“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour 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 2:13-14).
Oh, what a word that is — blessed. It will be fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. You will then never shed another tear. You will never have another sorrow. You will be so richly and fully blessed that you will never know the end of your blessings. You never will be able to calculate that eternal weight of glory, that joy unspeakable, that perfect rest, or that ceaseless and uninterrupted delight which you will have when you first gaze upon the face of your precious Jesus and begin to raise the eternal anthem, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Rev. 5:12).
A Soul-Stirring Hope
It is also a soul-stirring hope. It is a truth for the affections. Consider the reality of bridegroom and bride. Can anything more thoroughly stir the emotions of a true heart? I ask, What faithful, loving, chaste bride would not be delighted with her lover’s promise, “I am quickly coming for you”? What would move the affections, what would stir the deepest feelings of the heart, like the testimony from Himself that “in a little while I am coming for you”? Again, in reference to the preaching of the gospel, can we conceive anything more stirring? Can anything more powerfully urge the faithful Christian to testify of the grace of God to poor sinners than the knowledge of the fact that the Master is quickly coming for the saints and that then the ungodly will be left behind for judgment. I cannot imagine anything either that will constrain us to real faithfulness to the Lord and care for His saints, His truth and His glory like the Master’s voice — “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7)!
Do we know this hope to be so soul-stirring? Are we so living and walking as to be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless? Would the Master, if He came today, say to you and me, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (see Matt. 25:23)?
A Comforting Hope
This hope is set before us in Scripture as a comforting hope: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18). How many a child of God has had a dear parent, a dear child, a darling wife, or a long- and fondly-loved husband who have died in the Lord? The heart has been made to feel very sorrowful by the separation, but the testimony of the scriptures is that the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, and then the dead in Christ shall rise, and we who remain shall be changed, and then all will go up together into the air to meet Him, and so shall we be forever with the Lord. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
And surely those who have gone before are waiting with patience for the coming of the Lord. Let us not have wrong thoughts with regard to those who have died in the Lord, for though they are absent from the body and present with the Lord, yet their bodies are in the grave. That they are with the Lord and in the enjoyment of full felicity and happiness as far as they are capable there can be no doubt, but they are waiting for the coming of the Lord, when they will know the redemption of their bodies too and then be capable of receiving and enjoying the full measure of their promised blessings. Christ is expecting to come, and those who have fallen asleep in Him are waiting for the Lord to come that their bodies and spirits may be united, and then we shall all meet and be forever like the Lord and with the Lord.
A Purifying Hope
It is plainly set before us in Scripture as a purifying hope. The Apostle John says that he “that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). It is impossible that we can be really hoping for the Lord’s return from heaven and be walking carelessly. Our great adversary often cheats us, or we cheat ourselves, by putting knowledge in the room of faith and hope. Many persons have a great deal of knowledge of the letter, but that is very different from the power of truth in the heart. Therefore it is said, “He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself.”
If we are looking for Christ, we cannot be associating ourselves with what we know He will disapprove. We cannot be upholding now what we know we should be ashamed of then. Those who have not yet thought of the coming of the Lord as a great practical truth would do well to consider that Scripture. It is found in the third chapter of the first epistle of John: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”
Such a believer lives in this hope like a man separated unto God. We do not know when He is coming, but we are to wait and hope for Him. It is possible that the Lord Jesus Christ may come today. I do not say He will; to say so would not be according to Scripture. But I say He may come, and if we are looking for Him, we cannot be occupied with what we know would be hateful in His sight. We may be very ignorant, but we cannot walk in disobedience and at the same time be saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Therefore it is that he that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.
A Rejoicing Hope
Again, it is a rejoicing hope. What can give a Christian such joy as the hope of seeing and being with Christ Himself? But you say, “I hold the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, and I have not this joy.” That is what I have been saying. Knowing the Scripture about it is one thing, but believing it to be God’s truth to you as the present hope of your soul is another. If you believe it to be God’s revealed truth that you are delivered from the wrath to come, that your sins have been blotted out, that your old man has been put to death on the cross, that you have received life in a risen Christ, and that He is quickly coming from heaven for you — if it be to you a blessed hope, surely it is calculated to fill the heart with the deepest, purest joy. If that does not give the heart joy, nothing will. I grant that the foundation of all joy is the accomplished redemption of Christ, but the crowning joy is the hope of seeing Him. We shall, through wondrous mercy, have a crown and a robe, but what are the robe and the crown compared with Him? They are not Christ, and it is a precious reality that
“Greater far than all beside,
He, He Himself is thine.”
When Paul thought of his service in the gospel, his joy was that the Lord was coming. It is said in 1 Thessalonians 2, “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?” Thus Paul, who was persecuted, almost stoned to death, rejected and in poverty and imprisonment, says, I am looking with joy for the coming of the Lord, for then I shall know and have the joy of the results of my labors in the gospel. Again, if we for a moment consider that even now, knowing Him by faith whom we have never seen, we so love and rejoice in Him as to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, what must it be to see Him? What must it be to have His smile continually before our eyes? What must it be to be always in the atmosphere of His changeless, personal, perfect love? What must it be to have the delight of our hearts always before us? What must it be to see Him in all His glory?
I do not believe there is anything of a higher quality than that, for whatever blessings we may have before us, whatever happiness we may then know, or whatever joy surrounding us, there would still be something wanting if we did not, could not, see Jesus. But surely we shall be satisfied when we awake with His likeness, gazing on His face, and, blessed be His name, He will be satisfied too, for He will then “see of the travail of His soul, and . . . be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11).
H. H. Snell