The Coming Again of the Lord Jesus
Table of Contents
The Coming Again of the Lord Jesus: Part 1
"Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."- Heb, ix. 28.
The coming again of the Lord Jesus is spoken of in Scripture as one event, but with varying aspects according to the bearing and moral connections in which it is presented. It is my purpose, if the Lord will, to notice it in these different aspects for the stirring up of our souls to a more earnest desire for the accomplishment of this end of all our hopes.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints is very distinct in its aspect from His coming to the world. The grand distinction however which Scripture teaches us to make is between the coming of the Lord and the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is always invested with terrors and never presented as the attractive object of hope. Whether spoken of in the Old Testament or in the New, it is always in connection with judgment. In Mal. 4, 5 it is called " the great and dreadful day of the Lord;" and in Zeph. 1:15 it is said, " that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress." And in the New Testament the Apostle Peter says, " the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10.) But if there be one thing in Scripture more distinctive than another it is this, that as surely as faith in the object of our Lord's first coming delivers from the moral judgment of God on account of our sins, so His second coming delivers from all material judgment, which will be the world's portion on account of His rejection. If my heart has received Christ in His coining in grace, it gives me a personal, and distinctive, and essential connection with Him in His coining in glory. " When Christ who is our life shall appear [mark the term] then shall ye also appear with him in glory."
Let it be said then that the primary aspect of the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Christian is that of simple, unconditional, unembarrassed hope. Our Lord has said, and He will surely not mock our expectations, " I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Here it is plain His coming again and our being with Him, in all the happiness of the Father's house, the happiness, and light, and eternal joy He rose to when He had accomplished redemption for us, is presented as the direct and immediate fruit of His own love and grace, and as dependent upon nothing else. Thus simply is the coming of the Lord presented in the divine word as our animating hope. But it has also another bearing to the Christian. It is connected with his responsibility to Christ. Hence the apostle's solemn charge to Timothy, " I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." The appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ marks the limit of christian responsibility; and it is then, we are taught, that there will be the awards for service. For we must never forget, however bright may be our hope, that our Lord and Master has said, " Occupy till I come."
As to the general subject, it is of immense importance that we should ascertain for ourselves from Scripture, apart from any theories about it, whether or not it is presented there as an immediate hope; that is, however it may be delayed in God's long-suffering to the world, whether it is a hope whose accomplishment may be looked for at any time, or which must of necessity await the fulfillment of certain intervening prophetic events. With the hopes of Israel the events of prophecy have an intimate connection. But the church is not the subject, in any proper sense, of prophecy at all. Prophecy has its range in the events and circumstances of this world. The Apocalypse itself is no exception to this principle, since it takes up as its subject the general external profession of Christianity, as responsible to God, and traces its course onward to its issue in judgment. In this respect it is like " the olive-tree" of Rom. 11 It is true that the church, as composed of the members of Christ, while it is continued in the world, must necessarily be found within the scope of this profession; but its peculiar relationship to Christ at the same time takes it out of the stream of earthly events and circumstances as to its position and hope. It is expressly declared that when Christ is manifested in glory, whether for the deliverance and establishment of His ancient people or for the judgment of the nations that have falsely professed His name, His saints, whom He acknowledges as members of His body, will be with Him. And in Rev. 19, where He is presented as coming forth to judge the array of man's evil and rebellion, who-Cher as portrayed in" Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," or, " the beast and the false prophet," it is said that " the armies in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean." It is not difficult to determine whom these armies in heaven comprise. Nor is it difficult to conclude that those who are to be with Christ when He is manifested' in glory must have been taken to be with Him before He is thus manifested.
Morally, it is personal attachment to Christ, springing from our knowledge of Him and our intercourse with Him that makes His corning again a living and an animating hope. It is well to remove, if it may be done, the difficulties that beset the subject (though these are comparatively few when Scripture is allowed to speak for itself), and also to show the grounds of this hope from the divine word; but nothing can give it power in the soul except a true and real attachment to Christ as One known to the heart in the love He has manifested in dying for us, and especially in the revelation He has given us of the pre sent and eternal intimacy of our association with Himself. Let any one read John 17, not merely as a portion of the abstract truth of the gospel, but as the outflow of the holy desires of that heart that beats in affection towards Himself as never heart beside could beat; and, above and beyond all the wondrous change of circumstances which His coming will introduce us to, let him ask if there is another desire that can rival that one of being with Him and seeing Him as He is?
I do not speak of the times in which we live, though I do not question that our subject, without overstepping the limits of revelation, might receive an enhancement from such a consideration. For what thoughtful mind is there that can fail to discern in the condition of society at large, especially in professedly christian countries, the moral signs and foreshadows of the last days? But leaving this, I pursue the subject as presented in the Scriptures of truth.
In doing this I propose to take up the divine testimonies of the word in the order in which they are there given to us. And if I do so in a series of papers, which I propose, it will obviate the necessity of so pressing on with the isolated point of proof, as to pass over unnoticed that which is of equal importance, the connections in which the general truth is presented.
Formerly, it might have been necessary by argument and induction to endeavor to establish as a preliminary the certainty of the pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus; but I apprehend that this is no longer the case with those who seriously look to the Scriptures as their guide. The danger now to be feared is lest it should quietly take its place as an admitted truth with other admitted truths, and become, like them, uninfluential on the soul.
