at hand, Romans 13, 12.

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 deaths 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

is 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.

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