The second coming of Christ to all his followers, both those who are living and those who are sleeping in their graves, will mean the culmination of some of the most precious promises to be found in the word of God. When Christ was with his disciples on earth he was disclosing to them little by little the fact that he was to be separated from them soon and go to his Father—a fact, however, that they should have known of themselves from the prophecies, of which the Jewish race professed to be great students; but they were nevertheless expecting that he would be a temporal Prince, and that they would reign with him upon temporal thrones, amid the ruins of the old Roman Empire, which had been, and was, the great oppressor of their race. But Christ began to unfold to them little by little, as they could understand it, his true mission, and, among other things, that he was soon to be offered upon the cross for the sins of the race, and that then he would go to his Father. As he told them these facts, they began to be filled with sorrow, but Jesus said:—
“Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. 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.”
How precious is this promise, “I go to prepare a place for you,” and “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”! Jesus was not simply going away, but he gave them the promise that he would come again, and not only that he would come again, but that he would receive them unto himself, “that wherever he was, they might be also with him.” The disciples by associating with Jesus had learned to love him. They had seen him in his everyday life, and had found him to be full of compassion and kindness, abounding in wisdom and mercy, and, in short, everything that can be found in a perfect character. And so they loved him, and it was a source of sorrow to them to think that they were to be separated from his bodily presence; but notice how the Saviour comforts them with the assurance that he would come again, and that where he was they might be. Most precious promise!
Again, in Acts 1:11, when the Saviour was leaving the earth, he was so intent upon impressing their minds with the fact that he was to come again, that he sent two heavenly beings to say to the disciples, “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.” How sincere was the desire of the disciples to be with Jesus! And the individual even now who has learned to know him as the Saviour from his sins, will be longingly desiring for the return of “this same Jesus.”
Again he says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. Then the second coming of Christ means to his followers not only the privilege of being with Jesus, but the inestimable privilege of receiving at that time the full reward that Jesus has for him. The first and most precious thing that he bestows upon us at his coming is immortality, for he says:—
“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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51–53.
Notice how clear this assurance is: “We shall all be changed.” Not only those who are sleeping in the grave, but those who are alive at the coming of the Lord, will be changed; the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (those who are living) shall be changed, and the mortal shall put on immortality. Then the coming of Christ means to his followers the privilege of being forever with their Lord, and enjoying the blessings of immortality. But again note the inexpressible joy in that immortal existence:—
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 1 Cor. 2:9, 10.
Nothing that eye hath ever seen—the most beautiful lakes and rivers, on whose shores are spread out the fields of living green, the most beautiful place that art and the ingenuity of man can make, will come far short of expressing to us the beauty and the joy of that place. Neither hath ear heard sounds so sweet, nor conveyed to the mind such expressions5of inestimable joy as shall be found there. He does not stop with this. He says, “Neither hath entered into the heart of man.” In the loftiest flights of his imagination, when the mind has been roving in fields of ineffable light and joy, when man has pictured to himself that which is far beyond anything which he has ever seen in his life, fancy falls short of even conceiving what God has prepared for them that love him. Yet he says God has revealed these things to us by his Spirit.
Through a study of the word of God, guided by his Spirit, we may by faith know somewhat of those future joys. But even our faith, with our limited faculties for comprehending the great truths that God has for us, will come far short of presenting to our minds the unutterable reality of the joys of the redeemed state. O, the feebleness of human language, and the lack of being able to express the emotions that thrill the heart of the believer as he contemplates that glad day when Jesus will come to receive his own!
Not only will we be forever received into the personal presence of the Saviour, robed with immortality, and filled with indescribable joy, but then will be given back to us our beautiful home, the earth made new; for do we not read in his word, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away”? Rev. 21:1.
The character of those who will dwell there is expressed in the fifth chapter of Matthew and the fifth verse: “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” No person has ever yet received a foot of ground on this earth in its present condition because of his meekness, but in that new heaven and new earth those who are meek, those who possess the characteristics of the Master, will be the dwellers there.
In the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, which gives a description of the earth in its renewed state, we get something of an idea of the beauty that will be so abundantly spread over its entire surface. We there learn that in this new earth the desert will rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Those who have been blind, lame, and afflicted, will be made to leap with that joy that can be found alone in the heart of one who realizes that he is in possession of everlasting life.
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Volumes might be written, and yet this great subject would not be exhausted. The second coming of Christ means everything that is full of joy and blessedness to his followers. And well might it be if in contemplating this subject we need dwell only upon the beautiful picture of what the second coming of Christ brings to his followers.
To the Sinner.
While the second coming of Christ means everything that is desirable and nothing that is undesirable to his followers, it will present a very different picture to those who continue to refuse his proffered mercy. In Matt. 16:27 Jesus says, “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” The character of the works, it will be observed, is that which determines the kind of reward that will be given. In the fifth chapter and the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth verses of John the Saviour tells us again:—
“The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
Then all that are in their graves come forth to the one or to the other of these resurrections.
The second coming of Christ is to demonstrate the final condition of every individual that has lived, or that shall live, on this earth; for just before his coming he says:—
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he be righteous still. . . . And behold, I come quickly.” Rev. 22:11, 12.
That is, just before his second coming the Son of man, who has given himself for the race, who has done everything that infinite power and infinite love could do to redeem us, will pronounce those awfully solemn words, showing that the guilt of the sinner and the righteousness of the Christian will remain forever fixed.
When such momentous issues are before us, what a solemn thing it is to live! How carefully should we devote ourselves to the service of the Master, that when he rises to pronounce that final sentence, we may be among those who are just and holy! It is said of those who will refuse his proffered mercy that they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 1 Thess. 1:9. Observe how expressive is this language. Not only will they be punished, but they will be punished with destruction, and that destruction will not be something that will be simply temporal, so that they can be brought into existence again, but he says it is to be everlasting destruction, and that his everlasting destruction is from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.
So while the second coming of Christ brings to his followers everything that is joyful and good, and while it will be the realization of the highest hopes of eternal happiness and blessedness in the presence of the Lord, it also means to the sinner the final settlement of his doom, his everlasting destruction from God and his glory, because the destruction in and of itself would not only banish him away from the presence of the Lord, but from the presence of everything else in all the universe. His everlasting destruction brings him to nothing. “They shall be as though they had not been.” Obadiah 16. See also P. 37:9, 10, 20, 35, 36.
With that thought before us, that Jesus is soon coming again, and that one or the other of these rewards awaits every individual on the earth, how highly important it is that each one should be found devoting himself to the higher interests of eternal salvation, rather than to the transitory pleasures of time and sense!
Dear reader, one or the other of these rewards awaits you. Which shall it be? It is in your hands to decide. Now you have the privilege of choosing whether you will have all the joys that infinite love can bestow upon you in an eternal existence, or whether you will choose banishment from God and from all the joys of the blessed. May we one and all find it in our hearts to choose Christ and his righteousness now, that we may receive all the priceless treasure that his soon coming will bring to his people.