I assume, then, on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this was to be the moral attitude of His disciples from the time He left them to His coming again: " Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning: and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding." Now, however many generations of His servants may have fallen asleep since these words of our common Master were uttered, it is to me demonstrable that no length of time of His tarriance can give any of us a warrant to set aside this practical direction and to substitute something else in its place. It is equally demonstrable from Scripture, that however death, in the good pleasure of God, may supervene, Christians are never set to look for death as their hope, but for the coming of the Lord. Nor can the different moral effect of the one and of the other be estimated by those whose minds are not formed in this respect on the specialty of the revelation of the divine word. I may affirm that death is so abolished by Christ, and " life and immortality are [so] brought to light through the gospel," that death is not, in the New Testament, urged as a necessity to the Christian, much less is it ever held forth as an object of hope. I may, if the will of God be so, through death be carried a stage forward toward my hope; but neither is it my hope nor do I by death reach my hope. " To depart and be with Christ is far better." Who would let this go, as giving its true character to a Christian's death? But it is not the attainment of the object of his hope. It is but waiting still. In happier circumstances it is true; but still it is waiting. If " the earnest expectation of the creation waits"-waits as with outstretched neck-it is " for the manifestation of the sons of God." But what do we, and all saints wait for, if our hope is that of Scripture? Let the apostle answer: " Ourselves also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." It is not until the redemption of his body from the grave that the believer enters into glory. If absent from the body, he is present with the Lord; but he is not glorified, nor in glory. This only results from Christ's own presence in glory. " Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus: who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body." This testimony of the word is decisive on this point (there are many others equally so) that whether we are in this world or in that world to which death transfers us it is to the coming of the Lord alone we must look as the time in which His power will wrest from death that trophy which he has yet in his keeping and make our vile bodies, even, partakers of His glory. As to the resurrection of the bodies of His saints it is said distinctly that this will be at Christ's coming [" Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his corning"]; and it is also said, " the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [i.e., those who are alive at Christ's coining] shall be changed."
It is not enough dwelt upon that the ultimate purpose of God toward us in redemption is that we should be " conformed to the image of his Son." Now while the argumentative importance of this passage may have been seized as establishing the apostle's doctrine concerning the foreknowledge and purpose of God, it seems to me that its force as a positive statement concerning the final destiny of the children of God has been much overlooked. The full statement of the passage is, " whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." In a word, redemption, in its final results to those who are the subjects of it, is declared to be this, that they will be conformed to the image of God's Son. This is definite. And how wonderful a subject is it of contemplation and of sure expectancy! But this is redemption. " As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And that upon the principle that, " as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly." This is a result now. Identity of nature is affirmed of the one and of the other; and it is declared that this will issue, in infinite grace, in identity of likeness and condition ere long. Who can help saying, while this divine purpose of love is before the soul, " Come, Lord Jesus?"
If it is not given to us to lift the vail from death that we may see the final condition, and experience, and employments of those who have passed its portals in the faith of the Lord Jesus, still it is wonderful to note the definiteness of Scripture as to the immediate result of the transition from the seen to the unseen world, and to trace the various steps in the divine actings by which the full and final issue will be brought about. What more wonderful and definite than the order and application of the divine power in the resurrection, as presented in 1 Cor. 15? What more wonderful and definite than the details it gives con corning the resurrection of the body, and of the positive characteristics of that body, so far as it is possible that they should in our present state be intelligibly given and apprehended? How unlike is all this to the dreams of poetry, or the conclusions of philosophy! We have not here the reasonings of a Plato-" It must be so;" but the positive assertions and details concerning the application of the divine power in the refashioning of our bodies, that go to dust, that philosophy never dreamed of. I do not speak now of the infinitely superior brightness of the Christian's hope in death; but of the definiteness with which things that lie beyond death are brought out to view. But what could possibly have advanced the apprehensions of ordinance-bound Jews, so immeasurably beyond the utmost limits of the speculations of the discursive philosophy of Greece? It is answered in the single sentence of the apostle," This we say unto you by the word of the Lord." And to Christians it may be well said, given the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and everything else, as the apostle argues, most naturally follows. His resurrection is indeed the demonstrative proof of the truth of Christianity; but it is a great deal more. It is that which alone gives coherence and consistency to every conviction of faith and every aspiration of hope that ever through the gospel found its lodgment in a christian heart. Take the resurrection of Christ from that chapter to which I have referred, and all the apostle's reasoning rushes to confusion. It is nothing but the consciousness that we are in the arms of Christ that makes the difference between the triumphant exit of the soul with the expression, " thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," and its shuddering departure to an unknown, dark, and fathomless abyss!
But beyond this, in Heb. 12:22-24, we have what I believe to be, not the presentation of an array of theological truths in figurative language, but the showing of the company we shall meet in heaven, and the order which is kept in the heavenly Jerusalem. And when the apostle says," Ye are come," &c., he teaches us with what scenes and associations our faith allies us, and which only await the removal of the curtain of time and sense to he revealed and enjoyed in all their attractiveness and in all their grandeur. And in another scene less prosaic than the last, and though presented in highest, symbol, I learn the joyousness of that company which the Lamb will gather around Himself, and the divine harmony which his blessed presence will create. " I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps; and they sung as it were a new song before the throne." And surely if the soul lists, it may catch the vibrations of this multitudinous joy and hear the pealing of this wondrous anthem. And oh 1 is there nothing in the thought of Him we shall meet there, and whose voice shall lead these heavenly chants in which with our harps of gold we shall so soon be joining that makes us feel-I long to be there? Is there nothing definite as to the character of heaven's happiness to be learned in the declaration, " And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb, is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved, shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life?" (Rev. 21:21-27.)
