“Christ has taken too long to come back!”: some say.
Why is He still in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary?
Who is He patiently waiting for?
Is it the papacy (the beast power) or the rebellious Protestant world?
Who is delaying Christ’s second coming?
It’s not them.
It’s us: the professed bearers of the Lord’s oracles.
But how are we delaying Him?
As long as the professed children of God remain trapped in sin, Christ must continue His intercessory work in the Heavenly Sanctuary. Every time we confess our sins, He forgives us by virtue of His shed blood. But this means our sins are transferred into the sanctuary: defiling it. Hence the need for its cleansing.
Let’s reflect on the earthly sanctuary:
When someone sinned, they brought a lamb or goat, confessed their sin over it (transferring the guilt symbolically), and killed the offering with their own hands. The priest then sprinkled the blood before the veil and on the altar, transferring the sin into the sanctuary itself. By the end of the year, the sanctuary was defiled and required cleansing on the Day of Atonement.
So it is with the Heavenly Sanctuary.
The more God’s people sin, the longer Christ remains in the Sanctuary to intercede and forgive.
Christ desires to reproduce His character in His people: but many won’t allow Him to do so. The result? A life bound in sin, lacking victory and power.
What Is the Present Truth for Our Generation?
It is the same message Jesus began His ministry with:
“Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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Until we fully surrender: our will, mind, strength, spirit, and heart—we remain the reason His coming is delayed.
He declared:
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
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But we can only preach the gospel effectively if it has first transformed us.
How will the world be convinced of a gospel we ourselves do not live?
Christ is calling for complete surrender so He can work mightily through us. This is powerfully captured in these words:
“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.
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“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:12, margin). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.
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