Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the second coming of Christ. The One to appear is Jesus Christ as the great God and Saviour, who clothed divinity with humanity, and in Him is centered the hope of eternal life. His appearing will be personal, literal and visible in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and it is soon and near though its exact time is unknown. Looking for that appearing belongs with the life taught by saving grace, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. He gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works, who watch in active readiness as pilgrims whose citizenship is in heaven and proclaim His coming with its solemn realities to turn souls to God.
Hope and Appearing Defined
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the second coming of Christ. Looking for that appearing belongs with the life taught by God's saving grace that brings salvation, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. He gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, and that great purifying work is performed only for those willing to be purified and to be peculiar and to manifest zeal in good works. It requires living out the truth and willingness to appear singular and peculiar in the eyes of the world and not shrinking from the purifying process, for mixing with the world destroys spirituality, pureness and zeal and destroys the sign of distinction between God's people and the world, stupifying sensibilities so consciences are not sensitive to wrong.
The One to appear is Jesus Christ as the great God and Saviour, greater than any earthly sovereign's arrival and a cause for glad anticipation. He is the Majesty of heaven who clothed divinity with humanity to stand at the head of the human race, who gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works, making men and women partakers of the divine nature with grace to overcome as He overcame, with eternity and eternal life before them and the promise to the overcomer of sitting with Him in His throne. In Him is centered the hope of eternal life, and at His coming He will raise the dead, gather them to meet Him in the air, bring them into God's city, and give the saints of all ages the kingdom and eternal life where the gates open to receive them and they eat from the tree of life. He will come with His own glory, the Father's glory and the angelic host, with a glory surpassing anything ever seen, unlike His first coming when His divinity was concealed by human form and humility, appearing as equal with God, the beloved Son, King of kings and Lord of lords, Redeemer and Lifegiver, with His glory and the Father's glory seen as one, and obedience or disobedience to God's authority decides who will meet Him in peace.
His appearing is personal, literal and visible in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, not a spiritual coming, for Jesus is a real person and to spiritualize His return obscures the glory of heaven, the throne of David and Christ Himself. Believers are to live soberly, righteously and godly in the present world while looking for that personal, glorious return with glad expectation of meeting the Redeemer soon, which convinces them they are not ready and stirs earnest pursuit of sanctification of the Spirit, purity of heart, new strength and grace, peace, happiness, joy, perfect love, love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer. His coming is soon, near and imminent, soon to be realized, not long delayed, speedy and solemn, though its exact time is unknown. The signs He gave show when it is near, and seeing them fulfilled strengthens faith, so His people are to watch and wait faithfully and pray rather than say His coming is delayed, to press forward keeping heaven in view, standing firm and ready, regarding earthly things as empty and of little worth, making ready to meet Him with joy because there is no time to lose, while claims that the Lord will delay quiet the unprepared and scoffers will face an account when He comes.
The verse belongs to Paul's charge to Titus, joined with exhortation for young men to be sober-minded and to show in all things a pattern of good works with uncorrupt doctrine, gravity, sincerity and sound speech that cannot be condemned. It belongs to the charge in Titus 2:11-15 to speak, exhort and rebuke with authority in a way that gives no excuse to reject faithful counsel, which ministers are to heed so they work circumspectly. It belongs to the last-days present-truth message given to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord, when God is purifying a people for Himself and making them His own, distinct from the world as a peculiar, set-apart people. Waiting for the Lord to appear from heaven is a prominent feature of the faith of the small group who keep the seventh day and honor God's law, marking them as a separate and distinct people, seen in commandment keepers and Sabbath keepers looking for Christ's soon appearing in the clouds of heaven, and the name Seventh-day Adventist identifies those who keep the Sabbath and look for Christ's coming.
Glory and Events at Coming
The blessed hope is Christ's return in power and great glory to receive the obedient and loyal to Himself, and waiting for His appearing means faithfully working for Him, directing others to the coming Lord, teaching them to wait patiently, and living with responsibility and faithfulness to God. He will personally appear in the clouds of heaven with a glory surpassing anything ever seen, with His own glory and the Father's glory and the angelic host. Unlike His first coming, when His divinity was concealed by human form and humility, He will appear as equal with God, the beloved Son, King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Redeemer and Lifegiver of His people, and His glory and the Father's glory will be seen as one. This is looking for Jesus Christ to come from heaven in the clouds with the glory of His Father to bring the times of the kingdom to the just, the hope of the church held through the centuries by martyrs under persecution, by the Waldenses, and by Wycliffe, and assurance of Christ's personal resurrection gives assurance of believers' own resurrection at His coming, so for this cause believers despise death and are willing to go down to the grave that they may rise free.
At His coming, greater than any earthly sovereign's arrival and a cause for glad anticipation, Jesus will raise the dead, gather them to meet Him in the air, bring them into God's city, and give the saints of all ages the kingdom and eternal life, where the gates open to receive them and they eat from the tree of life. His personal appearing from heaven in the clouds with glory is the blessed hope of the apostolic church, the Waldenses, the reformers, and faithful Christians through the centuries, bringing the resurrection of the faithful and the kingdom, and because death will be conquered at the resurrection and redemption brought to completion, believers love His appearing and long, hope, and wait for it. At His appearing the conflict will end, loved ones separated by death will meet again, and there will be no more grief. That expectation should shape life, so conduct and conversation show looking for the Savior with attention fixed on heaven rather than absorption with worldly amusements, pride, or trifling talk. At that appearing Christ will change frail mortal bodies and make them like His glorious body.
At His coming Christ will change the earth by His power into an everlasting home for His children. His appearing will save His children, bring sin to an end, and begin everlasting sanctification in a place where the Devil can no longer tempt them, when mortal bodies will be changed to immortality and made like Christ's glorious body, and longing for His appearing grows with closeness to the Lord while the hope gives freedom and joy even when believers are willing to live or die and endure the change. At His coming the long rule of evil ends, God's kingdom is established, and the promised restoration and glory of His people are fulfilled, with the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the risen dead and living believers caught up together to meet the Lord and remain with Him forever. The blessed hope is the coming and kingdom of Christ held by those who believe, expect, look, wait, and long for it, when sickness and death will no longer have power over the saints.