But I turn now from these general remarks, and observe in the prosecution of our subject that it is very important to notice when the coming again of the Lord Jesus is presented to believers as their animating hope, it is altogether apart from any question of their responsibility and unembarrassed by any conditions. It is the direct and simple fruit, in glory, of that grace which was brought to them by Christ's first appearing. " The Lord will give grace and glory." The two are in God's purpose indissolubly conjoined. If believers are looked at as members of Christ's body, it is but a natural consequence that they should be brought to share in the glory of their Head. And this is the force of that passage in Col. 1:27, " which is Christ in you the hope of glory."
The natural order of the testimony of Scripture, which I hope to take up, is that of the gospels first, and then how this hope is sustained and combined with the fuller exposition of doctrine in the epistles and subsequent books of the New Testament, The witness of the Old Testament cannot be directly adduced in relation to the coming of Christ as the hope of the Church. It may, indeed, with regard to its effects on the earth and its inhabitants under the millennial reign of Christ, as the Apostle Peter shows when speaking in the Acts, of " the times of restitution of all things" at the coming of Christ. He says, as to these " times of restitution," that " God hath spoken of them by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." The testimony of the Psalms also fills up a striking place as to this. Still the bearing is not direct and immediate on the position of those who are gathered to Christ during the time of Israel's rejection. The further prosecution of the subject I leave to the next number.
The Coming Again of the Lord Jesus: Part 2
In resuming the subject of the coming again of the Lord Jesus, I shall take up in their order the various testimonies of the Gospels and the Acts, and the other books of the New Testament, to this wonderful event, so full of terror to the world, because of its rejection of Christ and the salvation which was wrought by His first coming, but so full of hope and triumph to those who, through grace, have been taught to love His appearing.
As an introductory remark it may be said, that the coming again of the Lord as presented in the Gospels and the Acts in its general aspect is connected with the establishment of His power on earth, in what is designated " the kingdom of the Son of man." There is a sphere of divine power and rule, which in Matthew is characteristically called " the kingdom of heaven," or the reign or rule of heaven; and in Luke, " the kingdom of God," or the reign or rule of God. In this sphere, whether for judgment or subsequent blessing-so largely dwelt on in Old Testament prophecy-the power of the Lord Jesus Christ will be exercised on His return. The Gospel of John, however, is an exception to this. In the opening of Christ's ministry in John, we do not find Him calling the nation of Israel to repentance, and announcing " the reign of heaven" as at hand; but the declaration of this truth, that " he came to his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (or privilege) to become the sons (or children) of God." In accordance with this, therefore, in the fourteenth chapter, which I do not now dwell upon, He speaks of His coming again in the sole and single aspect of coming to receive these children of God to Himself, that they may be with Him, where He is, in the place which He has prepared for them in His Father's house. This is not His rule or reign. It is the promised introduction to His own eternal home-the Father's house in heaven -by Jesus as the Son of God, of those whom His unbounded grace has made partakers of life and the privilege of sonship with Himself. It is this His people are called to look for. O infinite joy to find at last such a home, and such a welcome there!
But there are other aspects of his coming. In the mere reading of Matt. 24, which I now briefly notice, it is impossible, I think, not to see that our Lord's announced return here connects itself, and its results, especially with the people among whom He exercised His personal ministry in His first advent. It presents to us emphatically the sign of His coming as " the Son of man"-the title he assumed in Israel on the rejection of His claims as the Messiah-and " the end of the age." Now it is important to remember that Matt. 13, shows the judgment of the wicked, under the figure of the tares of the field, to be in " the end of the age." And it is also said in the same chapter, " the harvest is the end of the age." But this plainly, as the chapter skews, closes the history of Christianity upon earth, as commenced by the ministry of Christ. He Himself explains the parable thus, " He that sowed the good seed is the Son of man," Sze. So that we have thus the main statements of our chapter totally taken away from any supposed connection with the destruction of Jerusalem.
The question of the disciples, in the third verse, was, " Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy corning, and of the end of the age?" To this our Lord replies by presenting (as He only could, for time and eternity are alike within His view) the general course of things in the world, in the declaration that " nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom," &c., giving at the same time a specific warning against false Christs and false prophets. This is closed by the statement (in verse 14) that this gospel of the reign should be preached in all the habitable earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end would come. From verse 15 and onward, it is plain that Jerusalem and Judea become the center of that scene upon which the coming of the Son of man breaks with the suddenness and vividness of the lightning's flash, which covers the whole horizon with its lurid gleam, and arrests the attention of every eye. This is not the symbol of hope and peace, like " the morning star," but of terror and of judgment. Moreover, the corning of " the Son of man in the clouds of heaven," links this event with that which is given in the prophet Daniel, chapter vii. 13, 14: " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
In consonance with this, our chapter presents the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, and the shortening of the days of tribulation lest " no flesh -should be saved." That is, if they were not shortened all living men in the sphere of this " great tribulation" would be cut off. There is also the warning against false Christs and false prophets: and it should be remarked that this is a second warning of the like kind. The first evidently connected itself with what took place before the destruction of Jerusalem and at the time. The second (ver. 23, 24) as certainly looks on to the closing scenes, precursory of the coming of the Son of man " with power and great glory." Then there is the sign of vengeance taken upon an apostate people-the eagles gathered to the carcass. Fur-Other, there is the warning of the days of Noah and the judgment of the flood; and, finally, there is the gathering together of the elect from the four winds." This gathering, it is to be remarked, takes place after the coming of the Son of man is seen, at least where His glory is first displayed.
