And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Heb. 9:27, 28.
These two verses teach us two very important facts: first, that death is the natural portion of man, and after this the judgment; but secondly, that to believers this death and judgment have been met by Christ, and consequently they expect with joy His second appearing. They look for Him: here is the distinction between the saints and the world. The reception through grace, or the refusal, of the love of God creates the contrast, as far as man is concerned, and not any efforts of his own. Man has no power of his own to meet that which he is already in, viz., death. But the believer finds that death and judgment on his behalf have been met by Christ; he consequently loves Him in remembrance of His work; and to such Christ will appear a second time without sin. No doubt He was so personally the first time; yet then He came into all the circumstances of sin, He was made sin for us. But as regards believers, He has at His second coming nothing more to do with sin: it will be unto salvation, to put them into possession of the results of His first coming. Salvation will be the consummation of what we at present believe. Seeing Him at the right hand of God, we look for a completion of bliss at His second appearing; and, this belief being in the heart, the results are seen in the life. The church's position is that of resting on the effects of His first coming, and she looks for all its results in the second.
This is brought out in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Believers, we are told in ver. 7, “have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins.” Then follows the statement of our present condition, as “accepted in the Beloved.” It is this, that we are admitted to the knowledge of the counsels and intentions of God, and are told that “in the dispensation of the fullness of times God will gather together in one all things in Christ” (ver. 10). In the meanwhile, until the glory come, we have been sealed by His Holy Spirit, Who is “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (ver. 12, 14). Thus then the church has redemption in Christ, and is expecting all things to be gathered together in Him; meanwhile she has the Holy Ghost.
The Lord Jesus is Himself the center of all God's purposes, and I shall endeavor to show that whatever may regard the church, the Jews, or the Gentiles, is merely the unfolding of His glory; but more than this, we shall see that the church of God is brought out, not only as enjoying the present blessing of communion, but also as joint-heir with Christ of His coming inheritance. In looking at the glory of Christ, believers are looking at their own glory, as being “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). We have a type or figure of this in Eve; Eve was not a part of the creation, nor was she lord of it as Adam was, but she was associated with him—joint-heir—in all his portion of inheritance. And so we shall find the church to be joined with Christ when He takes His rightful inheritance.
As to the purpose of God in Christ, His title to inherit all things is made out in three ways from scripture, while He Himself makes all of them good by redemption (John 12:32).
First, He has created all things (Col. 1:16), and as He created them, so they are “for Him.” “All things were created by Him and for Him.” He is the great Heir; and He must have possession of them all: “by Him all things are to be reconciled” (Col. 1:20). The whole world will by-and-by be reduced under subjection by Him. The second ground of His title is found in Heb. 1:2, where it is said the Son is “appointed Heir of all things.” The third ground, which stands in the counsels of God, is that man is to be set over all things, as we learn from Psa. 8.
This passage the apostle Paul uses three times, showing some points of special importance at each, and always insisting that the Lord Jesus is the “man” there spoken of. He quotes it, Heb. 2:6, die. “What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thine hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.” The Apostle Paul argues that this leaves “nothing that is not put under Him” “But now,” says he, “we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor.” The half of the prophecy has been accomplished, because the One Who is to reign is crowned; and His being at the right hand of God is the pledge that it will all come to pass. We only see what is already accomplished in Jesus. The putting of all things under Him is not yet come to pass; it is neither done nor doing. He has not yet “taken to Himself His great power and reigned” (Rev. 11:17); but He sits hid in God, so far as this fact is concerned, till the time comes when, according to Psa. 110:1, God shall make His enemies to be His footstool.
Psa. 8 is again brought forward in Eph. 1:22, and here in its connection with the church sharing Christ's portion. Previously the apostle had been praying that they might know the same power, as in actual exercise towards them, which God wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead; and then he shows, ver. 22, 23, the church as being in very deed His body, “the fullness of Him That filleth all in all,” and thus necessarily the sharer with Him of His future glory. He will then be manifestly Heir of all things, the Head and Bridegroom to the church.
Psa. 8 is again quoted in 1 Cor. 15 There it is in connection with a kingdom, and also with resurrection, “every man in his own order” (1 Cor. 15:23); “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 role and all authority and power; for He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.” Thus is the Psalm in question introduced, “For He hath put all things under His feet.” Everything now in disorder is to be put under this Man's feet; and when all is brought completely into subjection by Him, then the kingdom is to be delivered up.
In 2 Tim. 4:1 we shall find the kingdom connected with His appearing as being then set up, so that it is plain that Christ's appearing is not at the end (as people speak) but at the beginning of some period; for at the end of that period the kingdom is to be delivered up. Thus the apostle speaks: “I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” This passage too shows clearly that the common opinion of a day (a twenty-four hours) of judgment is erroneous, because it is quoted here as lasting a certain time. His appearance is at the beginning of His kingdom, and then there will be a judgment on the living wicked of those nations on whom God's wrath will specially fall for rejecting His gospel. But this judgment (greater or less in its exercise) will also run one during the period of His kingdom, whilst at the actual close of it, be the length what it may, the wicked dead will be judged. And if His appearing be at the beginning of His kingdom, it is clear that the church must be raised and with Him when He takes it. Christ, as we saw, is the first man raised; He is the “firstfruits of them that slept;” “afterward they that are Christ's at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 4:15, 17). And then begins that kingdom which at the end (that is, at the end of a defined period, not spoken of in this chapter) He will deliver up to the One Who gave it to Him, that is, to God, even the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
Christ's title to inherit all things having been stated, and also the church's title to heirship with Him, it was nevertheless said that this as yet is but in purpose, because it is neither done nor doing, but Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and “expecting till His enemies be made His footstool” (Heb. 10:13). If the question be asked, What is doing? the answer is, that during this waiting time His joint-heirs are being gathered by the operation of the Spirit through the preached word.
It may be well briefly to notice how the church is brought out into this blessed connection with Him, now by faith, and hereafter in manifestation. It is by the quickening power of the second Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45, 47, which as truly associates those who have it with their Head, and sets us in the same relations to Him, as our natural birth does with the first Adam; so that we are heirs of His glory, just as we are heirs of all the miseries into which we have been introduced by the fall of the first Adam. This is treated of by the apostle Paul, in the way of comparison, in the latter part of Rom. v. The life so given puts us in spirit where Jesus is; we are “risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). It is not a something to be sought for, but we have got the life, which, connecting us with our Head, makes us enjoy holiness down here, and we are waiting for the glory which shall make us actual sharers of what our Head Himself enjoys.
It is necessary to see that as this eternal life, which believers have at present in Christ, has nothing in common with the world around, so the issue of it will be in the resurrection of the body, at a distinct time, and on a different principle from that of the wicked—a “first resurrection,” Rev. 20:5, in consequence of a life previously given. The saints are raised because they are one with Him Who is risen. They are raised as the result of union with the Lord Jesus, whereas the wicked are raised to be judged by Him, and not at the same time. In Rom. 8:11 we find the principle, which is “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
(To be continued.)