The Coming of the Redeemer
By Geo. A. Snyder
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28. THERE was no more doubt in the inspired writer’s mind with regard to the second advent of the Saviour to this earth than there was concerning His first advent. As surely as Christ was once offered to bear our sins, just so surely He will appear the second time to complete the salvation of those who look for Him. We should just as firmly believe in His personal second advent, as we do in His personal offering to bear the sins of many at His first advent. This promise of His second coming unto salvation is only to those who look for Him. He will also come to those who do not look for Him, but not unto salvation. The full redemption from sin to eternal glory is only for those who hunger for it. The humiliation and death of Christ at His first advent benefited only those of the Jewish people who, through a right understanding of the prophecies, were looking for Him to come as He did. The vast majority of that people, through a wrong understanding of the prophecies, were looking for Him to come as a national hero, and hence were unprepared to receive Him as the Messiah. The glorious appearing of Christ at His second advent and the gathering of His people away from this polluted earth to the mansions prepared in the upper kingdom will benefit those who look for Him to come suddenly, visibly, and with power and glory; while those who still look for Him to come as a national reformer through political methods and measures will naturally be unprepared for His glorious appearing. The promises of His second advent are just as clear and unmistakable to those who search the Scriptures as were the promises of His first advent. What could be more clear than the Saviour’s own promise to His disciples just before He ascended to heaven? “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 2, 3. The apostle Paul bears concurrent testimony in 1 Thess. 4:16, 17: “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.” Similar promises might be multiplied indefinitely, all pointing with unerring certainty to the dawning of that long-looked-for morning when He shall come again to gather the fruits of His sacrifice. Sweet music in the Christian’s ear are these precious promises of the return of Him who “was bruised for our iniquities” to take His redeemed children into the light of His glorious presence. When He bowed His bleeding head and died, it was “the joy that was set before Him,” when He shall behold all the redeemed of the ages safe in the Father’s house, that enabled Him to “endure the cross and despise the shame” of Calvary. Shall not the joy of meeting all the ransomed throng that was set before our dying Saviour reecho in the hearts of all His living children in the joy of meeting Him and seeing Him as He is when He shall appear the second time? “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2. Only those who are like Him will be able to see Him as He is at His appearing, and it is equally true that only those who see Him as He is will ever be made like Him. It is the seeing Him as He is that gives us the desire to be like Him. Not that we can now see Him literally as He will be when He comes, but as we now through the Scriptures see Him as He really is, showing His wounds and spreading His hands before the mercy-seat for us that we may be accepted through the merits of His atonement and made ready for His appearing, our hearts are filled with earnest longing to be like Him; yes to be like Him in humility and suffering here, that we may also be like Him in His glory. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,” that many might at last share in the glory to be revealed when He comes to harvest the seed sown in Gethsemane, on Calvary, and in the sepulcher. To see Jesus as He is, is to see all the phases of His redemptive work, including the great climax of it all when the blue scroll of heaven shall be rolled back to reveal the closing scene in the great drama of the ages. Some of God’s children will be alive here on this earth when Jesus comes, and will rise to meet Him in the air without tasting of death. O the thought of it thrills the heart with unutterable longing to be among that favored, deathless company! My poor pen is too feeble to portray that bright scene “when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him;” when His mighty voice shall roll along the arches of heaven and penetrate the dark corridors of the tomb; when the slumbering saints shall be stirred by the voice of the Life-giver, and respond with shouts of triumph as they come up from the dark valley. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”