From verse 45 to the end of the chapter it is plain that our Lord's instructions are moral, and not local in their application, as before. But I quote the passage in full. " Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Here we have the Lord's committal of a trust to his servants for the care and instruction and ordering of His household, while He is away and until His return. This trust was to be exercised in the constant sense of responsibility to Christ as Lord, and could only be duly kept alive by the habitual expectation of his coming again. Then follows the blessing and reward of those who have faithfully and watchfully fulfilled this allotted trust; and the unexpected coming of the Lord in judgment upon those by whom it has been betrayed. But if this be the plain expression of the general thoughts of the passage, its own vividness and force will be returned to by every faithful heart. By its terms alone a chord is struck which no comment can ever reach.
Now it is apparently on the consummation of this scene of betrayed trust that our Lord introduces the parable of the ten virgins, and in just sequence. Few can have read chapter xxv. without having been arrested with the peculiar form of its commencement. " Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened," &e. It seems as if the contemplation of the ecclesiastical domination and worldliness, of which Christendom presents so striking an example, and to which this figurative language of our Lord has been, I believe, justly applied, afforded a starting-point for the parable by which it is followed. In the previous chapter we have seen unfaithfulness and the spirit and habits of the world traced back, by an unerring hand, to the thought of the heart which is thus expressed, " my lord delayeth his coming"-he will not come yet. Now the special object of the parable of the ten virgins is to recall what was the first animating hope and position of Christians, and to restore them again to it, after it had been long forgotten and practically lost. If this be a just conclusion, it will at once be felt that those who desire to be faithful to Christ have a more than ordinary interest in the right apprehension of this divine instruction. For, if the parable shows a long period in which the true hope of the Christian had lapsed and become practically extinct, it also presents the recovery of this hope, and the practical position connected with it, on the part of those who are truly Christ's, just on the eve of His return..
The history of Christianity, alas! is too faithfully sketched in this parable, to allow of mistake in its application. Christians mingled with an increasing mass of false profession, and gaining power and position in the world, in very early times were tempted to give up, in heart, at least, the vivid hope and expectation of the Lord's return, which characterized the Church in apostolic days. The power and wealth and corruption which flowed in upon the so-called church, and so abundantly generated the spirit of ecclesiastical and worldly ambition, under the Roman Caesars, obliterated from the minds of the professed followers of Christ the words that were addressed to the men of Galilee as they stood gazing up into heaven after their departed Lord-" This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Nursed in security and ease, what had the Church then to do with the thought of the Lord's return? It could only be like a nightmare, to alarm and oppress the slumbers of people in such a case. But, as I have said, the parable glances back to the original call of Christians to be separate from the world while they waited for God's Son from heaven; and it looks forward also to a time when there shall be an awakening up from a state of supineness to resume the original position of preparedness and expectancy.
In the interpretation of the passage, however, it must be remembered that it is a similitude. It is a similitude of the reign of heaven-" Then shall the reign of heaven be likened," &c. The coming of the Lord is not here presented as the attractive hope of the Christian, but in its bearing on the duty of watchfulness and separation from the scene around. It is a figurative representation of what takes place in the history of Christianity, from the period of Christ's departure until all responsibility is closed by His return. That which is in prominence in the figure, is the preparation of persons to join a bridal procession at night, the moment it appears. But let us have the inimitable scene before us.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour." - (Matt. 25:1-13.)
Now, though we know from other scriptures that Christ sustains the character of bridegroom, it is not the purpose of the parable to present him in that title here. Neither are Christians in it viewed in any corporate character as the bride. Other scriptures present that. But here the bride is not in the scene at all; nor the bridegroom, except in figure. What is presented, is Christians in their individual capacity, and especially in their being called out to separation in heart and purpose from the world, to be waiting in the expectation of Christ's return. True Christians are represented as having forgotten this (alas! how true in fact!), and the mass of those who are Christians only in profession have forgotten it too. There is, however, this distinction-true Christians have that within them which is divine, and answers at once and fully to the announcement of the Lord's return. But mere profession can in no sense answer to this. It may indeed supply people with notions and forms, and perhaps build them up in orthodox views; but it can never separate them from the world, or impart to them the love of Christ's appearing. The difference is expressed by those who " took their lamps and took no oil with them," and those who " took oil in their vessels with their lamps." In the ordinary history of profession, the two classes may have gone on together, but the parable teaches us that there will come a time when this will be no longer possible. The midnight cry may awaken all-but it is only those that are ready who go in with the bridegroom to the marriage. The others, alas! are awakened, but it is only to the consciousness of their own unpreparedness, and come but to find that the door is shut. While the solemn admonition to all is, " Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour."
It is not in the scope of the parable to present the catching up of the saints, nor even the joyous thought of the Father's house. These are the subjects of other revelations. Here it is that which comes within the range of " the reign of heaven."
Mark 13 gives the same general truths as those presented in Matt. 24; but it does not, in the object of the present paper, demand any special remark. It is well to observe, however, that no truth which we may have received, or position in which we may be placed by it, puts us beyond the application of the exhortation of the closing verses of the chapter-" Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. As a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch: watch ye therefore (for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.) Lest cowing suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." (Mark 13:33-37.)
As presented in Luke 12, to which I now turn, it is the " kingdom of God," or reign of God, that gives its special character to the coming again of the Lord Jesus. In verse 31 The Lord places it before his disciples as the supreme object of their desire and care. If they had belonged to the world, in estrangement from the knowledge of a Father in heaven and His gracious care, whether Jew or Gentile, they must needs have other and inferior objects to seek. But His disciples through this revelation are delivered from this. To them he says, " But rather seek ye... the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you." They would be secured by their Father's care to those whose hearts were given up to the accomplishment of His will. And the Lord adds, " Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Upon the kingdom of God their interests were to be henceforth concentrated, and to them it was their Father's good pleasure to give it. Their position in the world, as we see, was to be at once adjusted to this hope and expectation. Earthly possessions were no longer to be esteemed by them as their proper portion; but on the contrary the incumbrance of them was to be got rid of; and what was possessed was to be used alone and supremely in the objects of the Lord's beneficence; while they reserved to themselves an unfailing treasure in the heavens. This is a result that is instinctively reached wherever the paramount interests of that kingdom strongly seize upon the heart—for where the treasure is, there the heart will be. Such can have no part in this world but that of strangers in it, acknowledging allegiance and loyalty only to an absent Lord.