The blessed hope is the hope of immortality to be fulfilled at Christ's soon appearing, the great treasure of eternal life and the crown of life to be won, and those who suffer with Christ will share His reign and receive a rich reward as those who endure affliction with God's people. It is to be talked about, with thinking of God and more talk of Jesus and of heaven, with belief seen in spirit and deportment, with earnestness and intensity of desire proportionate to the value of eternal life, believing that Jesus lives to save and to give freedom in His love full of joy, gratitude, and praise to God, and those who welcome His appearing with joy will receive the crown of life and praise God with the song of Moses and the Lamb. It is shared by Christians as one family under the same Heavenly Father, and should strengthen the close, tender bond between them and shape their words and actions. It is looked for by those who are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, who are God's own people distinct from the world, called to leave worldly fashions, imitate Christ's self-denying life, and have moral courage not to be ashamed of Him.
His appearing brings judgment and the great day of God's wrath, and obedience or disobedience to God's authority decides who will meet Him in peace. Those who await the appearing of God and Jesus Christ should live in a holy, lively way, with words and actions showing they are watching for Christ's appearing and urging people to prepare for the coming day. Looking for the second advent as the true hope of the church means preparing for the judgment and making preparation of heart to meet God in peace, calling professors of religion to a deeper Christian experience and the unconverted to immediate repentance and conversion to God.
Grace Teaches Godly Living
The blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ belongs together with the life taught by the saving grace of God that brings salvation to all men. That grace trains those it saves to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world while looking for that appearing. Christ gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar, special people zealous of good works, separate from the world and unspotted by it. Such godly living adorns the doctrine of God the Saviour, and for these last days God is by close and pointed truths cutting out such a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. Pride and unhealthful fashions and love of display and love of approbation must be left with the world in order to be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us.
Saving grace teaches not only by commanding but by giving divine knowledge. By it men and women are made partakers of the divine nature, with grace to overcome as He overcame, with eternity and eternal life before them and with the promise to the overcomer of sitting with Him in His throne. Through that grace believers are to represent Him now in character and service, rather than waiting for His coming to receive the needed virtue and grace. Looking for Him belongs with doing justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God. It belongs with the exhortation to be sober-minded and to show in all things a pattern of good works with uncorrupt doctrine, gravity, sincerity and sound speech that cannot be condemned.
Those awaiting Christ's appearing and translation to heaven without seeing death should therefore not lag behind others in good works. They should cleanse themselves from moral and physical defilement and from physical and spiritual defilement, perfecting holiness and pursuing holiness to reflect the high profession they make. Their hope of His appearing does not excuse neglect of the body or appetite but calls them to disciplined, holy living and to lead in good works. The verse thus outlines the work of all who hold positions of responsibility: life and character must undergo education, heart and mind must be brought under God's control, and young men and women must be educated and trained to be channels of light to the world. Education should prepare students for an inheritance with the saints in light and teach what will endure through eternity.
Purified Peculiar People
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar, special people zealous of good works. That redeemed life is a sanctified, new life lived through faith in Christ, belonging with denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world as saving grace teaches. Saving grace teaches not only by commanding but by giving divine knowledge, training those it saves to turn from ungodliness and worldly desires while expecting the happy hope and bright appearing. This expectation marks God's people as distinct from the world and supports their calling to be Christ's own people, purified and zealous for good works.
That great purifying work is performed only for those willing to be purified, willing to be peculiar, wholly His, and manifesting zeal in good works by living out the truth. For these last days God is by close and pointed truths cutting out a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. They must come out and be separate, leave worldly fashions, pride, unhealthful fashions, display and love of approbation, and be unspotted by the world. Mingling with the world destroys spirituality, pureness and zeal, stupifies the sensibilities so conscience is not sensitive to wrong, and destroys the sign of distinction until the distinction between God's people and the world is lost. This watchful, holy life adorns the doctrine of God the Saviour in all things and marks those whom Christ gave Himself to redeem and purify.
The same command to be separate and distinct that rested on ancient Israel rests on the Israel of God now. The hope in Christ's appearing belongs to this call in the last days, when God is purifying a people for Himself and making them His own, distinct from the world. Departing from God to mingle with the world and follow its practices and the abominations of the surrounding nations, as ancient Israel did when it rebelled and would not heed His commands, provokes Him and brings His wrath and judgments. Those who look for Christ's appearing are in constant danger of mingling with the world and losing the marks of being God's chosen people.
Their strength is in being chosen and accepted of God, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created them. That people, wholly His and marked as His, are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, distinct from the unbelieving world and not mixed with it so as to differ only in name. Their hope of the immortal inheritance calls them to leave worldly fashions and imitate Christ's self-denying life. It will soon be known who is on the Lord's side.
They must have moral courage not to be ashamed of Him, but to take their stand for Him and follow His self-denying example without shame. This requires coming out to be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world, denying self, taking up the cross and lifting it in obeying the commandments of God. They are to consent to be poor and despised until the warfare is finished, rather than live for pleasure, dancing and amusement. Those without moral courage to leave the fashions of the world are ashamed of Jesus and do not love His example.
Watching in Readiness
Believers are to watch and wait faithfully with eternal vigilance as faithful sentinels, rather than saying His coming is delayed. The exact time of His coming is unknown, but the signs He gave show when it is near, and seeing them fulfilled strengthens faith rather than weakening it. Claims that the Lord will delay quiet those who are unprepared, while the prospect of His return calls them to readiness because the time is solemn and there is no time to lose. Those who say His coming is delayed have no desire to see Him, and their prospect is perilous if He does come, so making ready to meet Him with joy is the safest course. Looking for Christ means pressing forward in the Christian life, keeping heaven in view, standing firm, and being faithful to the trust left to stewards while He is absent in heaven, staying awake lest coming suddenly He find them sleeping.
Looking for Him is not idle waiting but active watching shown by faith and works. Keeping His appearing continually before the mind leads to serving God every day as if it were the last, separating from sin and iniquity, purifying the self, searching the Scriptures, growing in faith, and doing faithful work for eternity and for souls. The blessing belongs to the one who watches and keeps the garments, and the watching ones are more active in doing and working in the vineyard, working with vigilance to arouse souls to their danger and proclaiming that the end of all things is at hand. They are strictly temperate in eating and dressing, with humility and simplicity in all acts, sober and watching unto prayer, ready for the Son of man to come in an hour not thought. To have this hope and then grow careless and indifferent and put off the day of God is dangerous, giving place to the enemy and bringing judgment, while readiness with spotless character prepares for a place among the white-robed ones, for the wedding garment is a life not marked by deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy, and outward concealment cannot hide the heart from God.
