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Longing for Deliverance

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 22, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 25.

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Longing for Deliverance

By F. M. W.

Who has not felt longings for home? In the labor and conflict of life who has not longed for a period of peace and rest? This is true in both the material and the physical sense; it is equally true in the spiritual life. The life of the Christian in this world is fraught with trial and difficulty. This perhaps is in God's purpose. Otherwise our affections would be centered upon this world. During the time of our earthly pilgrimage we find seasons of refreshing, of rejoicing in God, even in the conflict. The sweet, abiding peace and joy of his Holy Spirit are given as an earnest of the eternal joy and peace which will come at the end of the journey.
This present earth is not the home of the Christian. Before him has been placed a brighter hope, a more glorious heritage. For this the hearts of God's people in every age have longed. The coming of the Lord and the glories of the world to come have constituted the hope of the church of God in every generation. It is the hope of the whole creation. Says the apostle Paul:—
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle beautifully compares our present state in this world with the state to be revealed at the coming of the Lord. We quote his words:—
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
In this scripture the apostle mentions three conditions:—
  1. “Our earthly house of this tabernacle,” or this present mortal state.
  2. The condition of being “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,” or the state of immortality.
  3. The “unclothed” state,—the interim between the cessation of life and the taking on of the heavenly clothing,—the state of death.
The apostle declares plainly that he does not desire to be unclothed; he does not desire the unconscious condition between the two states of existence, but his desire is to be “clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
When did the apostle expect to enter this state of being “clothed upon” with his house from heaven, the time when mortality should be “swallowed up of life”? This is very plainly revealed in other portions of his letter to the church at Corinth. He states that this change will take place at the second coming of Christ, at the sounding of the last trump:—
“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
And yet while the apostle earnestly desired the consummation of this great hope, he was willing still to live and labor on if the Lord so willed. He was willing to remain absent from the Lord, realizing the while that this absence kept him from the presence of his Lord. As he states in his epistle to the Philippians, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” In this is expressed his complete resignation to the divine will,—willing to live or to die, as Christ might desire; willing to be buffeted, persecuted, maligned for the cause of Christ, or, if Christ could be better magnified in his death, willing even to lay down his life for the sake of his Master.
Paul knew that the Lord Jesus would not return to the earth in his day. In his epistle to the church at Thessalonica he earnestly combated the errors which had crept into the early church, that Christ was about to return. Paul knew that before he would be taken home, the gospel must do its appointed work of gathering out from all nations a people for the Lord; that Antichrist would arise and accomplish his baneful work in the world. But the apostle also realized that should he lay down his life for his blessed Lord, the next waking, conscious thought to him would be the glories of the world to come. In his unclothed state he would possess no conscious existence. The history of the world would be made, prophecy would be fulfilled, evil would run its wicked course. All this, though occupying weary years, and even centuries, would be to the sleeper in Christ as but a moment of time.
His faith leaped from the life here to the life to come, taking no account of the time spent in unconsciousness, even as in our life-work here we take no account of the time spent in sleep.
The coming of his King was the event upon which his eye of faith was focused. This was the hope that sustained him in all his arduous labors. This was the time when he would receive the crown of life which God had prepared for him. Near the close of his earthly pilgrimage, writing to Timothy, he said:—
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finishedmy course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
May this blessed hope, which has been the inspiration of the church of God in all the ages of the past, prove our inspiration to-day. Soon, if faithful to God, we shall be “clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
F. M. W.