knowing there’s a “holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). How will we seek to love Christ by obeying his commandment to love each other (John 13:34; 14:15), and help one another pursue a “pure heart and good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:5), when we must discern what purity means for us in our place in the world and in history?
To encourage Christians to pursue holiness and make this pursuit most adaptable to culture, time periods, and individuals, God wisely determined we should not be governed by detailed rules of sexual purity, but by the principles that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) and that we must “love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).
The Second Coming
The first coming of the Messiah was cloaked in prophecy. Jesus came just as it was written about him and yet so few recognized him. He came in a way no one expected and did what no one expected. It was all there in the Scriptures, but even his closest friends who listened most to him didn’t fully see it until he helped them see (Luke 24:27).The second coming will be similar. We have the prophecies, but the timing, events, and meaning of symbolism in Scripture have provoked much debate throughout church history.
Why didn’t God say more? One reason is because God always wants Christians to live in dependent expectation of Jesus’s imminent return. “The Son of Man is coming at an hour [we] do not expect” (Luke 12:40) because he means for us to “stay awake at all times” (Luke 21:36), and keep our lamps trimmed (Matthew 25:1–13). God knows our fight against indwelling sin, and our sense of urgency for the mission is better served by knowing Christ’s return could be at any time than that he will be long delayed (Matthew 24:45–51; 1 Corinthians 7:29).
Wisdom in the Silence
So much more could be said about what God doesn’t say. But what’s important to remember is this: God is very wise and intentional in what he makes clear to us and does not make clear to us.Jesus understands the cry of “why?” that pours out of a heart in pain. He too made this cry in the hour of his greatest agony: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). And there was no thunderous answer. So in dark silence he endured the cross in faith for our salvation and our example (Hebrews 12:2).
God wants us to live by faith, trusting his reliable promises more than our unreliable perceptions (2 Corinthians 5:7). But a thorough, careful reading of the Bible causes us to detect in God’s wise silence the dark matter of divine revelation: God’s trustworthy purposes in not telling us everything.
Because of what he does make clear, we can learn to trust him just as much in what he does not make clear. God is silent for only very good reasons.