Readiness means closing the windows of the soul earthward and opening them heavenward, living the great elevated truths for this time and being surcharged with the Spirit's efficiency. The expectation of His personal soon return awakens earnest pursuit of the Spirit's sanctifying work and brings peace, joy, and perfect love, and those who love Jesus welcome news of His advent with gladness. Looking for Him convinces believers they are not ready, that they must become pure in heart to meet Him in peace, and arouses them to seek new strength and grace, inspiring love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer. They are to keep faithful watch over the affections, being jealous lest the least sin defile character, adorning the soul temple, bringing truth into practical life, and pleasing God by pure and true relationship to one another in words and affections, so that each member and each institution is a bright shining light carrying forward every line of the work harmoniously together, and then the joy of Christ's salvation will be understood. This shapes dress, speech, and actions to show Christ formed within, living holy and separate and accepting suffering as part of purification and preparation for the kingdom.
Those who look for Him live as pilgrims and strangers whose citizenship is in heaven and whose steps advance heavenward. They fix the eyes heavenward in earnest watching, turn from earthly enterprises, earthly pleasure, worldly fame, praise, riches, honors, and the deceitfulness of riches, regard earthly honor and distinction as worthless emptiness, and show by a watching waiting position that home and treasure are not in this world. This profession must be more than words, for buying and accumulating attractive lands while claiming to await Christ contradicts that hope. Faith reaches into the glorious mysteries of the heavenly treasure, drawing divine rays from the heavenly sanctuary to shine in the heart, gathering the righteousness of Christ into the soul so as to be a burning light in moral darkness, with vigorous faith, lively hope, fervent love, and holy zeal producing decided distinction from the world, vigorous service, love for one another, and careful holy living to God's glory. Those who look for His appearing endure the mocking question about the delayed promise, answer that they are watching, become strong, overcome sloth and selfishness and love of ease, rally when faith falters and the waiting time seems long, glory in tribulation and necessity, resist conformity to worldly fashions, pride, display, and desire for approval, and stand ready to open immediately when He comes and knocks, receiving the blessing promised to the servants He finds watching.
Waiting with reverent fear and active preparation like Noah amid scorn, jest, and ridicule is the appointed posture. Unbelievers in the public press, in the haunts of sin, and in the schools of science respond with scorn and witty paragraphs at the expense of those who wait, but this mockery is not new but as old as sin and as false as the father of lies. His return is speedy and solemn, calling for watching and prayer, and those who scoff at it will face an account when He comes.
The hope gives urgency because the end is near and the world is ripening for the last great conflict. Forgetting to prepare to meet a soon-coming Saviour means losing realization of the times, so there is a call to come to the senses and act like rational beings living on the borders of the eternal world, putting all energies into preparing to move from this lower school to the school above and into imparting light to those around while laboring for souls still in sin because time is short. Though long waited for, faith is not to become weak but to grow stronger as the signs are fulfilled, keeping Jesus ever before them, cheerful and not sad, ready and waiting to meet Him in peace. In the day when buildings burn and frantic human efforts prove futile, the hope means God's protecting hand shields His people and hides them as in the secret of His pavilion, since safety is only in God, calling for hiding in Him every day and bringing Him nearer by living faith.
Hope Sustains Believers
Looking forward to meeting the Redeemer soon stirs a more earnest pursuit of the sanctification of the Spirit and brings peace, joy, happiness, perfect love, freedom, new strength and grace. This blessed hope is the glorious appearing of God and the Saviour Jesus Christ, the personal, soon return of Jesus in the clouds, whose fulfillment is near and which is to be kept firmly before heart and mind as the source of joy and inspiration. Those who love Jesus welcome news of His second advent with gladness and joy, and the hope fills believers' hearts and finds expression in their testimony about their Saviour's coming. It brings love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer.
Looking for and loving the Saviour's soon appearing on earth is the duty and privilege of believers, not heresy or sin or wrong or breach of true church order. It is a scriptural faith and sacred truth to be held faithfully and openly acknowledged without shame, even when ministers and professors oppose it and say He will not come for thousands of years, even when it brings separation from the church, and amid the perils of the last days. Making ready for His appearing is the safest course, being prepared to meet Him with joy, because the time is solemn with no time to lose. Those who say His coming is delayed have no desire to see Him, and their prospect is perilous if He does come, while claims of delay quiet the unprepared and the prospect of His return calls to readiness. Being fully on the Lord's side means loving and waiting and earnestly longing for the appearing of the Saviour in the clouds of heaven, holding to that hope so as not to make shipwreck and to escape Satan's many deceptions, snares, wiles and sophistry. It is the work of faith and the character of saints to love Christ's appearing, and the day all believers should long for and hope for and wait for and earnestly pray for and hasten is the second coming of Christ, when death the last enemy is destroyed at the resurrection and the full and final conquest, the work of redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of souls are accomplished. This hope belonged to the apostolic church, to the church in the wilderness, and to the Reformers.
That shared hope of soon seeing Jesus at His glorious appearing unites believers in one faith, fills their hearts with love for one another and for Jesus, lifts them above the control of any human influence, and proves a shield against the assaults of Satan, repressing fanaticism and dissension. As the hope of immortality shared by Christians as one family under the same Heavenly Father, it should strengthen the close, tender bond between them and shape their words and actions.
The hope comforts through present trials and grief, for at His appearing the conflict will end, loved ones separated by death will meet again, and there will be no more grief. Lighted up by the Saviour's parting promise that He would come again, it fills hearts with joy and hope that sorrow cannot quench nor trials dim, and sustains believers amid suffering and persecution. It gives courage and consolation drawing the soul toward heaven, and gives reason not to shrink from suffering, since those who suffer with Christ will share His reign and receive a rich reward, and the redeemed are those who endure affliction with God's people. At His coming He will save His children, bring sin to an end, begin everlasting sanctification where the Devil can no longer tempt them, change mortal bodies to immortality made like Christ's glorious body, end the long rule of evil, establish God's kingdom, fulfill the promised restoration and glory of His people, raise the dead in Christ and catch up the risen dead with the living to meet the Lord and remain with Him forever. Longing for Christ's appearing grows with closeness to the Lord, and the hope gives freedom and joy even when believers are willing to live or die and endure the change. It shields God's people in the day of God when buildings burn, hiding them as in the secret of His pavilion.
