IF there be a spiritual coming of the Lord, it was clearly the first coming. For though He came truly in flesh, He was not so known save spiritually. None could come to Him as He came in flesh, save the Father Who drew them. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Accordingly He spake and was known in testimony. He was known as the Word by His words: they had the power in which He appeared to draw to Himself then. “He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life.”
It was only spiritually He was known, though He was manifested in flesh; it was only in the word which He spake that He was received (John 1:12, 1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13)); for to those that believed on Him by miracles He would not commit Himself (John 2:23, 2423Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, (John 2:23‑24)). In short, as it was hearing the word and keeping the word which was the sowing of the Son of man, so it was not manifestation to men but veiled. He was manifested to be the Person (although men ought to have known Him) only to those whose eyes were opened by His word to see Him through the Father's grace. This is argued in John 6. and its principles opened out in chapter 8. So John came in the spirit and power of Elias, though He was that very, true, One of Whom the prophets had testified.
If we would distinguish, the real personal coming of the Lord Jesus, though the same true One then, is thus clearly in manifestation the second, when it shall not be merely a revelation of Him to believers. For the point of John 6. is that it was as really so when He was present in the flesh as when He was exalted and hid in God. But “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.” It is clear, this is far more thoroughly personal than appearing as the carpenter's son, revealed only to those drawn of the Father as given to Him. Christ is spiritually present now; so effectually He was when in the days of His flesh; for He then came not judging or executing judgment, which He must do in Person, but testifying in the word of testimony—spiritually received then indeed in Person in the execution of judgment—the great governing ordinance of God, in which He Himself is honored in the execution of it (John 5:2727And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. (John 5:27)).
So also the church now knows Him and the glory in spirit. In fact in respect of this all are on par. As Jesus appeared so as that they only who were taught of God could know Who He was—the Son; so those, who knew Who Jesus was in the flesh, did in moral fact only see the Son as we see Him now. That is, the moral character of the perception was the same; so that, blessed as His presence was, it was expedient that He should go away. Nor has the glory of the Son ever been assumed in manifestation at all. Jesus glorified the Father upon earth; and now saith He, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
It was the time of the Son's humiliation, not His glory. The transfiguration was in part an exhibition of it. God was also glorified in Him in the perfect ways and obedience of the Son of man. But the Son of God as such has never had, i.e. as regards us, His proper glory; it is reserved solely for His coming; and if it be not personal with this object, there is no honoring of the Son in His proper honor. It is the only real personal coming of the Son of God—the fulfillment of the great object of the Father, of God—that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. To that end judgment was given Him. Therefore the Revelation speaks of Him previously as the Faithful Witness i.e., of God the Father. The character He gives Himself on earth, and now from heaven, and having accomplished our redemption, is “Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.”
Here then is properly the personal coming of the Lord. Before, He manifested God in flesh, ascribing the glory to the Father. Then all glory is ascribed to Him. If it were by the Spirit only, it would be only what was before; it would not be the proper glory of the Son. What we want is the proper manifestation of the Son—in the glory of all surely—but precisely and properly in His person, so that all shall see Him; for the Son's sake, though with the delight and in the glory of the Father, when shall be the manifestation of the sons of God now hid with Christ (that is, as Christ is) in God.
If there be no personal coming in glory of Jesus, specifically in Person as the Son of God, all as it were is lost, though this cannot of course be. But His Person ceases to be the great question of glory, which it is with the Father—with the Divine Being—with the εὐδοκία (good pleasure)—with the I AM (Jehovah) of glory.
His first coming was in witness, though it were indeed the Son; His second coming is in Person, when every eye shall see Him, and the glory of Him Who was hidden be known. On the questions solved in this hinges all, all true divinity—the knowledge of the Son: all rests in this glorious appearing; and the church is just a witness, till that appearing, of the truth of Him (to its own blessing) Who shall then be manifested, and the saints (being also in the truth, believing the truth) with Him in glory.
Let the church deny this, and it ceases to be a church; it ceases in its place and acceptance; it is gone and must be cut off in its form, God may pass by, He may bear with (as He does daily with all of us) ignorance and slowness of heart; but let the church deny this, and the ground of its existence has ceased. It has ceased in the sight of God. The Spirit has no office in it, for His office is to testify of Jesus, of the glory of Jesus as having all things that the Father has; but if this be not accomplished, it is a false witness. The church is to be a witness that it is true—a painful suffering witness, because He has it not now: let her deny that He is to have it, and what is she suffering for? Nothing She is joined to the world, she has ceased in her existence. Hence also he who denies the voice of the Spirit in the church ceases to own the witness of the glory; for the Spirit alone can bear witness of the glory, as the apostles also bore witness of all that they had actually seen in Him from the beginning; and therefore the church ceases.
J. N. D.