What does the phrase “this too shall pass” mean? What is the significance of this phrase to the believer?
The Origin of “This too shall Pass”
You’ve probably heard the phrase “This too shall pass” but what does it mean? Where did it come from? Is it in the Bible? It could have been a paraphrase of what is found in Acts 2:21 which says “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Peter is quoting Joel 2:32 which says “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.” The survivors, unlike the television shows characters, will escape this great Day of Judgment because they have called upon the name of the Lord and were saved (Acts 4:12). What is it that they survive? It is the Day of God’s visitation or judging the world. This Day will come to pass, to be sure, because Jesus says of His Word “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Matt 24:35) and the psalmist declares of God’s Word “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (119:89). What is to come to pass, will come to pass but no one knows when it comes to pass “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matt 24:36).
Coming to Pass
There are some very awesome things that are yet to come to pass for the believer in Christ. In the first place, believers have already had their sins judged at the cross as it was “for sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2nd Cor 5:21). Another thing that is coming to pass is “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1st Cor 15:54). This is when we will see the glory of the Lord for the very first time and all of the sufferings we endure now will pale in comparison (Rom 8:18) because “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev 21:3). This is why “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2nd Cor 4:16-18).
The Passing Over
When God brought Israel out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, He established the very first Passover. He passed over their sins but only if they had the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintel. This “passing over” of sins foreshadowed the coming work of Christ Whose own death would provide the blameless Lamb of God’s blood in order that we could apply it to the doorposts and lintel’s of our hearts. Now, God would pass over us in the judgment because our sins have already been judged by God at the cross by Christ.
It Shall Come to Pass
Perhaps Isaiah 2:2-3a comes the closest to the phrase “This too shall pass” as he writes “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” At that time, all of men’s “idols shall utterly pass away” (Isaiah 2:18) and leading into the New Jerusalem will be “a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray” (Isaiah 35:8).
What comes to pass in your life is totally up to you. If you have repented and forsaken or turned away from your sins and then placed your trust in Jesus Christ, all that is ahead of you is joy that cannot even be described Rev 21, 22). If you haven’t yet been saved and Jesus was to Jesus return today, then you will have unspeakable horror for all time (Rev 20:12-15; 21:8).
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.