The hope fills the heart with immortality and glory, and a heart filled with this hope cannot be silent but moves the Christian to speak about the gospel and reveal Christ to the world. It is the great treasure of eternal life and the crown of life to be won, calling for earnestness and intensity of desire proportionate to the value of eternal life, believing that Jesus lives to save and to give freedom in His love full of joy, gratitude, and praise to God. It imparts new animation and intensity to every Christian grace, strengthens faith, trust, hope and confidence, quickens zeal, gives great strength of purpose and comfort of hope and faith and assurance known only to the true child of God, and keeps the soul from departing from God's expressed will and from the warnings, entreaties, and drawing of the Holy Spirit. It is the bright view of future reward to be talked about, with thinking of God and more talk of Jesus and of heaven, belief seen in spirit and in deportment, and praising God as a duty like prayer. The hope is not centered in self but in Him who has entered within the veil, and as sinners look to Jesus they live, for heaven is gained not through own merits but through the merits of Jesus Christ, the only Sin-bearer and Substitute. Satan seeks to eclipse this hope with his hellish shadow of darkness, pointing sinners to themselves and their moral peril and corruption, but danger causes shipwreck of faith only when trust stays in self and human effort. It is heaven, the land where all is brightness and joy, to be known more deeply through distinct glimpses that fill believers with Christian hopefulness and cheer, making their religion attractive to those who are out of Christ. Keeping this hope means the sons and daughters of God meet together to bring hope to one another's hearts instead of keeping apart from God and from one another in coldness, formality, and indifference that quenches piety. It is the forward-moving power of willing, heartfelt service in God's merciful plan in sending His Son so that through accepted grace man serves without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him, distinguishing words, spirit, and Christlike walk from those under Satan's teachings, and producing a precious, sanctified, elevated service of love, praise, and thanksgiving that enables, uplifts, and purifies. Walking worthy of this professed hope requires living in Christ and being free in Him with His sweet peace in the soul, remembering Jesus Christ, taking Him at His word and believing just what He says, gaining victories in the name of the Lord and Saviour, bringing much of His glory into life, and asking Him to take away all frivolity, weakness, and passion from the nature and give His righteousness with His help and strength to sustain.
Proclaiming Hope to Others
The blessed hope is the second appearing of Christ, the soon appearing of the Lord Jesus coming in His glory with power and great glory, and its solemn realities are to be presented often to the people as the keynote of every message. The message of that appearing is to be given with the Holy Spirit's assurance and living power, doing a real work of turning souls from idols to serve the living and true God. It is to be proclaimed with greater earnestness because the coming is nearer, and with growing urgency as that day draws nearer. The hope of His coming is a subject for believers to share as they prepare the way of the Lord.
Believers are to work earnestly without resting to bring many to this hope, waiting, watching, working, praying, and warning the world until many souls are converted. It belongs to the present-truth message given to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord, and all people are to hear and heed that worldwide message. Those who know present truth are responsible for warning of coming judgments and representing Christ, welcoming Him into the heart to cleanse and rule within. They are to testify to the glory of His soon-realized return and teach its truths to their children through lives of growing faith, teaching them to seek salvation, peace, and holiness and to let Christ guide them. In these last days present-truth work enlightens, arouses, convinces, sanctifies and purifies the churches, carrying life-giving light into dark places and to those who do not know the truth until the whole earth is filled with God's glory.
Expecting His glorious appearing must be more than profession, shaping daily life, holy conduct, dress, speech, actions, conversation and example. It should show that Christ is formed within, that this world is not home, that home and treasure are not in this world, and that believers are holy, separate from the world, and Christlike. It turns attention from worldly praise, riches, honors, pleasures, amusements, pride and trifling talk, and from buying and accumulating attractive lands, which contradicts the hope. So lived, it directs others to the coming Lord, teaches them to wait patiently, feeds worn souls with words of light and life, sows seeds of truth at every opportunity, points them to Jesus the Lamb who takes away the world's sin, and ministers to the sick with a burden for those who have no hope. Looking for Him in this way inspires vigorous service and love for one another and for Christians, careful living for God's glory, acceptance of suffering as part of purification and preparation for the kingdom, and gathering the sunbeams of Christ's righteousness into the soul to be a burning and shining light in moral darkness with vigorous faith, lively hope, fervent love and holy consecrated zeal.
Waiting for Christ requires leading in good works and not lagging behind others, cleansing from moral and physical defilement and pursuing holiness and perfecting holiness to reflect a high profession. Those awaiting translation to heaven without seeing death should lead in health reform and temperance and be the last to lack interest in it. That means obeying God's claims on body and spirit, which are His, rejecting gratification of depraved appetite that enfeebles physical, mental and moral powers, controlling appetite and passion, and keeping all powers of body and mind in harmonious healthy action. By this the faculties are kept clear to weigh truth, comprehend God's requirements, appreciate the atonement, delight in His Word, dwell on eternal interests, and glorify God, with the standard elevated, others instructed and urged to reform, proper diet taught to prevent sickness, and sufferers helped for lack of knowledge, in order to stand without fault before God's throne for both health and salvation. The profession of pilgrims and strangers waiting and watching for the Lord's appearing requires enduring the cross and despising shame instead of being laughed out of principle, refusing conformity to the world and wedding to worldly fashions and lusts, honoring the light on eating and dressing with simplicity in obedience to physical and moral law for healthy bodies, sound minds and sanctified hearts, cleansing character from every spot, bringing spirit into harmony with Christ, and shaping habits in obedience to His will, since turning from that light blunts conscience, causes shunning of duty, and leads to violating the Ten Commandments to shun reproach.
The hope applies to how holidays are spent and how money, time, and youthful zeal and ardor are used in trained and consecrated service to glorify God and bless others, gaining the education needed to stand in the trial coming as a thief in the night. Believers are to press together and awake from sleep to understand and do the great work to be done, putting all powers into active service and breathing the heavenly atmosphere to be efficient in good works. They are to show concern for others by helping them learn, helping sufferers for lack of knowledge, avoiding formality, idolatry and worldly standpoints, showing greater reform, and serving as physicians on a liberal sacrificial principle without expecting more pay. Young people meeting temptation and despisers who mock Christianity must be educated to depend on higher power and teaching, to have moral power and courage to confess Jesus openly as Saviour and hope, to refuse contemptuous conversation, and to live for Christ in firm allegiance, longing personally for His appearing while life is uncertain, since godly living silences scoffers where argument fails.
Believers wait for this appearing while Christ, having made the perfect and final sacrifice for sin on the cross when He suffered outside the gate, serves as High Priest and Advocate and Intercessor in the most holy place interceding for them. His sacrifice was completed and is the only atonement of value, and His present ministry in heaven calls for no further sacrifice and no human mediator.
The hope belongs to God's merciful plan in sending His Son in the mission of Christ to give salvation to all who will be reconciled to God. It brings comfort in Christ the Mighty Healer who can heal the soul as well as restore the body. It is linked to His promise to come again, receive His people to Himself, take them to the heavenly homes prepared for them, and bring them to the place He has prepared, a reason for gratitude, praise and joy joined with access to God's mercy and with Christ's righteousness pictured as the pure white linen of His saints.
