Thou hast done well, my soul, in meditating on the Christian’s standing, state, vocation, and warfare: these are subjects of the deepest personal interest, and subjects with which every Christian ought to be well acquainted according to the revelation of God. But there is yet another theme, equally personal and important, on winch thou mayest profitably muse for a little; I mean the Christians hope—the hope of thy Lord’s return. Here, then, let thy thoughts, and not thy thoughts only, but thy affections, be centered. The blessed Lord, the Son of the living God, coming from heaven for thee, is the true and proper object of thy hope—thy expectation. It is a question of affection—a family scene.
The Father’s house, into which He will introduce thee, is not the place of governmental glory, but of the manifestation of His grace and love. Thou wilt be in the same house with the Son—this is thy hope. Ο wondrous, blessed, glorious hope! What grace! What love divine! We may know something of God’s love to sinners, but what can we know of the Father’s love to the children—of the Bridegroom’s love for His Bride? The former is compassion, but the latter is complacency.
Faith and Hope
Hast thou ever thought, my soul, on that strange anomaly so common among Christians—that though Christ is the one object of their faith, He is not the one object of their hope. Many think that the coming of the Lord means nothing more than that He comes for us when we die; and that at the last, there will be one general resurrection and one general judgment. It would be difficult to say what is the proper hope of such, for all is indefinite, indeed, we may say, confusion. Even as to the proper object of faith, and its blessed results, all is dark and cloudy.
Nothing, surely, can be more natural, in a Christian sense, than that He who is the object of our faith should also be the object of our hope. But simple as this is, it is all important. Thou wilt do well to trace the twofold path a little.
When we know Christ as the one who loves us, and died for us, we have no difficulty in trusting Him: we believe in Him—we have faith in Him. The knowledge of His love creates the most unquestioning confidence; the testimony of the word to the power of His blood meets all our anxieties. We are happy—perfectly happy in Him. His love answers to every desire of the heart, and His sacrifice to every need of the conscience. With every wish met, and every desire satisfied, we must be happy, and can only love and praise the Lord. But why is He not equally the one proper object of hope? Why is He not the daily expectation, as well as the daily rest of the soul? Most sure and certain we are, that when a Christian dies, his soul is immediately with the Lord in paradise; and a blessed precious truth it is; but it is never spoken of in scripture as the hope of the Christian: rather that we shall not die, but be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. There is no reason or necessity why a Christian should die; Christ has died for him. But if he should die, death to him is called a “falling asleep in Jesus”—a being put to sleep by Jesus. How sweet, how blessed, the thought, Ο my soul! This is the way a believer dies: the poor body is laid to sleep, and the soul ascends on angels’ wings to be with Christ, till the morning of the first resurrection.
But what saith the scripture? faith can only rest on the word of God. Many speak of these things as the “peculiar view’s” of a particular class of Christians; but the one question is, Has God spoken plainly on the subject? On nothing more so; the difficulty is in the selection; but a passage from Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians may be the most convenient to refer to now. There we have a special revelation from the Lord, for the express purpose of giving further truth in detail as to the coming and glory of the Lord Jesus. Carefully read 1 Thess. 4:13-1813But 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. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For 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. 16For 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: 17Then 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. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18).
The Thessalonians, evidently, had been converted by means of a gospel that embraced the truth, usually called, “The Lord’s second coming in glory.” This is apparent from Acts 17, where we find the unbelieving Jews giving a political turn to their accusations, by saying, “These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” No doubt the apostle preached the truth of the Lord’s coming to reign in glory. Hence it was, that from the time of their conversion, they were looking day by day for His return. But in the meantime, some of their brethren died. This troubled them greatly. Their sorrow was excessive. Not that they had any fear about the salvation of their friends, but because they would not be present to welcome the Lord, and to be received by Him. When the apostle heard of their troubles, he wrote to them at once. They were comparatively uninstructed, and also greatly persecuted both by the Jews and the heathen. Their opportunities of learning had been very few. The apostle was not allowed to remain long with them after their conversion because of the persecution; and the books of the New Testament were not then written. But their ignorance and distress only gave the fitting opportunity for the Lord to reveal His mind more fully on this blessed subject.
In the new revelation which the apostle received, the order of events is given. This is important; though no doubt given in the first instance to meet the sorrowing hearts of the Thessalonians, it is also intended for the instruction of the saints of God in all ages: but the best way will be to go over the verses as they stand; and, first, we would notice,
THE SORROW OF THE THESSALONIANS.
Ver. 13. “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.” These warm, earnest-hearted, but young Christians had not been instructed as to how the dead saints could be with the Lord when He comes, and share His glory. They were so full of the expectation of the Savior’s return, that they had never thought of any of them dying before He came; so that they were in great trouble when some of their brethren fell asleep. But now, observe, my soul, and give good heed to what the apostle says to them. Does he find fault with them for their too ardent hopes of the return of Jesus? Did he say they were too much occupied with it? or that they were excited and lacked sobriety? Familiar to thy mind are such sayings from many of thy fellow Christians; but no such word drops from the pen of the apostle. Their waiting for the Lord is mentioned in each chapter of both epistles, and most surely to their praise. Neither does he seek to comfort the bereaved—as is commonly done—by reminding them that they would soon follow—that they would soon rejoin the dear departed in heaven. No, indeed; true as that might be, he does not refer to it as a ground of comfort. The Thessalonians are maintained in the thought that they were still to look for the Lord during their life-time, and a fresh revelation is given to assure them, that all who have fallen asleep in Jesus will have equally their part in the glory with those who are alive at His coming.
Ver. 14. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” The first thing that the apostle does is to fix the eye of the sorrowing ones on Jesus—on Him who died and rose again. True comfort is only to be found in looking to thee, Ο most blessed Lord, and divine strength to glorify thee in our deepest afflictions. There we see victory over death and the grave—there we see the one who died, was buried, rose again, and is now in glory. He is the believer’s life. We triumph in like manner—“Even so.” Our life is connected with Him who thus died and rose again, and belongs to the glory. All who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be raised, and leave the earth precisely as He did. “There is this difference,” says one: “He went up in his own full right; He ascended. As to us, His voice calls the dead, and they come forth from the grave, and the living, being changed, all are caught up together. It is a solemn act of God’s power, which seals the Christian’s life and the work of God, and brings the former into the glory of Christ as His heavenly companion. Glorious privilege! Precious grace! To lose sight of it destroys the proper character of our joy and our hope.”