ALL Christendom professes that Jesus the Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It is a fact, and He is seated there as Lord. Will He always sit there? Nay, He may quit His seat this moment. Where to go, and what to do? The answer is in every New Testament in the world: “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: then 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” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Ten thousand things will happen after; Scripture teems with them. But this revelation may be accomplished as you read these words. What would happen to you? Perhaps you are amongst the millions that do not know; possibly amongst those who do not care. The fact remains, the Lord will descend. He may descend today! In a moment the two classes in the world before God would be manifested―the wicked and the righteous. “The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Tim. 2:19).
It is not a question of dying here, but the Lord Himself shall descend from the throne of God then with a rallying shout, to call His own on high.
Whether asleep in their graves―i.e., the body in the dust, but the spirit with Him (2 Cor. 5:8)—or alive on the earth at that solemn moment, all His own will be claimed by Him, raised or changed by divine power, and caught up to meet Him (1 Thess. 4:17) It will happen in a moment―in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52). Scripture speaks of no sign or warning before it occurs. It will be as sudden as it is sure. You may delay the moment in your thoughts, you may doubt its accomplishment, you may wrest the scripture from its unmistakably plain meaning, you may deny it altogether, but the fact remains. God says it. The Lord Himself shall descend, &c. There are no dates connected with it; they all refer to Israel and the earth, and have their fulfillment after and in relation to His manifestation and kingdom; but His promised return for His own is the preliminary part of the Christian’s hope, and should be his daily expectation. Are you a Christian, and is it yours?
Blinded by Satan, and deceived by sin, you may reason and argue that it will not happen in your day, or that it does not mean literally what it says; still, the stubborn fact, which all have to face, remains indelibly written in the abiding and eternal Word, “the Lord himself shall descend.” He came once, according to promise: He will come again. No man knoweth the day nor the hour (Mark 13:32). Nearly nineteen centuries have sped away since He said, “I come quickly.” All Scripture witnesses, as also the world’s state, that His coming is nigh. He may come for His own this moment. Are you ready? Can you say, Come?
Perhaps you say or think no one can say that. You are vastly mistaken. Thousands can, through grace, and so may you. There is one absolute necessity to that end, and that is, to be saved. You must be saved, saved now, and know it; then you are ready, and can rejoice in the thought of, and invite His return. To be saved, does not mean to be baptized, confirmed, and take the Lord’s Supper. To be saved, means that a man has to be brought to see himself a guilty, lost sinner in the sight of God, to believe on His Son who died for such, and to know on the authority of His Word that his sins are put away by His precious blood, and that he is no longer seen by God in his lost condition, but in Christ (Rom. 8:1). It is a wonderful thing to be saved. We are neither saved by what we are, nor by what we do, for our, doings are bad, and we also irretrievably. We are saved by faith alone in Christ and His finished work. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” &c. (Acts 16:31). “By grace are ye saved, through faith” (Eph. 2:8).
Now, as life is uncertain, death reigns, and Christ may come at any moment, now is the time to be saved (2 Cor. 6:2). It is wise to put every other question off rather than that. The time for decision shortens daily. It would be a terrible thing for you to miss salvation, now, would it not? Be honest with yourself. You would like to have it, would you not? Take care; it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31). Christ is offered you now, a present Saviour, and in Him a present and eternal salvation. But now, in self-judgment before God, just as you are, you can hide nothing from Him; so, own fully all, and, where and as you are, a lost sinner, who deserves eternal damnation, believe on His Son. Then is salvation yours; and if He were to return this moment, and shout, you would hear His voice, obey His call, rapt by divine power in the air, to meet Him, and so be forever with the Lord!
But, as surely as He shall claim His own at that wondrous moment, so surely will He leave every unconverted sinner behind. The wise virgins go in, the foolish are shut out (Matt. 25:1-13). Profession without possession is worthless. There must be reality. You may be brim-full of religion, and flowing over with religious talk, but without a living personal interest in Christ at that moment, it were better you had never been born. For to be left behind means judgment. God shall send a strong delusion over men so that they believe a lie, that “they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11, 12). You may believe a thousand things about the truth, but if you believe not the truth itself you cannot walk in righteousness according to God, your profession is utterly worthless, you are yet in your sins; and if our Lord came this moment, your awful portion must be the inexorable judgment of God.
Stop then, proud heart, while you may, and consider your ways, your religion, yourself. Have to do with God now, in grace’s day, ere it be too late. Bow in self-judgment before Him, and believe on His Son, and His coming shall surely be for His and your everlasting joy.
E. H. C.