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the second coming of Christ. The One to appear is Jesus Christ as the great God and Saviour, who clothed divinity with humanity, and in Him is centered the hope of eternal life. His appearing will be personal, literal and visible in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and it is soon and near though its exact time is unknown. Looking for that appearing belongs with the life taught by saving grace, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. He gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works, who watch in active readiness as pilgrims whose citizenship is in heaven and proclaim His coming with its solemn realities to turn souls to God.
Hope and Appearing Defined
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the second coming of Christ. Looking for that appearing belongs with the life taught by God's saving grace that brings salvation, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. He gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, and that great purifying work is performed only for those willing to be purified and to be peculiar and to manifest zeal in good works. It requires living out the truth and willingness to appear singular and peculiar in the eyes of the world and not shrinking from the purifying process, for mixing with the world destroys spirituality, pureness and zeal and destroys the sign of distinction between God's people and the world, stupifying sensibilities so consciences are not sensitive to wrong.
The One to appear is Jesus Christ as the great God and Saviour, greater than any earthly sovereign's arrival and a cause for glad anticipation. He is the Majesty of heaven who clothed divinity with humanity to stand at the head of the human race, who gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works, making men and women partakers of the divine nature with grace to overcome as He overcame, with eternity and eternal life before them and the promise to the overcomer of sitting with Him in His throne. In Him is centered the hope of eternal life, and at His coming He will raise the dead, gather them to meet Him in the air, bring them into God's city, and give the saints of all ages the kingdom and eternal life where the gates open to receive them and they eat from the tree of life. He will come with His own glory, the Father's glory and the angelic host, with a glory surpassing anything ever seen, unlike His first coming when His divinity was concealed by human form and humility, appearing as equal with God, the beloved Son, King of kings and Lord of lords, Redeemer and Lifegiver, with His glory and the Father's glory seen as one, and obedience or disobedience to God's authority decides who will meet Him in peace.
His appearing is personal, literal and visible in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, not a spiritual coming, for Jesus is a real person and to spiritualize His return obscures the glory of heaven, the throne of David and Christ Himself. Believers are to live soberly, righteously and godly in the present world while looking for that personal, glorious return with glad expectation of meeting the Redeemer soon, which convinces them they are not ready and stirs earnest pursuit of sanctification of the Spirit, purity of heart, new strength and grace, peace, happiness, joy, perfect love, love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer. His coming is soon, near and imminent, soon to be realized, not long delayed, speedy and solemn, though its exact time is unknown. The signs He gave show when it is near, and seeing them fulfilled strengthens faith, so His people are to watch and wait faithfully and pray rather than say His coming is delayed, to press forward keeping heaven in view, standing firm and ready, regarding earthly things as empty and of little worth, making ready to meet Him with joy because there is no time to lose, while claims that the Lord will delay quiet the unprepared and scoffers will face an account when He comes.
The verse belongs to Paul's charge to Titus, joined with exhortation for young men to be sober-minded and to show in all things a pattern of good works with uncorrupt doctrine, gravity, sincerity and sound speech that cannot be condemned. It belongs to the charge in Titus 2:11-15 to speak, exhort and rebuke with authority in a way that gives no excuse to reject faithful counsel, which ministers are to heed so they work circumspectly. It belongs to the last-days present-truth message given to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord, when God is purifying a people for Himself and making them His own, distinct from the world as a peculiar, set-apart people. Waiting for the Lord to appear from heaven is a prominent feature of the faith of the small group who keep the seventh day and honor God's law, marking them as a separate and distinct people, seen in commandment keepers and Sabbath keepers looking for Christ's soon appearing in the clouds of heaven, and the name Seventh-day Adventist identifies those who keep the Sabbath and look for Christ's coming.
Glory and Events at Coming
The blessed hope is Christ's return in power and great glory to receive the obedient and loyal to Himself, and waiting for His appearing means faithfully working for Him, directing others to the coming Lord, teaching them to wait patiently, and living with responsibility and faithfulness to God. He will personally appear in the clouds of heaven with a glory surpassing anything ever seen, with His own glory and the Father's glory and the angelic host. Unlike His first coming, when His divinity was concealed by human form and humility, He will appear as equal with God, the beloved Son, King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Redeemer and Lifegiver of His people, and His glory and the Father's glory will be seen as one. This is looking for Jesus Christ to come from heaven in the clouds with the glory of His Father to bring the times of the kingdom to the just, the hope of the church held through the centuries by martyrs under persecution, by the Waldenses, and by Wycliffe, and assurance of Christ's personal resurrection gives assurance of believers' own resurrection at His coming, so for this cause believers despise death and are willing to go down to the grave that they may rise free.
At His coming, greater than any earthly sovereign's arrival and a cause for glad anticipation, Jesus will raise the dead, gather them to meet Him in the air, bring them into God's city, and give the saints of all ages the kingdom and eternal life, where the gates open to receive them and they eat from the tree of life. His personal appearing from heaven in the clouds with glory is the blessed hope of the apostolic church, the Waldenses, the reformers, and faithful Christians through the centuries, bringing the resurrection of the faithful and the kingdom, and because death will be conquered at the resurrection and redemption brought to completion, believers love His appearing and long, hope, and wait for it. At His appearing the conflict will end, loved ones separated by death will meet again, and there will be no more grief. That expectation should shape life, so conduct and conversation show looking for the Savior with attention fixed on heaven rather than absorption with worldly amusements, pride, or trifling talk. At that appearing Christ will change frail mortal bodies and make them like His glorious body.
At His coming Christ will change the earth by His power into an everlasting home for His children. His appearing will save His children, bring sin to an end, and begin everlasting sanctification in a place where the Devil can no longer tempt them, when mortal bodies will be changed to immortality and made like Christ's glorious body, and longing for His appearing grows with closeness to the Lord while the hope gives freedom and joy even when believers are willing to live or die and endure the change. At His coming the long rule of evil ends, God's kingdom is established, and the promised restoration and glory of His people are fulfilled, with the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the risen dead and living believers caught up together to meet the Lord and remain with Him forever. The blessed hope is the coming and kingdom of Christ held by those who believe, expect, look, wait, and long for it, when sickness and death will no longer have power over the saints.
The blessed hope is the hope of immortality to be fulfilled at Christ's soon appearing, the great treasure of eternal life and the crown of life to be won, and those who suffer with Christ will share His reign and receive a rich reward as those who endure affliction with God's people. It is to be talked about, with thinking of God and more talk of Jesus and of heaven, with belief seen in spirit and deportment, with earnestness and intensity of desire proportionate to the value of eternal life, believing that Jesus lives to save and to give freedom in His love full of joy, gratitude, and praise to God, and those who welcome His appearing with joy will receive the crown of life and praise God with the song of Moses and the Lamb. It is shared by Christians as one family under the same Heavenly Father, and should strengthen the close, tender bond between them and shape their words and actions. It is looked for by those who are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, who are God's own people distinct from the world, called to leave worldly fashions, imitate Christ's self-denying life, and have moral courage not to be ashamed of Him.
