COMFORTING JOYS OF THE BLESSED HOPE
By E. E. A.
All Sorrow, Pain, and Death to Vanish—He Has Promised to Come in Person—The Glory to Be Revealed in Us
SICKNESS, sorrow, pain, and death are all consequences of sin. They had no place in God's original plan for man. They are abnormal conditions, brought about because of man's transgression of God's holy law. Created in the image of God, and crowned with glory and honor, man was an entire stranger to suffering, and would have remained so for eternity had he not sinned. In violating God's law, Adam planted the seeds of death in his person; and sickness, pain, and suffering—with death as the ultimate end—have marked the course of sin through the millenniums that have followed. "Sin hath reigned unto death;" but, thank God, a plan has been devised whereby "grace" is now to "reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 5:21. "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." Matt. 18:11. All that was lost in the fall is to be restored in the plan of salvation. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Cor. 15:26. When "death is swallowed up in victory," the saints of God will shout, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15:54, 55. The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the future glory of the righteous, says: "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land of far distances. . . . And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isa. 33:17, 24, margin. But this is not all of the blessed story. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21:4. It is therefore clear that all sorrow and crying, all pain and sickness, and death itself, are among the things that are to pass away when the work of redemption is completed. For sixty centuries death has apparently prevailed against the church, while many millions of the righteous have gone down into the dark portals of the tomb; but the promise and oath of God still stand. From the heavenly portals comes the word, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev. 1:18. Speaking of Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, "The key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder; so He shall open, and none shall shut; and He shall shut, and none shall open." Isa. 22:22. The One who holds the keys of death is soon to return to earth in power and great glory, attended by all the heavenly host. "For 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. The righteous hear the call of the Lifegiver, and are changed from mortality to immortality. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. Then this body of our humiliation will be fashioned like the body of His glory. Phil. 3:20, 21, R.V. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Isa. 35:5, 6. "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. 8:18-23. Though our bodies may be racked with pain, or our hearts breaking with sorrow, we may "look up, and lift up our heads," knowing that our redemption draws nigh. When in the quiet hour we listen to the voice of our blessed Lord, we hear Him say, "Surely I come quickly." And with unutterable longing our burdened hearts respond, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22:20.