In verses 85, 36, are sketched in a brief and graphic manner what is the truthful moral position of those who are the expectants of this kingdom. " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." This figure is the same as that of Matt. 25, but varied thus, that here it is the master of the house returning from the wedding to his house, and the responsibility of his servants is not to go out to meet him, but to be in instant readiness to receive him when he comes. It is the beautiful and varied instruction of one who does not confound the different aspects in which his people are viewed. The application of the figure to His disciples, is given by the Lord in verses 37, 38. " Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching; verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants."
How the heart at once feels that the grace here presented is altogether and absolutely divine! Such a result of watching and service, if that service were far different from what we are conscious it is, might well seem strange to us. But it is not strange to his heart who has already sacrificed so much to gain us for Himself. And well sure we may be of this, that if His life of humiliation and sorrow has been so fruitful of love and grace to us, His life of glory will present Him still the same in unchanged affection, and will yield its correspondent results. But so it is. That which the blessed Lord presents to His disciples is this, that in His reign in glory, when the kingdom of God shall indeed be come, He will in a sense change places with them; so that as they had owned Him as their Lord and Master, and had watched and waited for Him, in a world that was contrary to them and Him, so now he will serve them in a sphere where all is correspondent to His will, and all subordinated to His infinite love. When will the day dawn and the shadows flee away?
I connect this 37th verse with what is presented by the Lord in chapter xxii. 18. " I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come." He had said that He would not eat any more of the passover, which was the symbol of redemption, until its fulfillment in the kingdom of God, when He would again participate with His followers in its accomplished results. So also He would reserve His joy, of which the cup was the symbol, until He could share it with them in the kingdom of God, who, on earth, had been rejected for His sake. In Matt. 26:29, He also says," But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." This gives the other aspect of the kingdom, and corresponds with that which he taught his disciples to pray for:-" Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." In this sphere will eventually be found the blessed results of earthly service and responsibility. Other scriptures open other relationships to Christ and other positions of those who are partakers of His grace, but here it is His relationship of Lord to His disciples and their responsibility toward Him, and their reward. This is especially seen in verses 41 to 48, where the responsibility of " the faithful and wise steward" is brought out; and who at his Lord's cowing is made ruler over all that he has. It presents also the punishment of the unfaithful servant who said in his heart " my lord delayeth his coming." It was no object to him that his lord should soon, or at all, return; but the reverse. It is true that he bore the name of servant, but he had carried himself like one who was a stranger to all subjection, and had used his lord's household as if it were his own, and made it only the sphere for the indulgence of his lusts and domination. Its moral application is, alas too plain to require being pointed out.
The instruction of Luke 17 concerning the coming of the Lord is introduced by the question of the Pharisees, verses 20, 21, " And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them, and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there: for behold the kingdom of God is within you" (or among you). It was an answer appealing to their moral condition and responsibility. Here was the Lord in the midst of them, who had already proclaimed that kingdom, and whose character and works proclaimed it more fully; but they still remained ignorant of Himself and of the character of that reign about which they as ignorantly inquired. His doctrine had unfolded the principles of that reign, but they neither understood it nor received it. For, as Scripture declares, " the kingdom of God is not meat and drink [this they could have comprehended] but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." These are the principles which characterize the kingdom or rule of God; and within the sphere of divine power and goodness so designated, they will be established by Christ. In the subsequent verses the same subject is opened to His disciples. " And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here, or see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shined' unto the other part under heaven: so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe: so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded: but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life, shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered, and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."
(Ver. 22-37.) Here the condition of the world is especially presented, and the effect upon it of the revelation of the Son of man. It is the even course of the world's procedure, and the total discomfiture that the coming of the Lord will bring upon all that men are enjoying and pursuing; of which the judgment of the flood and of Sodom, from which Lot escaped as by fire, are the foreshadows. " Remember Lot's wife" has at least a moral warning for us all. It is a warning against a Christian's having his affections lingering in the world, upon which the coming of the Lord will bring certain judgment. And of this we may rest assured that there is nothing in the calling or hopes of Christians that legitimately takes them out of the range of such a warning.
We have advanced, as yet, but a, little way in the testimony of Scripture, but it is striking to observe how entirely it presents this event as bounding the horizon of the Christian, in whatever aspect he may be viewed. If he be ensnared by the world in the pursuit of its gains, its luxuries, or ambitions, so as to feel that he has a stake in its continuance and prosperity, this he is told will be suddenly and rudely broken up by the coming again of the Lord. If Christianity be looked at in its course on the earth, this, we are told, will be cut short by the coming of the Lord, resulting from the cry at midnight, " Behold the bridegroom cometh." Men may have other thoughts, and Christians too; but whether we contemplate the world or the Church; the destinies of Israel or the career of the nations; whether it he judgment or deliverance that is looked for-all will be met, and alone met, in its varied aspects, by the coming of the Lord. But the Christian alone, who is watching and waiting, can say, " Even so come, Lord Jesus."
