p. 8 | The Coming of Our Lord by George W. Rine

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 23, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 28.

The Coming of Our Lord

By George W. Rine

Who Will Welcome His Coming? and Why?

F Jesus is not to me the chief among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely, it is because I do not know Him as my personal Saviour. But if Jesus has delivered me from the cruel bondage of Egypt, if He has plucked me as a brand from the burning, and set me upon a rock, and put a new song in my mouth, and established my goings—then He is to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, the Alpha and Omega of all things. Mark the witness of the Holy Spirit: "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious." 1 Peter 2: 7. No, if I personally know Jesus and the power of His resurrection, then I simply can not love father or mother, brother or sister, more than I love my Lord. "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious."

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven." Aye, but our transgressions are forgiven through the precious blood of Christ. Adoption into the family of God is a blessed thing; but before we could receive the "spirit of adoption," it was necessary that Jesus should first be born of a woman, made under the law, and taste death for every man. Justification is a blessed boon; but we are justified in Jesus. Perfection—who shall not say that this is precious? But we are "complete in Him." Resurrection from spiritual death—is that not glorious? But we "are risen with Him." Eternal salvation is the paragon of all blessings, for it implies all others; but there is no "other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

If all these be good and precious, how ineffably precious must He be in whom, and by whom, and through whom are all these blessed things! Surely then, "unto you therefore which believe He is precious."

Every heart that has been purged from sin by the precious blood of the Lamb, rapturously acclaims with the beloved apostle, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, . . . to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever." And with the blood-washed Paul he exclaims, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." And, like Paul, he is willing to suffer the loss of all things and count them but refuse, if thereby he "may win Christ." Should his Lord address to him the same searching question He put to Peter, "Lovest thou Me?" with Peter he would reply from the depth of his love-filled soul, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee."

Is not love the one irresistible magnet that draws and holds hearts together? If then Jesus is enshrined in the heart of believers, if He is the object par excellence of their affection, they must, in keeping with the everlasting verities, cherish an undying longing to see Him as He is, to dwell in the visible glory of His presence forever. We are so constituted that we desire, above all things else, to live and associate with those whom we esteem and love. The Creator constituted us social beings; hence we instinctively crave loving social intercourse. And tho Jesus is the Son of God, He also is the Son of Man—the one absolutely ideal Man, the paragon of humanity. Hence to the pure in heart Jesus is a crown of glory, a royal diadem. How true, then, that "the glory of heaven will be in seeing Jesus." The late Dr. T. L. Cuyler spoke truly when he averred that if we should ever weep in heaven, it will be tears of joy at seeing Jesus. Perhaps in that higher "upper room" also He may show to us His hands and feet, and we may exclaim as did happy Thomas, "My Lord and my God."

But how only may the church militant hope ever to be brought into the personal presence of her Beloved, and thus become the church triumphant? There is one way and only one—her Lord must come again. The Bridegroom must come to receive His bride. It is when He comes that He will take her to those mansions in His Father’s house which He long ago went to prepare for her.

This is not a theory; it is a fact. Mark now the testimony of the chief of our Lord’s apostles: "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. These words can not be misunderstood. They are as luminous as the midday sun. No room here for debate or even for a difference of opinion. There is not a syllable in the whole range of Holy Writ which even hints that the believer will enter the presence of His Lord at death. Mark you, even the dead in Christ must be raised to life before they can "ever be with the Lord." No wonder, then, that Paul immediately adds this exquisitely fitting admonition: "Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Verse 18. In his letter to the Colossian church the same apostle bears the following witness: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Chapter 3: 4. Paul here utters an impertinence, aye, an egregious error, if the mossy old theory were true that Christian believers are brought into the literal presence of Christ through the medium of death. How natural, then, that Bible-guided believers should pray and work for their Lord’s return, and hail Him with acclamations of joy when He comes in the glory of His kingdom!

Why Their Hearts Were Troubled

During the three and a half years of Jesus’ ministry on earth, His disciples were His constant companions. As a result, they became devotedly attached to Him. He had done everything for them; accordingly, He became everything to them. Their hearts glowed with love to Him. The instinctive language of each soul (barring Judas) was, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." The arduous labor they underwent with Him was rendered easy and delightful by the love they bore Him. It was with eager footsteps that they followed Him, and with minds all alert with expectancy that they listened to every syllable that fell from His sacred lips. They could conceive of no higher joy, no sweeter satisfaction, than that afforded by intimate personal fellowship with the Master.

