The Meaning of Advent: How We Prepare Ourselves For Christ

Collect For First Sunday of Advent:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

We have now come to the beginning of Advent season when we look back to the first coming of Christ as a baby born in Bethlehem in humiliation and look forward to his second coming in glory and great power to renew and fully redeem every part of fallen creation. During Advent we are reminded to prepare ourselves and the world for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How Do We Prepare?

Preaching the Gospel

First, we prepare the world for Christ’s coming by preaching the gospel of Christ to sinners. Knowing Christ as Savior and Lord is the most important thing the world needs. Hence sharing and proclaiming this good news of the death and resurrection of Christ wherever we find ourselves in season and out of season is an absolute necessity in the plan of God for the church in the world as we anticipate the advent of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Repent and Believe

Second, if you’re not a Christian you prepare yourself for the coming of Christ by turning from sin to Christ. Being a member of the church is good and commendable but it is not enough. You may simply be a good and zealous good-hearted religious person in the Church and that is good but you need to give your life to Christ by turning from sin, believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and committing to follow him in obedience as the Lord of your life. This is important because many people who go to Church are not Christians, that is, they are not regenerate in Christ. Our Lord Jesus said in John 3 that unless a person is regenerated(born again) by the Holy Spirit he/she will not see and cannot enter the kingdom of God. Those words of our Lord Jesus should be taken seriously before it is too late. You are not a Christian in the biblical sense of the word if your life is marked by bitterness, tribalism, sexual sin, racism, greed and corruption, power and position-mongering, lying, gossiping, duplicity, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Paul the apostle wrote sternly “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (cf: Galatians 5:19-21). We must heed the warning of the apostle and turn to Christ from the heart. As Bishop J C Ryle rightly wrote “To say that we are sorry for our sins is mere hypocrisy, unless we show that we are really sorry for them by giving them up”. Your penitent faith in Christ should be demonstrable in the way you live if it is genuine.

Living a Holy Life

Third, as believers we prepare for the second coming of Christ by living holy and obedient lives. Peter the apostle in 2 Peter 3:11-12 writes “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!” God has called us to a life of holiness in word and deed. Faith in Christ with holiness of life is what differentiates us from the secular world. Jesus said that “By their fruits you shall know them”. It is by our fruits we shall be known as to whether we are truly his disciples or not. What fruits are you bearing- righteous or sinful fruits? A changed life is the true sign of genuine faith and holiness of life. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in his Homily on Faith wrote, “Deceive not yourselves therefore, thinking that you have faith in God, or that you love God, or do trust in him, or do fear him, when you live in sin; for then your ungodly and sinful life declareth the contrary, whatsoever you say or think…..Thy deeds and works must be an open testimonial of thy faith; otherwise thy faith, being without good works, is but the devil’s faith, the faith of the wicked, a fantasy of faith, and not a true christian faith …Therefore, as you profess the name of Christ, good Christian people, let no such fantasy and imagination of faith at any time beguile you; but be sure of your faith: Try it(test it) by your living”.
The life of a truly regenerated Christian is marked by faith in Christ as well as truthfulness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, pursuit of unity and peace in the church and sharing the gospel of Christ (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesian 4).

Let us take to heart the warning of Bishop J C Ryle:

“The saddest road to hell is the one that runs under the pulpit, past the Bible, and through the middle of warnings and invitations.”

Bishop JC Ryle

May the Lord in his mercy enable us to use this season of Advent for prayer, repentance, spiritual reflection, deeper reading of the Scriptures, preaching the gospel, renewed commitment to godliness of life, rekindling of our love for Christ and his mission in preparation for the second coming of Christ.