" Lord Jesus! come
And take thy people home;
That all thy flock, so scatter'd here,
With thee in glory shall appear.
Lord Jesus come!"
(Continued from page 92.)
(To be continued)
The Coming Again of the Lord Jesus: Part 3
In the order of Scripture, which, in the prosecution of my subject, I have proposed to make the order of my remarks, the next passage which presents its testimony in the gospels to the coming again of the Lord, is Luke 21.
In this chapter we get " Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." That is, the Jews and their land will not be delivered from the oppression of the nations by whom they have been subjugated, ever since the Babylonian conquest, until the last form of Gentile power will be destroyed by " the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Precursory signs are given, and encouragement is thus held forth to those who will be called to pass through that day to see the blessedness of Messiah's reign and the rule of God, when the domination of oppressing earthly power shall forever be done away. " When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." The condition of things in the world, as described in this chapter, and that which has been noticed in chapter xvii., may, at first sight, seem to be at variance, but it is only, I imagine, an apparent discrepancy. Here it is said there shall be " upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." While in chapter xvii. it is said, " They did eat, they drank, they married wives and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom," &c. How can any thoughtful person fail to see (whatever he may imagine it will issue in) in these descriptions a picture of the present condition of this country and of the whole of (what is called) the civilized world? Was there ever a period in which men universally were so set upon material improvement, and enjoyment, and luxury, and advancement of all that ministers to social and personal aggrandizement? And was there ever a period in which men's minds were so fevered with anxiety and dread lest some event should suddenly turn up-they know not what-to threaten or destroy its continuance? There they must be left while we listen to the words, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Ver. 33-36.) it is plain that Israel's redemption is here to be the special result of the corning of the Lord, which will issue in the establishment of the reign of God in the hands of the Son of man. It is also plain that it is the "day" that in these closing verses is warned against. But what is it that delivers morally from that day, if it be not a heart to listen to the injunctions here presented?
But we come now (in John 14) to view the return of the Lord Jesus in an entirely different aspect from that in which it has been presented in the scriptures that have hitherto been considered. " Let not your heart he troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (Chapter 14:1-3.) Here the coming again of the Lord, as has been already observed, is presented to the believer in all its brightness as the object of unclouded hope. The form of its announcement is that of a spontaneous promise and assurance on the part of the Lord in order to soothe the sorrow and sustain the expectations of his disciples whose hearts were saddened and in grief at the anticipation of His departure from them,
This is in harmony with the character of the gospel. In the Gospel of John our Lord comes before us at once in His divine character as the only-begotten Son of God. Hence, all dispensational relations between Him and the people amongst whom He was manifested, which have more or less prominence in the other gospels, in this are seen to fade away and disappear. Here he is shown to be (however veiled in human form) the eternal Creator of all things, who in the beginning [before creation had a beginning-before the earth, or sun, or moon, or stars, or angels of God, existed] was with God, and was God. It was in this character, as John's gospel shows, that He was present with men. " The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us".-pitched His tent with us. And the glory that was manifested in Him-so dwelling with men—was the glory of an only-begotten Son with a Father-" full of GRACE and TRUTH." Hence, He is presented as " in the world," and the distinctions of Jew and Gentile are comparatively lost. It is not now the call of a people to repentance in the expectation of a long-promised Messiah, or the announcement of a kingdom, which in His person would be set up. The only mention by Him of the kingdom is to announce the truth that a man must be born again-horn of God, in truth-in order to see or to enter into it. And that this might be in accordance with man's condition and the exigency of God's holiness, it is declared that, " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." Thus deeply must be laid the foundations of man's restoration to God. Consequently those who are in connection with Christ in this gospel, are declared to be in connection with Him as sons of God: " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become [or privilege to be] the sons of God." And as he was manifested as the eternal life, so that which was directly received from Him, in the reception of Himself, was eternal life. " In him was life; and the life was the light of men." " For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth; even so the Son quickeneth [giveth Life to] whom he will." Hence, on His anticipated departure from His disciples, He does not speak to them of the ruin of the temple, or of wars and famines and pestilences; of nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and the array of sorrows that lined on either hand the long vista of ages through which alone the kingdom could be looked forward to in its establishment. But as He that knew " that he came from God and went to God," He opens to His disciples directly, and as none other could, the home from whence He came, and to which He was now about to return. In a word, He declares to them that His home-the " Father's house"-should no longer be His alone, but theirs also: and theirs in the same relationship as Himself to the Father, whom He came into the world especially to reveal.
He says, " Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me." Whatever God at any time
had been to those that trusted in Him, that He had been to their faith. " No man hath seen Got, at any time." His revelation of Himself from the beginning, from Abel downward, had been to faith. But on that account was His mercy, His truth, His compassion, His care, His sustainment, His access to the soul, the heart's repose in Him-all that He was as God-less true, or less real? No. And now the Lord Himself was about to become the object of their faith also. But would His love to them on that account be less real? Would His power to sustain them be diminished? Would His interest in them decay? or His character, as they had known Him, be changed?" Far otherwise. It was of this same blessed One, presented to the faith of succeeding ages, that our apostle, afterward in his epistle, thus speaks: " That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." And he adds; " These things write we unto you that your joy may be full." It was not a mere mitigation of their sorrow that the Lord presents in His wondrous living words. It was the spring, as we see, of the fullness of joy: and it teaches us as nothing else can how our hearts should estimate a written Christ, and how important it is that they should be filled with thoughts of Him.
