Question: I believe that Jesus is coming back but I'm not sure if I'm ready to meet Him. I could never meet His expectations, for I am human and a sinner.

Answer: Thank you for honestly expressing your apprehension about the coming of the Lord. Like you I confess that "I am human and a sinner." I am ashamed how often I fall short of the holiness and love that should characterize my life in Christ Jesus.

Yet I can honestly say that I am ready for His return; I wait for Him with joy and great expectation. Don't think that I am being presumptuous. If I had to depend on my own goodness to be accepted by God, I would rather hide in the deepest cave of the mountains. I am unworthy. In myself I only deserve Hell.

But praise be to God: my salvation does not rest on myself. I am the sinner, He is the Saviour. I am the sin, He is the sacrifice. I am ready because I trust in Him to save me from the wrath of God to be revealed on that momentous day. "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us" (1 Thessalonians 5:9,10).

Would you prayerfully read the following passage and re-think the whole question on salvation?

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God...Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:1-10).

Those who trust in Christ are "justified by faith" - they are right with God and at peace with Him. They are not at peace with God because they live perfect and sinless lives. There are no such creatures on this planet. They are at peace with God because they are justified by faith - the faith that reaches away from oneself to Another for righteousness and pardon. It is by Christ, and specifically by His blood, that they are justified before God.

By His death, Christ reconciled His own people to God. By His everlasting life, He is the eternal guarantee of their salvation. The Bible promises us who believe in Jesus Christ that we shall be saved from the wrath to come by our living Saviour.

I hope that, looking away from yourself, you fix your eyes upon the Saviour, Jesus Christ, and place all your confidence in Him for salvation. The last words of Jesus recorded in the Holy Scripture are a promise of His return. "Surely I am coming quickly." His people answer with enthusiasm and glorious anticipation: "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"