New Year’s Eve: A Serious Admonition

Though we always need to be confronted with the gravity and brevity of life, this is certainly true on New Year’s Eve. It is the duty of each of us to urge one another to seriously consider these words. The apostle wrote them to the strangers, scattered throughout the Diaspora, devoted as he was regarding his divine commission. In doing this he followed the divine example of his great Master who also was very loyal to His Father’s mandate. He summoned Israel’s multitudes to search their souls while traveling to eternity.

Peter told the congregation, “The end is at hand”— the end of all things. What does this mean? It points to the last era of the world’s history. It directs us to the last step of Christ’s exaltation. For after the steps of humiliation — His humble birth, His passion, His death, His burial and descent into hell — followed the steps of His exaltation. In triumph He arose from the dead. In full glory He ascended into heaven where He now sits at His Father’s right hand. Only one step is still waiting to be fulfilled, i.e., His return to judge the living and the dead. The Church of old looked forward to this highest step of His exaltation. They sang of this:

He comes, He comes to judge the people,
Arrayed in truth and equity;
The world shall He redeem from evil,
And righteous shall His judgment be.

— Psalter 424:4b

Prior to His return we must examine ourselves, what this means for us. That is the reason Peter warns us, for unto us time is given to prepare ourselves, and His return comes nearer and nearer.

How long will He wait to return? When will it take place? How soon will He come again? That is hidden for us. For “of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels, but My Father only.” But the fact that it is coming closer is as clear as can be. Annually we can observe an example of this in the fields; it shows us a sign of completion. There had been sowing, there was some increase, then mowing, and then ... the end. We can also see it in worldly events which are portrayed in Scripture. We hear of wars and rumors of wars, and the tumults of the nations. All of this teaches us that the end is at hand. Peter says, “The end of all things.”

This also includes the end of the offer and disposition of grace which the Lord has locked into His computation of time. In this period of grace God has determined the time of our life, between our birth and our death. In this God-given term of time we must learn to know a God for our heart and a Surety for our guilt which the Holy Spirit sovereignly works.

When the clock strikes twelve on December 31, another year is gone — a year that has flown away, which we have spent “as a tale that is told.”

Hours, days, months, and years,
Fly away as a shadow.

The end of all things is at hand, including the end of the day of grace. Soon the candlestick of God’s Word shall by snuffed out. Then God’s faithful servants shall not exhort against sin anymore. There shall be no more preaching of the riches of free grace; no more pointing anymore to the all-paying, cleansing, and atoning blood of Christ. The door shall be double-locked then, once and for all. “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” The end is coming close. It can appear suddenly, unexpectedly. When the rich fool (Luke 12) opened his eyes, it was too late. He had lived to enjoy every minute, never thinking about his end.

What a privilege if we may ask with David, “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days....”! Consider how suddenly during the past year the end came for some of our dear relatives or friends. What smarting wounds, what empty places speak about the seriousness of our short life! Really, “The end of all things is at hand.”

When God’s people began to know their end, it became a wonder to them that the Lord had not yet cut off their life while still living in the land of the dying. Condemned by God’s law, at the end of their own works, they learned that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

For them Peter’s warning that the end is at hand means the end of all sin, of all struggles, of all enemies, and of their own foolish egotism. Their end shall be the beginning of an epoch in which no more years shall come and go. Then shall begin an unlimited era of enjoying a perpetual fellowship with Him who in this temporal life overcomes them as the stronger One, prevails upon them, implants them in Christ, forgives their sins, and translates into the kingdom of His dear Son.

The earth and heav’ns shall pass away,
Like vesture worn and laid aside,
But changeless Thou shalt live for aye,
Thy years forever shall abide.

— Psalter 274:3

Rev. P. Blok is pastor of the Netherlands Reformed Congregation (Gereformeerde Gemeente) of Kootwijkerbroek, The Netherlands. These two articles are translated from De Saambinder.

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