" In my Father's house are many abodes: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." I want to think rightly of that world to which I am going-the world where I shall be brought into immediate contact with the things that are unseen and that are eternal. I want to have true and right thoughts of God, whose presence will, in a little while, absorb every faculty of my being. I want to know how Christ thinks of me now, and how He will meet me when He comes again, and what will be my eternal place and portion with Him whom I have loved and trusted here in this sinful and dying world. Well 1 He who came down from heaven to accomplish our redemption, by dying in our place, and has returned thither again, tells us that, to us, that unseen world will disclose only the many mansions, or abodes, which mark the amplitude of His Father's house. So that when I think of heaven and of being in the presence of God, it is not with some vague notion of vastness, or brightness, or dazzling thoughts of glory, but of being at home with God, and with Christ, whose infinite love will bring me there, and with all God's children, for whom the fatherhood of God has provided a home worthy of His greatness and His heavenly grace; and who, as a loving Father, will de- light to have His family in happiness around Him, and in the glory where He dwells. This brings the greater rest to the soul-the rest of calm expectancy-that it is the home of Christ, the home which He, in love, for a season left to be with man in his home and his sorrows, and to which He did but return again when He left this world. In speaking of the Father's house, He describes no unknown, unfamiliar place to Him..
And His occupation now in heaven He declares is that of preparing a place for us, the place of sons, in His Father's house. It is plain that we are here so far away from all earthly events and circumstances that might be affected by the coming of the Lord, that they are entirely overlooked, and treated as if they were non-existent. He comes to His disciples to take them out of the world to be with Himself. He adds, " If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Their leaving this world would be to them but leaving their own home and circumstances of sorrow to rejoin Him in His home of blessedness and glory. And His promise is that He will come for them Himself in order to bring them there. Thus do we see how entirely the thoughts of the Lord span the interval, which we think so wide, between the time of His departure and the time of His coining again. He does not speak of death, nor of their departing to be with Him, but of His own coming again, which will be the accomplish-went of God's counsels in the Captain of salvation, having been made perfect through sufferings, that He might bring "many sons to glory." How wonderful is it that this is still the true position of believers-the position that links them with the first disciples and earliest Christians, and enables them to appropriate to themselves Christ's words of encouragement and hope to His sorrowing disciples! But it is so. For we are set by the very truth of the gospel " to wait for God's Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come."
We pass now, by means of the stream of revelation, into entirely different scenes. In Acts 1 our Lord is risen from the dead, and is again in intercourse with the men of Galilee. In perfect accordance with these circumstances and associations, we find Him no longer speaking of the Father's house and His coming to bring His disciples there; but His communications to them now, during the forty days He is seen by them, are " of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." But there is no disorder in this. There is no contra diction in it. The Acts, we must remember, are a continuation of the Gospel of Luke, and there we have found the Lord directing the expectations of His followers to His coming again to establish the kingdom, or rule, of God. While here, as risen from the dead and among them again, He takes up the subject where it was broken off by His death.
Intermediately, it is true, there were other things in the counsels of God to be accomplished before the restoration again of the kingdom to Israel; and other services to be rendered by the apostles before they would enter on the authority and the rewards of the kingdom. Still it is plain that the import of the words of the two men that stood by them in white apparel, while the disciples stood gazing up into heaven after their ascended Lord, whom a cloud had received out of their sight, was to connect their expectations with the accomplishment of the things which they had so lately heard from their divine Master pertaining to the kingdom of God. " And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Ver. 10, 11.)
In Acts 3 we have the witness of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle Peter to this same event. " Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Ver. 19-21.) The import of this statement is too plain to be misunderstood. The coming again of the Lord as here presented is restricted in its bearing upon Israel's hopes, and will he accomplished on Israel's repentance. " Even unto this day," says the apostle, " when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it [i.e., their heart] shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." These " times of refreshing" will come by the presence of the Lord, and especially by His presence amongst His ancient people. To them especially pertained the, bright testimony of the prophets concerning the blessings of Messiah's reign; and in their midst these " times of restitution of all things" will run their happy course: however the overflowing cup of Israel's blessing will extend to the other nations then existing upon earth.
I do not stay to prove that Peter's testimony here to Israel relates especially to their earthly blessing. This will be best proved by carefully reading the prophecies of the Old Testament. For of these " times of restitution of all things," he declares that " God hath spoken by all his holy prophets since the world began." But this testimony, bright and happy as it is that indicates the blessing, and peace, and glory flowing from Christ's presence upon earth, does not belong to our present subject.
In Acts 10:42 There is a latent, but solemn testimony concerning the coming of the Lord which was attached to the very preaching of Christ in apostolic days. I but adduce the passage, which needs not a comment. Peter, in his address to Cornelius, says, " He (God) commanded us to preach unto the people that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." All, but infidels, believe that Christ, at the end of the world-at the last day-will judge the dead. But who believes in His coming to judge the living? Albeit Scripture declares, " Behold the judge standeth before the door!"
There is also a similar declaration by the Apostle Paul addressed explicitly to Gentiles-a declaration which in its solemn import will not allow the world to think that there are no retributive consequences connected with its rejection of Christ-or that because He has been once got rid of out of the world, He will never come to trouble it with His presence again. No; the apostle says, " God now commands all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:31.) This is not the judgment of the dead. The term employed fixes it to the world of living men. It is this habitable earth that Christ is coming back to judge. The brightest hope of the Christian-Christ's coming again and presence-is the world's greatest terror I It must needs be so. For every knee must bow to Him. But how bow to One. whose love has been despised, and whose authority is spurned? But who must now be met' clothed with infinite almighty power?
(Continued from page 160.)
(To be continued.)
The Coming Again of the Lord Jesus: Part 4
(Titus 2:11-14.)