But at an unexpected hour, a shadow stole over their sun-filled lives. It was in that "upper room," after their Lord, by washing their feet, had condescended to act the part of a bond-servant to them, after He had blessed and imparted to them the emblems of His own sacrificial body (so soon to be offered in expiation for their and our sins), that He said: "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye can not come; so now I say to you." Peter, the spokesman of the disciples, impatiently asked Him, "Lord, whither goest Thou?" Back came the seemingly cruel answer, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards." John 13: 33, 36. Peter now addresses a second question to the Master—a question throbbing with painful apprehension: "Lord, why can not I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake."

In His love and pity, Jesus at once seeks to assuage the deep sorrow of the disciples by assuring them that He was going away not for His own sake, but for theirs. "I go to prepare a place for you," He tells them. He continues, "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.

Again we see that the same great fact is here enunciated by the Master Himself—the fact that His redeemed children can never hope to see their Lord and forever dwell in His visible presence except through the medium of His second personal coming. Small wonder, then, that they should so eagerly anticipate the fulfilment of the promise, "I will come again." "We would see Jesus," expresses the instinctive yearning of every devoted Christian soul. But they know that this deepest of all longings will be realized only "when He shall appear." How natural therefore that the Spirit of God should designate the hope of Jesus' coming as being to believers "that blessed hope." Titus 2: 13.

Complete Salvation Contingent on His Coming

The Scriptures reveal three aspects of salvation. When at the home of Zaccheus, Jesus assured him that "this day is salvation come to this house." That our Lord here means salvation from the guilt or condemnation of sin, is so obvious that argument or exposition is not needed. Paul had in mind the same phase of salvation when he said to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." The second aspect may properly be called progressive salvation; as when Paul admonishes the Philippian brethren to work out their "own salvation with fear and trembling." It is clear that this second phase of salvation is identical with growth in grace and in all the virtues of a divinely saved life.

But there is a third and most essential phase of salvation which can not be realized until Jesus fulfils His promise that He will come again. It is salvation from temptation to sin, and therefore from the possibility of sinning; it is salvation from mortality, and therefore from the possibility of dying. Of course salvation from mortality implies salvation from sorrow, sickness, pain. That this third and crowning aspect of salvation will be realized at the coming of Jesus, is explicitly taught in the following Bible passages: "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation." Heb. 9: 28, A.R.V. In verses 3 to 5 of the first chapter of his first epistle, Peter refers to the "inheritance" of God's people as being "reserved in heaven" for those who are kept by the power of God, through faith, "unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Read further verses 12 to 14 of Luke 14, and mark that the divine Teacher Himself declares that the ultimate recompense or reward promised to the faithful will be received at the "resurrection of the just." But we saw, in a previous article of this series, by adducing numerous Scripture passages, that the resurrection of the just or righteous is incident to the coming of Jesus. (See 1 Thess. 4: 16-18; 1 Cor. 15: 20-23, 51-55; Rev. 22: 12.)

In the light of these exceeding great and precious promises to be fulfilled at the glorious appearing of the Lord, it is not at all strange that the Holy Spirit should admonish believers to live "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, looking for that BLESSED HOPE, and the GLORIOUS APPEARING OF THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST." Titus 2: 11-13. How fitting, too, it is that the beloved disciple, as he closes his wondrous apocalyptic book, should breathe out that ardent yet simple prayer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

The crowning hope of the church, then, is the personal return of her Lord.

The prophet Isaiah preannounced that when the Lord God should finally "swallow up death in victory," and "wipe away tears from off all faces," "it shall be said in that day, 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: 8, 9. Ah, it will be with these words of lyric joy, with this burst of jubilant gladness, that all the redeemed children of God will acclaim His beloved Son when He comes in power and great glory! For "He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe . . . in that day." 2 Thess. 1: 10.

Mark well that it is all those who believe in that day that will admire, glorify, and therefore welcome the returning Christ. All those who love Jesus now, and believe His Word, will, in the words of Paul, "love His appearing."