Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted with permission from Gifts of Grace by Jared C. Wilson, recently published by The Good Book Company. This book is available everywhere Christian books are sold.

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“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”—1 Peter 1:13

“You can’t sing Christmas carols yet!” Thus began an email I once received while serving as a pastor of a small congregation in New England. The sender wasn’t angry—just concerned. I puzzled over the directive, as it was the first time I could remember ever encountering such an assertion. The context gave the reasoning: because, I was told, Advent is about anticipating the birth of the Messiah, we shouldn’t sing songs celebrating that birth until the Sunday after December 25th.

I confess this was a tall order for me, especially given that I live in a household that decorates for Christmas around the end of October and begins playing Christmas music nonstop before the end of November. “What do you mean, I can’t sing Christmas carols yet?”

The concept of “advent,” of course, refers to an arrival or a coming. During the advent season, Christians redirect their focus to the spirit of anticipation of the first advent of Christ. We do this to affirm the incarnation more thoroughly and commemorate the beginning of the New Testament gospel story with more joy.

But I sometimes struggle with the way many Advent observances are conducted. The forbidding of songs about Jesus’ birth before Christmas Day is one such practice. It just feels a bit too much like playacting to me. I know why these things are insisted upon—it allegedly better helps us get “in the spirit” of Advent and is thought to heighten the joys of Christmas Day observance. But I’m telling you, it’s hard for me to act as if I’m waiting for the birth of the Messiah when I know he’s already come and, indeed, has already been crucified, buried, and raised, and has ascended to where he came from!

Second Advent

I don’t know about you, but I can’t pretend every year that Jesus hasn’t been born, even if doing so might help me muster up some extra-spiritual feelings. But there is one thing I can do that helps get me close to that pre-Christian sense of anticipation: I can think hard about the second coming of Christ—the one still ahead, the second advent.

In fact, the feelings most of us have right now about the state of the world and the sin, chaos, and brokenness that seem to reign everywhere we look is very much like the feelings of those who anticipated the first coming of the Messiah. “How long, O Lord?” is a cry that goes up throughout the Old Testament, a lament for the shalom of Eden, which was lost at the fall, and an expression of grief over the evil, suffering, and injustice continually pervading the earth. How in the world could the children of God before the time of Christ remain faithful year after year, decade after decade, century after century as the arrival of their righteous King seemed to be delayed? 

Our Hope is Still in God

And how in the world can we in the 21st century remain faithful as the Lord, in his second coming, appears to tarry? After seeing so much bloodshed on a daily basis and feeling so much heartbreak year after year, knowing that in so many places hostility to Christianity is always increasing, and knowing that for all the technological, medical, and other intellectual advances mankind can make, we are no closer to eradicating injustice in the world, much less death, how do we not give in to despair?

The answer is hope.

Before Christ’s first coming, God’s people hoped in God. And before Christ’s second coming, God’s people hope in God.

Our Hope is God

God had birthed this hope in the children of Israel through his past faithfulness and goodness to them, so much so that the psalmist could say, despite his depression, that he knew he would come to a place of praise again (Psalm 42:11); the prophet could say that the God he felt was giving him the silent treatment was nevertheless still his only hope (Isaiah 8:17); and the sufferer could say that even if God killed him, he would still hope in him (Job 13:15).

They didn’t know how long it would take to get to their deliverance, but they knew in their bones that it was coming. And this is why the people of God in all times hope differently than the people of the world. When the world hopes, there is the prospect of unfulfillment. The world “hopes” something will happen, but they know it might not. That’s not how God’s people hope. Our hope comes with assurance (Hebrews 11:1), our hope abides (1 Corinthians 13:13), and our hope will “not put us to shame” or disappoint us (Romans 5:5). Why? Because our hope is not in other people or in the times or even in ourselves—these things always change and are all stained by the fall.

No, our hope is in God! In fact, our hope is God!

Our Hope is Living

So I can sing Christmas songs on December 1 and still get close to feeling how those who wrapped themselves in messianic expectation felt before that first Christmas Day, because I know what it’s like to feel the weight of the weariness of the world around me but be anchored by the sure and steady hope of the Messiah to come. In 1 Peter 1:13, the apostle Peter instructs us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be coming to us at the coming of Jesus. Our hope cannot be half-hearted like the world’s because our King is tried and true. And Peter connects this hoping fully in grace to readiness for action and sobriety of mind. When people hope in things that may or may not be true, they can become lazy and muddled. But when we hope in Jesus, we find the reason and the energy to live and to think in ways that magnify Jesus.

And this is itself a gift from God. As Peter says earlier in the chapter, God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). And in giving us Christ by grace, God has also given us “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Today, then, as you think about what may feel like a long road of Advent before you, remember that as tired or wounded as this season may find you, the day is coming—and not too far off now—when the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) will appear and you will be able to say, “I knew it all along!” If it helps you hope, you could even sing some Christmas carols today.