His appearing brings judgment and the great day of God's wrath, and obedience or disobedience to God's authority decides who will meet Him in peace. Those who await the appearing of God and Jesus Christ should live in a holy, lively way, with words and actions showing they are watching for Christ's appearing and urging people to prepare for the coming day. Looking for the second advent as the true hope of the church means preparing for the judgment and making preparation of heart to meet God in peace, calling professors of religion to a deeper Christian experience and the unconverted to immediate repentance and conversion to God.
Grace Teaches Godly Living
The blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ belongs together with the life taught by the saving grace of God that brings salvation to all men. That grace trains those it saves to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world while looking for that appearing. Christ gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar, special people zealous of good works, separate from the world and unspotted by it. Such godly living adorns the doctrine of God the Saviour, and for these last days God is by close and pointed truths cutting out such a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. Pride and unhealthful fashions and love of display and love of approbation must be left with the world in order to be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us.
Saving grace teaches not only by commanding but by giving divine knowledge. By it men and women are made partakers of the divine nature, with grace to overcome as He overcame, with eternity and eternal life before them and with the promise to the overcomer of sitting with Him in His throne. Through that grace believers are to represent Him now in character and service, rather than waiting for His coming to receive the needed virtue and grace. Looking for Him belongs with doing justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God. It belongs with the exhortation to be sober-minded and to show in all things a pattern of good works with uncorrupt doctrine, gravity, sincerity and sound speech that cannot be condemned.
Those awaiting Christ's appearing and translation to heaven without seeing death should therefore not lag behind others in good works. They should cleanse themselves from moral and physical defilement and from physical and spiritual defilement, perfecting holiness and pursuing holiness to reflect the high profession they make. Their hope of His appearing does not excuse neglect of the body or appetite but calls them to disciplined, holy living and to lead in good works. The verse thus outlines the work of all who hold positions of responsibility: life and character must undergo education, heart and mind must be brought under God's control, and young men and women must be educated and trained to be channels of light to the world. Education should prepare students for an inheritance with the saints in light and teach what will endure through eternity.
Purified Peculiar People
The blessed hope is the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself to redeem from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a peculiar, special people zealous of good works. That redeemed life is a sanctified, new life lived through faith in Christ, belonging with denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world as saving grace teaches. Saving grace teaches not only by commanding but by giving divine knowledge, training those it saves to turn from ungodliness and worldly desires while expecting the happy hope and bright appearing. This expectation marks God's people as distinct from the world and supports their calling to be Christ's own people, purified and zealous for good works.
That great purifying work is performed only for those willing to be purified, willing to be peculiar, wholly His, and manifesting zeal in good works by living out the truth. For these last days God is by close and pointed truths cutting out a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. They must come out and be separate, leave worldly fashions, pride, unhealthful fashions, display and love of approbation, and be unspotted by the world. Mingling with the world destroys spirituality, pureness and zeal, stupifies the sensibilities so conscience is not sensitive to wrong, and destroys the sign of distinction until the distinction between God's people and the world is lost. This watchful, holy life adorns the doctrine of God the Saviour in all things and marks those whom Christ gave Himself to redeem and purify.
The same command to be separate and distinct that rested on ancient Israel rests on the Israel of God now. The hope in Christ's appearing belongs to this call in the last days, when God is purifying a people for Himself and making them His own, distinct from the world. Departing from God to mingle with the world and follow its practices and the abominations of the surrounding nations, as ancient Israel did when it rebelled and would not heed His commands, provokes Him and brings His wrath and judgments. Those who look for Christ's appearing are in constant danger of mingling with the world and losing the marks of being God's chosen people.
Their strength is in being chosen and accepted of God, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created them. That people, wholly His and marked as His, are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ to the immortal inheritance, distinct from the unbelieving world and not mixed with it so as to differ only in name. Their hope of the immortal inheritance calls them to leave worldly fashions and imitate Christ's self-denying life. It will soon be known who is on the Lord's side.
They must have moral courage not to be ashamed of Him, but to take their stand for Him and follow His self-denying example without shame. This requires coming out to be separate from the friendship and spirit of the world, denying self, taking up the cross and lifting it in obeying the commandments of God. They are to consent to be poor and despised until the warfare is finished, rather than live for pleasure, dancing and amusement. Those without moral courage to leave the fashions of the world are ashamed of Jesus and do not love His example.
Watching in Readiness
Believers are to watch and wait faithfully with eternal vigilance as faithful sentinels, rather than saying His coming is delayed. The exact time of His coming is unknown, but the signs He gave show when it is near, and seeing them fulfilled strengthens faith rather than weakening it. Claims that the Lord will delay quiet those who are unprepared, while the prospect of His return calls them to readiness because the time is solemn and there is no time to lose. Those who say His coming is delayed have no desire to see Him, and their prospect is perilous if He does come, so making ready to meet Him with joy is the safest course. Looking for Christ means pressing forward in the Christian life, keeping heaven in view, standing firm, and being faithful to the trust left to stewards while He is absent in heaven, staying awake lest coming suddenly He find them sleeping.
Looking for Him is not idle waiting but active watching shown by faith and works. Keeping His appearing continually before the mind leads to serving God every day as if it were the last, separating from sin and iniquity, purifying the self, searching the Scriptures, growing in faith, and doing faithful work for eternity and for souls. The blessing belongs to the one who watches and keeps the garments, and the watching ones are more active in doing and working in the vineyard, working with vigilance to arouse souls to their danger and proclaiming that the end of all things is at hand. They are strictly temperate in eating and dressing, with humility and simplicity in all acts, sober and watching unto prayer, ready for the Son of man to come in an hour not thought. To have this hope and then grow careless and indifferent and put off the day of God is dangerous, giving place to the enemy and bringing judgment, while readiness with spotless character prepares for a place among the white-robed ones, for the wedding garment is a life not marked by deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy, and outward concealment cannot hide the heart from God.
