What a scene of indescribable glory that will be, when the Lord Himself shall descend to gather His redeemed to the home He has prepared for them! What a moment of unsullied delight, when at the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, His sleeping saints, raised, and living saints, changed, “shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall they ever be with the Lord”!
All the hosts of the redeemed shall be marshaled there, in bodies of glory, instinct with divine life; – the saints of old, who on the faith of a promise, were worshipers, pilgrims, soldiers; those to whose faith dens and caves bore witness; “of whom the world was not worthy”; the elders, and just men, who “died in faith, not having received the promise,” shall be there; “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”; “Noah, Daniel and Job”; “Moses and Elias,” shall be there; Abel, and the long line of martyrs; Aaron, and the Lord’s priests; Samuel, and the Lord’s prophets; David, and the men of faith who sat on his throne; all God’s renowned ones, the perfected just, shall stand in that scene for which they in faith waited. “The church of the first-born,” too, as the bride prepared for her Lord, shall take her place there; all down to the last re-born soul, who shall form the completion of the mystery. “This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:3232This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:32)). She, too, will recount her worthies in that morning; the many who have stood forth in other days, and who stand forth in our own day, as the witnesses of God’s truth, and the heralds of God’s salvation, all shall ascend together and swell the countless multitude of Christ’s own shall take their place, too, in their respective glories – “every man in his own order” – star differing from star in glory, and each reflecting the image of Jesus.
There will be seats, too, in the kingdom; thrones for rulership over the tribes of Israel; abodes in the Father’s house; thrones around the throne of God; all shall be occupied by the redeemed, each invested with the insignia sovereign love has assigned him. All will “know even as they are known” – each known to each – all known to all. What a season of unutterable joy! of holy intercourse! of uninterrupted communion! But the rapturous thought of each one of this innumerable company will be, they are Christ’s, “I am My beloved’s, and His desire is towards me.” To be Christ’s own, will be a source of deep, unmixed pleasure then (should it not be now?). The absorbing object of their heaven-inspired vision will be Christ; to be forever with Him; to behold Him; to cast their crowns at His feet, paying the heart’s deep homage to Him in one united utterance of “Thou art worthy, for Thou vast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.”
The power of Christ’s resurrection will be applied to the bodies of His saints; they will be raised, because He has been raised, by virtue of having His life, and being indwelt by His Spirit they will be presented in the perfection of that life, in its full triumph over death, and him who had the power of death; they are raised – not for judgment, that to them is passed, Christ bore it for them, but because they are Christ’s – Christ’s resurrection was the first-fruits, and the pledge of that abundant ingathering. He was the first sheaf presented to the Lord, the sample and earnest of the harvest that shall then be gathered into the garner of God; they will be raised up, and presented in the glory with Him. He is the expression of the glory, and they stand in Him. The reunited dust shall be reanimated and vivified with divine life; the weakness shall be transformed into power, corruption into in-corruption, dishonor into glory, the natural body into a spiritual body; it will bear the impress of the heavenly, even as it has borne the image of the earthy. Where is the sting of death? Gone! Where the grave’s victory? Gone! Victory, full, complete, eternal, is theirs – Satan bruised under their feet forever.
(To be continued).