His Coming: a Purifying Hope
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 place 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 that one who has “this hope in Him purifieth himself.”
If we are looking for Christ, we cannot be associating ourselves with what we know He will disapprove, nor can we be upholding now what we know we will be ashamed of then.
Those who have not yet thought of the coming of the Lord as a great practical truth will do well to consider 1 John 3:2323And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. (1 John 3:23). Such a believer as one who enjoys, by faith, the coming of the Lord, living in this glorious hope, is one who separates himself to God.
We do not know when He is coming, but we are to wait and hope for Him. Each day we can, by faith, say, “He may come today.” We can be found looking for Him, and if we are, we cannot be occupied with what we know is hateful in His sight. We may be very ignorant, but we cannot walk in disobedience at the same time saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
His Coming: A Rejoicing Hope
What can give a Christian such joy as the hope of seeing and being with Christ Himself? Perhaps someone says, “I hold the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, but I have not such joy.” Knowing the Scripture is one thing, but believing it to be God’s revealed truth to you as the present hope of your soul is quite another.
If you believe it to be God’s revealed truth that you are delivered from wrath to come, your sins have been blotted out, your old man has been put to death on the cross, you have received life in a risen Christ, and He is quickly coming from heaven for you surely then your heart will be filled with the deepest, purest joy. And if that does not give the heart joy, nothing will.
Foundational Joy and Crowning Joy
The foundation of all joy is the accomplished redemption of Christ, but the crowning joy of all joys is the hope of seeing Him.
Thus, when Paul thought of his service in the gospel, his joy was that the Lord was coming. He could patiently endure stoning, rejection, poverty, imprisonment, saying, “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.”
What will it be to see Him, to have His smile continually before our eyes, to be always in that atmosphere of His changeless, personal, perfect love? What will it be to have the Delight of our hearts before us, to see Him in all His glory?
He looks forward to it, for He said, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory” (John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)). Is not this the highest blessing that Scripture puts before us? “They shall see His face.”
I do not believe there is anything higher than that, for whatever blessings we may have before, whatever happiness we may then know, or whatever joy surrounds 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 (Psa. 17:1515As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. (Psalm 17:15)), 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 shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:1111He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11)).
H. H. Snell (Seven Lectures on Prophecy, adapted)