The Second Coming of Christ
What Does It Mean to the Ungodly?
THOSE who do not love Christ do not wish to see Him. This is a fact which every soul will appreciate. The little boy who has disobeyed his father does not care to see his father. The criminal does not care to meet the sheriff. Adam, after sinning, endeavored to hide from God. So men who are not acquainted with Christ do not care to meet Him in His transcendent glory. Yet there is no cause on His part why they should feel thus. God loves the sinner, tho He hates the sin. He loved the sinner so much that “He gave His only-begotten Son,” in order that the sinner might be saved. Listen to what the unchangeable God, who “is no respecter of persons,” said to sinners of old: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED; but that the WICKED TURN FROM HIS WAY AND LIVE: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die.” Jesus was manifest not only to destroy the devil, but the works of the devil—sin. Heb. 2: 14; 1 John 3: 8. All mankind are sinners; all have come short of His glory. Rom. 3: 23. It is sin and sin alone, which has marred God’s image in them; and it is the purpose of Christ’s mission to destroy sin in the sinner and to save the sinner. There is but one alternative to salvation, and that is destruction. Righteousness only is fit to survive forever. “In the way of righteousness is life.” Prov. 12: 28. No man possesses that righteousness in himself; therefore, Christ brings it to him in the Gospel—“the power of God unto salvation,” because it brings righteousness. Rom. 1: 16, 17. “Sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.” James 1: 15. “The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6: 23. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18: 4. This is the universal testimony of Scripture and history. Men may teach and imagine and fancy otherwise, but the declaration of God’s word stands; the finished fruit of sin is death. God gives the sinner the choice between life and death—in the choice between God’s way and sin’s way. If the sinner chooses the way of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ comes into the heart, and dwells there. Gal. 2: 20. Thus the erstwhile sinner comes to know the Master—know Him as a Saviour from sin, a Friend in trouble, a Counselor in difficulty, a mighty Helper all along the way. Surely he will love Christ’s coming; and will say, as the Master appears, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” Isa. 25: 9. But if we have chosen sin, what hope have we when Christ comes. If we choose Him, we identify ourselves with Him, and become a part of His body, a member of His church. If we choose sin, we become a part of the “body of sin,” and must perish with the sin. His desire is that we shall welcome Him in His truth into our hearts and lives, and let His presence—the glory of His goodness—destroy the sin therein. If we will not let Him destroy sin in us, we identify ourselves with the sin, and when He comes in all His burning glory, all that is of sin shall perish, and we also, by our own choice. And this is what Christ’s coming means to the ungodly. Therefore we read in His word: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life thru Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6: 23. “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; WHOSE END IS DESTRUCTION, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” Phil. 3: 18, 19. “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord SHALL CONSUME WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS MOUTH, AND SHALL DESTROY with the BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING [the forthshining of His Presence].” 2 Thess. 2: 8. “And these shall go away into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT; but the righteous into life eternal.” Matt. 25: 46. “And to you who are troubled rest with us, WHEN THE LORD JESUS SHALL BE REVEALED FROM HEAVEN with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; WHO SHALL BE PUNISHED WITH EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, (because our testimony among you was believed), in that day.” 2 Thess. 1: 7-10. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh REAP CORRUPTION; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap LIFE EVERLASTING.” Gal. 6: 7, 8. Much more testimony might be given; surely these will suffice to the Bible believer, unsaved sinner, tho he be. When Christ comes, He will not come in one way to the wicked and another to the righteous. It will be the same Jesus, with the same merciful, unchangeable character. In His children He will meet His own image morally, and they will be changed from glory to glory. The wicked will then have rejected every overture of mercy, and in his life will be only sin and the love of sin. The same sun that ripens the wheat ripens the tares. The same light which heals the living flesh, sloughs off the dead tissue. The same glory of Christ which changes the righteous to immortality brings death to the sin-loving wicked. Sinner, Jesus died to save you from that sin; died that you might give up the sin, and that He might live in your life; died that you might be victor over sin; died that His coming might be to you a joy and blessing, infinite and eternal. Receive Him now, that He may receive you then. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”