GETTING THE MESSAGE/Know your need of grace

In Revelation 20:1-6, the binding of Satan is connected to the reigning of the saints in heaven with Christ. The victory Christ won over the devil was by way of the cross; the victory his people win over the devil is by way of trusting in Christ despite the wiles and ways of the devil. What we need is grace and strength, and that is what the Lord provides.

Revelation 20:7-10 describes what will happen when Satan is unbound. He will deceive the nations and gather them for battle against those who belong to Christ. Gog and Magog represent the whole, united forces of the world against the church. The “camp of the saints” is an allusion to the pilgrimage that Christians make through this world to the place Christ has prepared for them.

The end comes quickly. Fire comes from heaven to consume the enemies of God’s people, and the devil is thrown into the lake of fire. We may wish we had more details about the last battle, but the Lord assures his people they will be on solid ground when it comes.

In Ezekiel 39, when the Lord says he will destroy Gog and Magog, he says, “My holy name I will make known to my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore.” The Lord doesn’t speak mere words: there is substance and truth in his promises and warnings. Fire from heaven is an exclamation point on the vengeance of God against sin. There is no recourse or remedy after it comes, so there are a couple of important points to consider.

One is the recalcitrance of evil. The word recalcitrance could be used in education for a defiant or rebellious student, resistant to any approach of the teacher to teach him or reform him. The devil can be called recalcitrant in that God has given him over to evil and there is no reforming him. A student may be reformed at some point, but the devil never will be.

Satan was bound for 1000 years, plainly limited by the sovereignty of God, but he attempts to make no terms with God. His power and malice make him proud and cruel. When he is set free, he immediately deceives men in all nations to make war on the people of God. 

The nations of men are also recalcitrant. By the time Christ comes, the gospel will have gone to the ends of the earth, but they have remained in rebellion to God, despite the overtures of peace from the Lord Jesus.  Slighting God’s gracious word and patience leads to a hard heart.

There are warnings to not harden your heart when you hear the word of God. In Romans 2, Paul says, “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? Because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself.” Resisting God is no honest mistake, and that will be evident when the Lord comes. Now is the time to be humble before the Lord and listen to him.

The other point is the blessedness of the Christian. The saints are under assault from the world and the devil, but they belong to the “beloved city.” The beloved city is the redeemed, the church, Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. In Hebrews 12 we read, “You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

Psalm 87 says, “The Lord loves the gates of Zion. Glorious things of you are spoken O city of God.” Those who belong to the city are said to know God and to have been born there.  We go from strangers to God to children of God by way of the new birth.

Those who know Christ have been born of God. The first sign of the new birth is to know your need of grace, that you don’t deserve favor from God. This puts your soul in the proper frame to see the blessing of having all sins forgiven. Then you know that without Christ given to you, you can give up on any hope of heaven.  By faith in Christ, you become a citizen of the beloved city. Those who belong to Christ have no more probability of condemnation than Christ being condemned.

Being a member of the beloved city means your name is in the book of life. If you have grace, then you must live by grace. You need to prove that you belong to the city. You have been contracted by Christ to bear gracious fruit until that day. Let him find us doing our Masters work on that day.

The Rev. Chris Shelton is pastor of Union’s First Presbyterian Church.