“If I will that he tarry till I come”— John 21:22.
TILL I come.” This expression refers clearly to our Lord’s promised, personal return from heaven. The same words are used in Luke 19:13, where the nobleman, going into a far country, commits treasure to his servants, saying, “Occupy till I come”; and again in Revelation 2:25, where the risen and glorified Lord says to the faithful remnant in the corrupt Thyatiran church, “That which ye have already hold fast till I come.” In 1 Corinthians 11:26, after giving instruction concerning the Communion service, or the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” This is the blessed hope set before the Christian. Some generation of believers (who can say it may not be ours?) will be living on the earth when this glorious event takes place (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Meantime, generation after generation have been called to pass through death, thus going to be with Christ. But this is a very different thing to His coming for us. At death the spirit and body are separated, the one going to heaven and the other to the grave. At the Lord’s return death will be swallowed up in victory and the body raised and reunited to the spirit, to be forever with the Lord (1 Cor. 15:51-54).
“‘Till He come!’ Oh, let the words
Linger on the trembling chords.
Let the ‘little while’ between
In their golden light be seen;
Let us think how heaven and home
Lie beyond that ‘Till He come!’”
―Bickiersteth.