Readiness means closing the windows of the soul earthward and opening them heavenward, living the great elevated truths for this time and being surcharged with the Spirit's efficiency. The expectation of His personal soon return awakens earnest pursuit of the Spirit's sanctifying work and brings peace, joy, and perfect love, and those who love Jesus welcome news of His advent with gladness. Looking for Him convinces believers they are not ready, that they must become pure in heart to meet Him in peace, and arouses them to seek new strength and grace, inspiring love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer. They are to keep faithful watch over the affections, being jealous lest the least sin defile character, adorning the soul temple, bringing truth into practical life, and pleasing God by pure and true relationship to one another in words and affections, so that each member and each institution is a bright shining light carrying forward every line of the work harmoniously together, and then the joy of Christ's salvation will be understood. This shapes dress, speech, and actions to show Christ formed within, living holy and separate and accepting suffering as part of purification and preparation for the kingdom.
Those who look for Him live as pilgrims and strangers whose citizenship is in heaven and whose steps advance heavenward. They fix the eyes heavenward in earnest watching, turn from earthly enterprises, earthly pleasure, worldly fame, praise, riches, honors, and the deceitfulness of riches, regard earthly honor and distinction as worthless emptiness, and show by a watching waiting position that home and treasure are not in this world. This profession must be more than words, for buying and accumulating attractive lands while claiming to await Christ contradicts that hope. Faith reaches into the glorious mysteries of the heavenly treasure, drawing divine rays from the heavenly sanctuary to shine in the heart, gathering the righteousness of Christ into the soul so as to be a burning light in moral darkness, with vigorous faith, lively hope, fervent love, and holy zeal producing decided distinction from the world, vigorous service, love for one another, and careful holy living to God's glory. Those who look for His appearing endure the mocking question about the delayed promise, answer that they are watching, become strong, overcome sloth and selfishness and love of ease, rally when faith falters and the waiting time seems long, glory in tribulation and necessity, resist conformity to worldly fashions, pride, display, and desire for approval, and stand ready to open immediately when He comes and knocks, receiving the blessing promised to the servants He finds watching.
Waiting with reverent fear and active preparation like Noah amid scorn, jest, and ridicule is the appointed posture. Unbelievers in the public press, in the haunts of sin, and in the schools of science respond with scorn and witty paragraphs at the expense of those who wait, but this mockery is not new but as old as sin and as false as the father of lies. His return is speedy and solemn, calling for watching and prayer, and those who scoff at it will face an account when He comes.
The hope gives urgency because the end is near and the world is ripening for the last great conflict. Forgetting to prepare to meet a soon-coming Saviour means losing realization of the times, so there is a call to come to the senses and act like rational beings living on the borders of the eternal world, putting all energies into preparing to move from this lower school to the school above and into imparting light to those around while laboring for souls still in sin because time is short. Though long waited for, faith is not to become weak but to grow stronger as the signs are fulfilled, keeping Jesus ever before them, cheerful and not sad, ready and waiting to meet Him in peace. In the day when buildings burn and frantic human efforts prove futile, the hope means God's protecting hand shields His people and hides them as in the secret of His pavilion, since safety is only in God, calling for hiding in Him every day and bringing Him nearer by living faith.
Hope Sustains Believers
Looking forward to meeting the Redeemer soon stirs a more earnest pursuit of the sanctification of the Spirit and brings peace, joy, happiness, perfect love, freedom, new strength and grace. This blessed hope is the glorious appearing of God and the Saviour Jesus Christ, the personal, soon return of Jesus in the clouds, whose fulfillment is near and which is to be kept firmly before heart and mind as the source of joy and inspiration. Those who love Jesus welcome news of His second advent with gladness and joy, and the hope fills believers' hearts and finds expression in their testimony about their Saviour's coming. It brings love for Jesus and for all Christians, love for the prayer meeting, and great joy in reading the Bible and in prayer.
Looking for and loving the Saviour's soon appearing on earth is the duty and privilege of believers, not heresy or sin or wrong or breach of true church order. It is a scriptural faith and sacred truth to be held faithfully and openly acknowledged without shame, even when ministers and professors oppose it and say He will not come for thousands of years, even when it brings separation from the church, and amid the perils of the last days. Making ready for His appearing is the safest course, being prepared to meet Him with joy, because the time is solemn with no time to lose. Those who say His coming is delayed have no desire to see Him, and their prospect is perilous if He does come, while claims of delay quiet the unprepared and the prospect of His return calls to readiness. Being fully on the Lord's side means loving and waiting and earnestly longing for the appearing of the Saviour in the clouds of heaven, holding to that hope so as not to make shipwreck and to escape Satan's many deceptions, snares, wiles and sophistry. It is the work of faith and the character of saints to love Christ's appearing, and the day all believers should long for and hope for and wait for and earnestly pray for and hasten is the second coming of Christ, when death the last enemy is destroyed at the resurrection and the full and final conquest, the work of redemption, and all the desires and endeavors of souls are accomplished. This hope belonged to the apostolic church, to the church in the wilderness, and to the Reformers.
That shared hope of soon seeing Jesus at His glorious appearing unites believers in one faith, fills their hearts with love for one another and for Jesus, lifts them above the control of any human influence, and proves a shield against the assaults of Satan, repressing fanaticism and dissension. As the hope of immortality shared by Christians as one family under the same Heavenly Father, it should strengthen the close, tender bond between them and shape their words and actions.
The hope comforts through present trials and grief, for at His appearing the conflict will end, loved ones separated by death will meet again, and there will be no more grief. Lighted up by the Saviour's parting promise that He would come again, it fills hearts with joy and hope that sorrow cannot quench nor trials dim, and sustains believers amid suffering and persecution. It gives courage and consolation drawing the soul toward heaven, and gives reason not to shrink from suffering, since those who suffer with Christ will share His reign and receive a rich reward, and the redeemed are those who endure affliction with God's people. At His coming He will save His children, bring sin to an end, begin everlasting sanctification where the Devil can no longer tempt them, change mortal bodies to immortality made like Christ's glorious body, end the long rule of evil, establish God's kingdom, fulfill the promised restoration and glory of His people, raise the dead in Christ and catch up the risen dead with the living to meet the Lord and remain with Him forever. Longing for Christ's appearing grows with closeness to the Lord, and the hope gives freedom and joy even when believers are willing to live or die and endure the change. It shields God's people in the day of God when buildings burn, hiding them as in the secret of His pavilion.
