The Master's Coming by Charles L. Taylor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 13, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 49.

The Master's Coming

By Charles L. Taylor

VII. Its Relationship to the Everlasting Inheritance

UST so surely as Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, so surely all that was lost by sin will, as foretold by prophets, be restored when He comes in glory at the end of the world. What was lost?

Life and Innocence

All will admit, without question, that by sin man lost his life. "In the day that thou eatest thereof," said Jehovah, "thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2: 17. And the apostle, by inspiration, wrote, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5: 12.

Without doubt all will readily admit also that in the fall man lost his righteous innocence, his moral purity. The wise man wrote, "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. 7: 29. God made man "after His own image." But when sin entered, man became a slave to wrong, alienated from the life of God, and no longer possessing in his character the attributes of righteousness.

The Restorer

Now the Son of God was given to restore lost life; "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 16.

The Son of God was also given to restore to man "the image of God,"—the righteousness of Godlike character. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Rom. 5: 19.

The gift of Christ restores to man both righteousness and life; and when Jesus shall come again these blessings shall be finally and irrevocably fixed as a part of man's inheritance. This much is absolutely plain, and so simple that a child can understand. But even the child that has learned that Christ takes away sin and gives to man life, will ask, even as he has asked, But where are people going to live when Jesus comes?

The story of Paradise involves not only the loss of man's life and righteousness, but the loss of his beautiful home, the loss of Paradise itself; and the story of Paradise lost suggests always that other story of Paradise restored. Who has not heard of Milton's poem that seeks to bring before the mind the complete story of redemption? And where will we find a real Bible student who knows not that the Eden dominion must be given back before the great Gospel plan shall have been perfectly fulfilled?

From the day that man was driven from the garden there have come to him through the revelations of prophets views of that day when the "Seed" should come, through whom and to whom earth itself should be restored. They have been made to understand that the coming of the Christ would bring them back into full possession of all that was given them at creation. In other words, they have been led to see that recreation through the Lord Jesus meant not only to create man for the home, but to create home for the man. And they have understood fully that the grand "restitution of all things" shall take place at the second coming of the Son of Man and the end of the world. Acts 3: 20, 21.

The Dominion Regained

God's promise to Adam, to Abraham, to David, to Paul, invariably included the thought of the restoration of the home,—the lost dominion.

To the Christian church the apostle wrote, saying, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3: 29. And the Abrahamic promise, as recorded in Gen. 13: 14-17, included the entire world; for the letter to the Romans plainly declares, "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. 4: 13. Thus we see that all men finally saved through Christ are sharers in the promise to Abraham, the promise of an earth inheritance.

Bible writers are all a unit in showing that Paradise shall be restored at the end of all things earthly,—at the second advent. This is only natural, for so long as earthly kingdoms continue, so long as sin and sinners have a place, the everlasting kingdom can not be established. But when Christ shall come, then the kingdoms of this world become His. Rev. 11: 15. By His voice they shall then be destroyed (Rev. 2: 25-27), and become like chaff that flies before the wind (Dan. 2: 34, 35), and then His kingdom shall fill the whole earth.

We have already seen, in other articles, that the second advent is the time of reward for all, for both sinner and saint. But what shall be the word of Jesus to His people when at His appearing He welcomes them into glory? Ah, almost His first word calls their mind to the lost Eden possession. The record is: "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. 25: 31, 34.

King of Kings

This shall be indeed the "restitution of all things." Man is caused to live, man is made to be righteous, to man is given his home. And all is fully and forever granted at the coming of Jesus.

The second coming of Christ shall reveal Him as King of Kings. Rev. 19: 16. It was to be King that He came into the world. John 18: 37. The first Adam was made king, but failed; the second Adam shall be made King, and as the Son of Man, the Head of the human, He shall reign forever and ever. Rev. 11: 15. Through Christ's sacrificial offering at His first advent, through His priestly ministration, through His kingly exaltation, God's great earth-plan is finally accomplished, and in company with His people He enters the eternal blessedness of a restored Paradise.

The Capital City

The center of His great earthly reign shall be the New Jerusalem, which shall descend from the heavens. Rev. 21: 2. In that glorious city of life shall be His throne. Rev. 22: 3. There shall be the River and Tree of Life. Rev. 22: 1, 2. And unto Him, in that city, shall be brought the glory and the honor of the nations of the saved. Rev. 21: 26. But tho eternally and incomprehensibly exalted, Jesus shall always continue to be a Son of Man; and like as Adam at the first, He shall reign under the higher and greater dominion of the Father Himself. 1 Cor. 15: 28.

With the establishment of the kingdom of God upon earth there comes the final eradication and elimination of all sinners and of all sin. The day of the Lord is "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Peter 3: 7. For "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shalt melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3: 10. The purifying fires of Jehovah's presence shall sweep old earth from center to circumference, from pole to pole; and when that fire shall have completed its work of destruction, there shall remain nothing to remind the people of God of former days. Even Satan himself shall perish at the rebuke of God, and so the affliction of sin shall not rise up the second time. Nahum 1: 9.

A Clean Universe

There shall then be a clean universe. The "people also shall be all righteous." Isa. 60: 21. Both men and angels shall be in absolute harmony with the King, and from every part of His great dominion there shall go up a blessed chorus of heartfelt praise. The prophet wrote, "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5: 13.

Blessed day, hasten on! Come, Jesus, come quickly!

What can we do, dear reader, to bring about a speedy coming? In what way can we assist the Master to complete earth's preparation? First of all, we can make full surrender of our lives. We can lay aside every weight. We can confess every sin. We can ask for and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can in the power and demonstration of a Spirit-filled life and message give our influence and teaching to the warning of our fellow men. We can make every day a day of faith and prayer in behalf of God's great mission fields, knowing that when this Gospel of the coming kingdom shall have been preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations the end shall then come.

This is the time to place our entire life within the provisions of the blessed hope, and with unalterable purpose and fixed eye hasten forward to the day when the opening heavens shall reveal Him whom we love.