It was intended, when the series of papers bearing this title was commenced, to have gone through the sum of the
New Testament witness upon the subject; but the last paper completed only the testimony of the Gospels and the Acts, leaving the large field of the Epistles and the Revelation unentered on. The limit of a very few pages, so far as the present publication is concerned, necessarily now leaves this amongst the many lapsed purposes of man's heart, while " the counsel of the Lord it shall stand;" and His truth, amidst all earthly changes, remains unchanged and is eternal.
The statements of this striking passage have their own direct and independent force relative to the hope that is designed by our Lord to animate His people's hearts. But their true bearing can hardly be seized when insulated from the important connections in which they are found. Like every part of revealed truth, the hope of the Lord's coming as presented in Scripture is intended to be pre-eminently practical. The subject may be taken up as an intellectual study, and you may get artistic groupings of its various aspects. In Scripture it is always presented either as stimulating the responsibilities, or encouraging the patience, or animating the expectations, or, as here, forming the character of those who, whatever their relative condition on earth, are redeemed by Christ to have a common home in heaven. It is never given as a picture of the imagination.
The homeliest exhortations as to the conduct of old men and old women, the behavior that is becoming in young women and young men, and the warning of servants against insolence and filching from their masters-and these all gathered by the gospel from a people whose national characteristic was that of incorrigible lying, and who are described by one of their own poets as " evil beasts and slow-bellies"—these introduce to our attention the wondrous declaration, " That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:10-14.)
This is a wonderful summary of the living practical character of Christianity, traced downward from its source, displaying its moral transforming power in men, and issuing in eternal association in glory with Him whose appearing in grace has made salvation ours.
First of all it is stated that the grace of God, which brings salvation to all men, has appeared. It is not restrictive in its character, i.e., to Jew or Gentile. The grace is salvation-bringing to all men; and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ it has appeared. " Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." in Him it was embodied and presented; and it brought the salvation to all men, which was needed by all. But the special point here is that as there has been a living personal appearing of the grace, there will also be a living personal appearing of the glory also. Our faith and hope are alike in God, and both are linked with the first and second appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who brought the grace will bring the glory too. " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many [the essential basis of salvation]; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation:" [i.e., for final deliverance or glory.]
Next there is presented the power of Christianity in its subjects, as they are viewed in this world intermediate to the reception of the grace and their attainment of the glory. The first necessity of our souls is salvation-deliverance from the guilt and condemnation under which we lie as sinners against God. Hence that touching expression of grace, " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is the grace of God that " brings salvation." But grace is transformative of the character also, and conforms in affections and aims to Him by whom it comes. It disciplines the soul in the ways of God. It teaches the denial of all impiety and worldly desires. It emancipates from the domination of the world and its evil principles, by the introduction of the claims of another Lord to the subjection of the soul. Still it is the grace that teaches this, and teaches it on the ground of a necessary conformity to the character of Him in whom the grace has been displayed. " He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." It teaches us " that we should live soberly [with due restraint as to our own desires], righteously [in uprightness as regards the claims of others], and piously [in all that regards our relationship to God] in this present age." Grace teaches this, because the glory is coming; and our moral habits are to bear witness, both to the one and to the other. They are to bear witness to the grace which has brought us deliverance from all that enslaves the men of this present age; and to the glory which is about to be manifested, which will introduce us to the associations of the age to come: " Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."
I will now only briefly notice some of the passages relating to this blessed hope which, under other circumstances, might have been unfolded in their special connections. In Rom. 8:21-23 it is presented in connection with the redemption of the body from the power of death, and the creation's participation in the believer's glory. " The creation itself also shall he delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." In 1 Cor. 1:7,8 there is a specialty in connection with the possession and exercise of the gifts of the Spirit in responsibility to Christ, that can only be indicated and left. " So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Chapter 15 of the same epistle presents it in connection with the resurrection of the believer and the establishment of the kingdom of God and Christ's supremacy. " For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." (Ver. 21-25.) In Philippians it is connected with the obtaining of " the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." And the apostle says, " For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." (Chapter 3:20,21.) In Colossians it is the issue in glory of the position in grace which presents us as risen with Christ. " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God: set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Chapter 3:1-4.) In Thessalonians its various aspects are interwoven with the whole position of the Christian from the first hour of his conversion to God, through every responsibility and every trial until that solemn moment is reached, " When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power: when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." (2 Thess. 1:7-10.) The first chapter of the First Epistle presents this hope in connection with the preaching and reception of the gospel. " For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (Ver. 9, 10.) Chapter 2 Connects it
with the final joy of uninterrupted fellowship between the apostle and his beloved converts. " But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy." (Ver. 17-20.) Chapter 3 gives the object and issue of all pastoral anxiety and labor on account of the sheep of Christ. " And the Lord make You to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." {Ver. 12,13.) Chapter 4 presents this hope in connection with sorrow on account of departed friends, and brings in the special revelation of (what is now technically called) " the rapture of the saints." " But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (Ver. 13-18.) Chapter 5 gives the believer's moral position in the world in the prospect of " the day of the Lord," which will bring judgment upon the world. The whole passage should be read, concluding with verse 23. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Second Epistle presents the righteous judgment of God upon the enemies of the gospel, and glory to those who have believed. This is specially in connection with the kingdom of God, as well as the truth of the First Epistle. This is seen in the First Epistle, chapter ii. 12. " That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory;" and also in the Second Epistle, chapter i. 5. " That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer." Chapter 2 of the Second Epistle unfolds the apostasy and the man of sin, and the delusions of the last days of the history of Christianity on earth, until " that Wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." (Ver. 8.)
(Concluded from page 192.)