The hope fills the heart with immortality and glory, and a heart filled with this hope cannot be silent but moves the Christian to speak about the gospel and reveal Christ to the world. It is the great treasure of eternal life and the crown of life to be won, calling for earnestness and intensity of desire proportionate to the value of eternal life, believing that Jesus lives to save and to give freedom in His love full of joy, gratitude, and praise to God. It imparts new animation and intensity to every Christian grace, strengthens faith, trust, hope and confidence, quickens zeal, gives great strength of purpose and comfort of hope and faith and assurance known only to the true child of God, and keeps the soul from departing from God's expressed will and from the warnings, entreaties, and drawing of the Holy Spirit. It is the bright view of future reward to be talked about, with thinking of God and more talk of Jesus and of heaven, belief seen in spirit and in deportment, and praising God as a duty like prayer. The hope is not centered in self but in Him who has entered within the veil, and as sinners look to Jesus they live, for heaven is gained not through own merits but through the merits of Jesus Christ, the only Sin-bearer and Substitute. Satan seeks to eclipse this hope with his hellish shadow of darkness, pointing sinners to themselves and their moral peril and corruption, but danger causes shipwreck of faith only when trust stays in self and human effort. It is heaven, the land where all is brightness and joy, to be known more deeply through distinct glimpses that fill believers with Christian hopefulness and cheer, making their religion attractive to those who are out of Christ. Keeping this hope means the sons and daughters of God meet together to bring hope to one another's hearts instead of keeping apart from God and from one another in coldness, formality, and indifference that quenches piety. It is the forward-moving power of willing, heartfelt service in God's merciful plan in sending His Son so that through accepted grace man serves without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him, distinguishing words, spirit, and Christlike walk from those under Satan's teachings, and producing a precious, sanctified, elevated service of love, praise, and thanksgiving that enables, uplifts, and purifies. Walking worthy of this professed hope requires living in Christ and being free in Him with His sweet peace in the soul, remembering Jesus Christ, taking Him at His word and believing just what He says, gaining victories in the name of the Lord and Saviour, bringing much of His glory into life, and asking Him to take away all frivolity, weakness, and passion from the nature and give His righteousness with His help and strength to sustain.
Proclaiming Hope to Others
The blessed hope is the second appearing of Christ, the soon appearing of the Lord Jesus coming in His glory with power and great glory, and its solemn realities are to be presented often to the people as the keynote of every message. The message of that appearing is to be given with the Holy Spirit's assurance and living power, doing a real work of turning souls from idols to serve the living and true God. It is to be proclaimed with greater earnestness because the coming is nearer, and with growing urgency as that day draws nearer. The hope of His coming is a subject for believers to share as they prepare the way of the Lord.
Believers are to work earnestly without resting to bring many to this hope, waiting, watching, working, praying, and warning the world until many souls are converted. It belongs to the present-truth message given to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord, and all people are to hear and heed that worldwide message. Those who know present truth are responsible for warning of coming judgments and representing Christ, welcoming Him into the heart to cleanse and rule within. They are to testify to the glory of His soon-realized return and teach its truths to their children through lives of growing faith, teaching them to seek salvation, peace, and holiness and to let Christ guide them. In these last days present-truth work enlightens, arouses, convinces, sanctifies and purifies the churches, carrying life-giving light into dark places and to those who do not know the truth until the whole earth is filled with God's glory.
Expecting His glorious appearing must be more than profession, shaping daily life, holy conduct, dress, speech, actions, conversation and example. It should show that Christ is formed within, that this world is not home, that home and treasure are not in this world, and that believers are holy, separate from the world, and Christlike. It turns attention from worldly praise, riches, honors, pleasures, amusements, pride and trifling talk, and from buying and accumulating attractive lands, which contradicts the hope. So lived, it directs others to the coming Lord, teaches them to wait patiently, feeds worn souls with words of light and life, sows seeds of truth at every opportunity, points them to Jesus the Lamb who takes away the world's sin, and ministers to the sick with a burden for those who have no hope. Looking for Him in this way inspires vigorous service and love for one another and for Christians, careful living for God's glory, acceptance of suffering as part of purification and preparation for the kingdom, and gathering the sunbeams of Christ's righteousness into the soul to be a burning and shining light in moral darkness with vigorous faith, lively hope, fervent love and holy consecrated zeal.
Waiting for Christ requires leading in good works and not lagging behind others, cleansing from moral and physical defilement and pursuing holiness and perfecting holiness to reflect a high profession. Those awaiting translation to heaven without seeing death should lead in health reform and temperance and be the last to lack interest in it. That means obeying God's claims on body and spirit, which are His, rejecting gratification of depraved appetite that enfeebles physical, mental and moral powers, controlling appetite and passion, and keeping all powers of body and mind in harmonious healthy action. By this the faculties are kept clear to weigh truth, comprehend God's requirements, appreciate the atonement, delight in His Word, dwell on eternal interests, and glorify God, with the standard elevated, others instructed and urged to reform, proper diet taught to prevent sickness, and sufferers helped for lack of knowledge, in order to stand without fault before God's throne for both health and salvation. The profession of pilgrims and strangers waiting and watching for the Lord's appearing requires enduring the cross and despising shame instead of being laughed out of principle, refusing conformity to the world and wedding to worldly fashions and lusts, honoring the light on eating and dressing with simplicity in obedience to physical and moral law for healthy bodies, sound minds and sanctified hearts, cleansing character from every spot, bringing spirit into harmony with Christ, and shaping habits in obedience to His will, since turning from that light blunts conscience, causes shunning of duty, and leads to violating the Ten Commandments to shun reproach.
The hope applies to how holidays are spent and how money, time, and youthful zeal and ardor are used in trained and consecrated service to glorify God and bless others, gaining the education needed to stand in the trial coming as a thief in the night. Believers are to press together and awake from sleep to understand and do the great work to be done, putting all powers into active service and breathing the heavenly atmosphere to be efficient in good works. They are to show concern for others by helping them learn, helping sufferers for lack of knowledge, avoiding formality, idolatry and worldly standpoints, showing greater reform, and serving as physicians on a liberal sacrificial principle without expecting more pay. Young people meeting temptation and despisers who mock Christianity must be educated to depend on higher power and teaching, to have moral power and courage to confess Jesus openly as Saviour and hope, to refuse contemptuous conversation, and to live for Christ in firm allegiance, longing personally for His appearing while life is uncertain, since godly living silences scoffers where argument fails.
Believers wait for this appearing while Christ, having made the perfect and final sacrifice for sin on the cross when He suffered outside the gate, serves as High Priest and Advocate and Intercessor in the most holy place interceding for them. His sacrifice was completed and is the only atonement of value, and His present ministry in heaven calls for no further sacrifice and no human mediator.
The hope belongs to God's merciful plan in sending His Son in the mission of Christ to give salvation to all who will be reconciled to God. It brings comfort in Christ the Mighty Healer who can heal the soul as well as restore the body. It is linked to His promise to come again, receive His people to Himself, take them to the heavenly homes prepared for them, and bring them to the place He has prepared, a reason for gratitude, praise and joy joined with access to God's mercy and with Christ's righteousness pictured as the pure white linen of His saints.