The Coming of the Lord by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 29.

The Coming of the Lord

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

THE FIRST ADVENT.

FOUR hundred and eighty-three years after the decree finally confirmed by Artaxerxes, to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled.” The sixty-nine weeks of the prophecy spoken five hundred years before by the angel Gabriel to Daniel were completed, and Messiah the Prince was due for His public ministry.

Thirty years before, the Jews and many others had heard the strangely eager questioning of the wise men, and there were not a few who looked with wondering eyes toward Bethlehem of Judea, and bethought them of the words of the Lord through Micah the prophet, uttered seven centuries before: “Out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.” Three years and a half later, to the accompaniment of loud hosannas and rejoicings of a vast multitude, the King came into Jerusalem precisely as had been predicted five hundred years before by Zechariah the prophet.

Mystery attended the coming of the Messiah into the world, and an air of mystery surrounded His ministry, chiefly because it was not comprehended at the time by even His disciples. But after His death and resurrection and ascension, the mystery began to clear up; the bright light dispelled the mists, and the relations of things began to appear, and the glorious Gospel unfolded an inexhaustible depth and expanse of life-giving truth. And revelation followed revelation, and the light shined brighter and brighter as time passed, until we have the treasures left in the writings of disciples and apostles. And with these before us we can comprehend more easily, and no doubt better than could have been before Jesus’ time, something of the meaning of the first advent.

The “Desire of All Nations”

had come, but how little comprehended was He by “all nations,” how little has He been comprehended through the ages by the many, and how sadly was He misunderstood by the nation of the Jews! The latter through centuries of backsliding had lost the proper conception of the great truths entrusted to them. These were truths for all the world, and altho the Lord had often reminded them of this fact through the prophets, pride had misconstrued their larger meaning, and narrowed a message of world salvation to salvation mainly for themselves, and that largely of a temporal nature.

It is true that they had suffered much oppression, but only because of backsliding. Through the ages they had looked for the Messiah. Glorious promises had been made through the prophets of the redemption to come; and their boast, made none too modestly, was that when the Messiah should come, He would subdue their enemies and exalt them to the proud position of world-leaders. The trouble was not with the promises, but with their interpretation of them. The Jews failed, or refused, to discern the chief feature of the Messiah’s mission—the feature first in importance and first in point of time fulfilment—in the many prophecies relating to Him. Had they done so, they would have seen that the prophecies and promises concerning earthly dominion and its restoration must have had reference to events more remote than their time for their accomplishment.

The message of spiritual redemption, a spiritual kingdom, and salvation from sin was unwelcome to the many, whose minds had so long dwelt upon the earthly that they could not see that this was of greater importance, and a necessity precedent to the latter. The Messiah had come; but He failed to meet their proud requirements as to how the Christ ought to comport Himself. “My kingdom is not of this world,” He said; and their benighted minds, grasping only the idea of the material kingdom with Jerusalem its center and the Gentiles its circumference, pronounced sentence: “Away with this man.”

But, as stated, the message of redemption given through the Jews was for the whole world. They were indeed a chosen people, and God designed to honor them greatly. He did honor them by sending the Redeemer through them as a nation, and the message of salvation was preached to them first. He will ultimately honor the faithful ones of old by calling all the saved under the name of Israel,—overcomers.

Vindication and Redemption.

It is not necessary to quote Scripture to a student of the Bible to show that Christ was originally a member of the Godhead, and the active agent in creation. There are rich truths connected with the mystery of the incarnation that will well repay the one who searches for them. Just now we are to note that the One called by Isaiah “The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” came to earth as a man, to suffer the penalty of Adam’s transgression,—as one sinless, yet reckoned as a sinner for the work of redemption.

He was to demonstrate by His sinless life three things in particular: (1) that it is possible for man in sinful flesh to live without sinning, by the power of God. And by the power of that demonstration courage is given to every man who chooses to follow in the same pathway unto victory. (2) He was to demonstrate to angelic beings, fallen and unfallen, and to all the worlds that the divine system of government is sure and right; and (3) that Satan was wrong in his denunciation of that government, and that his whole course of rebellion is unjustifiable.

The redemption also includes more than man alone. It includes the lost dominion of earth. By one act of sin the dominion was lost; by one righteous life among men,—the sinless character of Christ,—and the vicarious suffering of the One, the power of sin and death and Satan the usurper was broken forever, and the right to the whole dominion came back to the rightful owner,—the One who made it, and so the prophet declares: “And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”

The full significance of the first advent was understood at the time only by those behind the scenes, as it were,—the Godhead, unfallen and fallen angels, parties to the tremendous

controversy between the principles of good and evil, and unfallen worlds, to whom, as well as to fallen man, the issue of the Redeemer’s mission meant untold possibilities. It was the pivotal point of time and eternity.

But the mission was a glorious success. A spiritual kingdom, established long before in promise, had been confirmed, and there remained only a broader spreading of the principles of that kingdom, until the final redemption of the dominion. All along the ages faithful souls had looked forward to this time. In their sacrificial system they foresaw the antitypical offering for sin,—the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” and their faith in the efficacy of the power of God to be manifested in after generations was also the faith in a present power to save from sin. And it saved them. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises [of lands and kingdoms and earthly dominion restored], but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

The keynote of the first Advent of Christ was redemption. The word includes all,—vindication of God’s character, condemnation of Satan’s principles, power of salvation for man, restoration of the whole dominion, glad assurance forever to all worlds. Closing His earthly ministry, Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you; . . . I will come again.” “And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”