Could you comment on our Lord’s return mentioned in Matthew 24:42–44 in relation to 2 Peter 3:11–12?

This text is from a transcript of a question-and-answer session with David Gooding.

I think it is undeniable that, whenever our Lord and his apostles speak on prophetic things—whether they speak of the Lord's coming and the various events and stages in it, or whether they talk of the end of the world and the new heavens and new earth—they always draw two practical lessons.

One is that we should be ready for the Lord's coming, having used our talents and gifts faithfully; then in that coming day we may share with Christ in the government and administration of those coming ages. Our position and our reward in that day shall be determined by the way we have faithfully used our talents here for the Lord.

Second, it seems to me to be the burden of 2 Peter that, in view of the coming eternal kingdom, we should give diligence not merely to work for the Lord, but to develop Christian virtue and character. As Peter put it, the entrance into the eternal kingdom might not just be ministered to us, but ministered to us richly (2 Peter 1:11).

Let me make it absolutely clear: the entrance to the eternal kingdom is solely on the grounds of grace. They whose robes have been washed enter in through the gates of the city (see Revelation 22:14). By grace every believer will enter. If I understand what Peter is saying, he is drawing a distinction between the entering, which is granted to all true believers, and an abundant entrance, which depends on adding, in the power of our faith, Christian virtue and character.

I do not know how you visualize that eternal state. Perhaps you cannot visualize it at all. Some of us visualize it like a big room; like a palace. Our Lord used the metaphor, 'my Father's house', and I am content as a believer to think of it as my Father's house—I will be going home. The eternal kingdom will not be just a place to be: it will be an experience to be enjoyed. How much we are able to enjoy it will depend, it seems to me from 2 Peter, on how we have taken the trouble to cooperate with God, to add the sundry Christian virtues.

Here are two brothers. When school is over, one lad goes home and suggests a game of table tennis with dad, and they enjoy it immensely. He could not think of anything bigger to enjoy, and goes to bed happy. 'Ah, this is home,' he says, 'playing table tennis with dad.' The other lad, having paid attention to his physics at school, goes home, and he happens to be aware that his father is very knowledgeable on astronomy. He too plays table tennis with his dad, but when he is tired of that, he starts asking dad what new things he has seen on his telescope. He has a tremendous time. The other lad does not know what they are talking about. Both brothers are at home, they both enjoy dad, but one has enjoyed a bit more about dad than the other.

Every believer is going home to the Father's house; we shall all enjoy the Father. There will be differences between an entrance and an abundant entrance. It is not cleverness that makes the difference, it is the laying hold of the exceeding great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4). God has given us all things that are necessary to life and godliness; we are to give all diligence in the power of our faith to add virtue, self-control, love and so on, in order that, when we get home to glory, we may enjoy it to the maximum.