His Coming Personal and Literal
By W. A. S.
THERE is joy and blessedness in the thought of meeting Christ at His coming, because it is really the same Jesus who went away that is coming back again. The angels said to the disciples, as their straining eyes watched Him go: “Ye men of Galilee, . . . this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
“This same Jesus”! It was the loving Friend and Elder Brother, Son of man as well as Son of God, who was passing from their sight. He will come back the “same Jesus,” though in glory undescribable, having “all the holy angels with Him.” The prophet Habakkuk thus described Christ’s glorious appearing, as it was represented to him in vision: “His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
And His brightness was as the light;
He had rays coming forth from His hand;
And there was the hiding of His power.”
Hab. 3:3, 4. A.R.V.
Surely it is the “same Jesus,” and “the print of the nails in His hands” is the shining badge of His power to save. As the redeemed see it, they will cry: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isa. 25:9. The unready, the unrepentant, will realize too late that it is a glorious King’s real coming that they have been indifferent to, before whose face no sin can endure. “Every eye shall see Him,” the apostle says; and he describes the scene as it will appear to the unprepared: “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6:14-17.
God forbid that we should read these inspired forewarnings without a prayer in the heart that we may be hidden in Christ now, and in that great day. All Scripture shows that the coming of Christ the second time will be a personal, literal coming, to gather His loved ones home. W. A. S.