V. What Christ’s Coming Means; To the Wicked; To the Righteous
BEHOLD, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Rev. 1:7. The wail of the wicked at Christ’s second advent is fearful to contemplate. The wise man describes the situation thus: “They would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” Prov. 1:30, 31. Those who reject the warnings of a loving Father, and persist in their own wicked way to the bitter end, must eat the fruit of their own way. They can not, in the very nature of things, expect to eat the fruit of that which they have openly rejected. There can be no greater error than to presume that God will somehow save those who reject the only means of salvation. Salvation is free to all, and the very fact that it is free precludes the possibility of its ever being forced upon those who still reject it after it has been freely offered for the last time. As responsible beings, they must reap what they have sown.
In order to seek to avoid the awful consequences of sin, some even try to make it appear that they are not responsible for their own wrong course of life. All such theories are self-explosive; for if men were not responsible for their actions, they would never think of trying to make it appear that they are not. Those who seek to shift responsibility from themselves, would be the first to resent the slightest intimation that they are really irresponsible beings in the literal sense of the word.
Space will not permit, in this connection, of a full consideration of the nature of the punishment of the wicked. We may be sure that God will do nothing out of accord with love and justice. Neither will He do anything that will jeopardize the stability of His government and the eternal welfare of His loyal creatures. To infinitely prolong the existence of those who have refused all that God has to offer, would be to perpetuate a state of rebellion from which there would be no hope of reclamation, but only the certainty of endless degradation. The X-ray, properly administered, will at the same time destroy the germs of disease and expand the germs of life. Sunlight performs the same double duty every day. In like manner the glorious effulgence of Christ’s coming will at the same time wither the wicked into the dust, and cause the righteous to rise out of the dust to the plane of the highest aspirations. The immediate and final effect of Christ’s coming on the wicked and the righteous is clearly set forth in the following scriptures: “To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed5from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” 2 Thess. 1:7-9. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 4:1-3. The same principle is strikingly drawn6out by the prophet Isaiah. Of the wicked, he says: “Your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.” Then follows the question: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” The answer is very explicit: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly.” Read Isa. 33:11-15. To those who have waited for the glorious appearing of the Saviour, His presence will be as the sunrise to the songbird. While those who love darkness rather than light are calling for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the light of His presence, those who love the light and walk in the light will welcome Him as the center and source of light, and the attraction will be so strong that they will rise to meet Him in the air. “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.
When the few of God’s children who are alive when Jesus comes, shall join the many who will be wakened from the tomb by the voice of the Life-giver, and with them rise to meet Him in the air, there will be a meeting which no pen can picture. Then will begin for the righteous the realization of that “eternal weight of glory” to which they have always looked forward with joyful anticipation, but which they have never been able to comprehend. “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.” In that day when the kingdoms of earth are dashed in pieces like a potter’s vessel, when the earth is reeling to and fro like a drunken man, when the righteous dead start up from their long slumber, at the voice of the Archangel, when every wicked heart is quaking with fear, when every countenance is falling, when every hope is vanishing and the bitter wail of despair rises from the erstwhile scoffing multitude, then shall the voice of the righteous ascend from amid the wreck: “O Lord, I will praise Thee, for Thine anger is turned away. Behold, God is my salvation: I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.”
The reward given to the righteous comes not as the result of their own worth, but through the worthiness of Him whose perfect life and sacrifice merit that high reward. He suffered the extreme penalty for our sins, that we might receive the reward of His perfection. As we by faith accept the Saviour’s perfect righteousness, and strive with true purpose of heart to reflect that righteousness from our own daily lives, He stands as our sponsor before the bar of eternal justice, and we stand accepted in Him. The coming of Christ marks only the beginning of that infinite reward which comes to the righteous through faith in His infinite substitution on their behalf. We can no more measure the fulness of that reward with our finite minds than we can measure the scope of eternity with an hour-glass. God grant that we may be among that ransomed company who will have eternity in which to pursue their soundings of the unfathomable depths of God’s illimitable love.
