Revelation 22:16-2116I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:16‑21)
Would it rejoice your heart to hear that Jesus was now coming? In fact, would you like Him to come now? Oh! how sad, how very sad is it that, when He is just about to come, and His saints about to be made entirely like Him, they should be mixed up in any way with the workers of iniquity, practicing their habits, pursuits or satisfactions! Pray, brethren, that you may be led to a more simple and entire conformity to the image of your Saviour; that you may be cleansed from the unsatisfying and unsanctifying desires of the world, so that you may be ready to meet your Lord at His appearing.
In the Word of God, the thoughts and feelings and conduct and doings and affections of Christians are identified with the coming of Christ. Take 1 John 3: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” When are we to be like Christ in the glory? When He comes, He will change our vile bodies and fashion them like to His glorious body; so here “it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.” Now mark the practical consequences upon the man that has been, in his faith, brought up to God’s purposes. “Every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” I know I am going to be perfectly like Christ in the glory; therefore, I want to be as like Him as possible down here.
Those Who Respond, “Come”
“The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” We get the whole circle of the church’s affections. When the Spirit of God is working in the saints, what will be the first affection? Christ. The Spirit and the bride turn to Him and say, Come. What is the next affection? It is the saints. Therefore, it turns and bids him that hears say, Come. The bride would have every saint to join in these affections and in the desire to have the Bridegroom. But does it stop with those who have heard the voice of the Lord Jesus? No. And what next? We turn around to those who may be athirst, bidding them come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. The saint who has the sense of the blessedness of having drunk of the living water which Christ gives wants others to have it also.
God, in the love of His own heart, has associated the church with Jesus, and the very mention of His name awakens the cry, “Come!” for it touches a chord which gives an immediate response, and therefore He does not say here, “Behold, I come quickly.” The question here is, not when He will come, but that it is Himself that is coming. He does not speak of His coming, blessed though that thought is, but He reveals Himself, and this it is that awakens the response of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No mere explanation of His coming as a doctrine is the proper hope of the saint. That hope is not prophecy; it is the real and blessed and sanctifying expectancy of a soul that knows Jesus and waits to see and to be with Himself.
What He Is to Us
Our affections and our duties flow from the relationship in which we are set. It is clear that if we are creatures of God, our duties as such flow from our knowledge of that. So with our earthly duties and affections — they flow from our relationship one with another, whether as husband and wife, or father and child. It is a very simple remark, but of all importance, with regard to the saints’ position. But then I must be in this relationship to have these affections, and I must know what the relationship is to which those duties belong. If we are the bride of Christ, we ought to have the feelings and wishes of one that is so. You cannot speak of any glory of Christ or of God that does not awaken in the heart of the saint the consciousness of what God and Christ are to itself. This is characteristic of the existence of such a relationship and the affections that belong to it. You cannot speak of the person with whom others are in relationship, without awakening in their hearts the sense of what the person is to them. However Christ is presented, it is her own relationship with Him that is at once awakened in the bride. What I see in the Word is not merely God visiting us as sinners, as He has done, but that when He has visited us, He has brought us into blessed connection with Himself, and having brought us there, He calls us, as in that connection, to live in the delight and in the duties that belong to it.
Christ Loves Nothing Less
I feel the importance of definitely apprehending the relationship in which the Lord has set us; it will touch us in our consciences, not merely saying the church is secure — surely it is, but we ought to be touched with the sense of our relation to Christ and the responsibility of that relationship. There should be nearness to Christ which would keep us from sectarianism, the most natural weed of the human heart (sectarianism is getting an interest in a little circle around ourselves), and would give us a feeling as to, and an interest in, the whole church of God, for Christ can love nothing less. Then I shall refuse to own anything that is not the bride of Christ, but be ready always to acknowledge and receive that which is the bride of Christ.
The church will not always have to mourn an absent Lord. He will come to claim His bride — to take her to Himself, that where He is, she may be also; so He prays, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am,” and in Him she is complete, for the Father gave Him to be “head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” Here then is the position of the church with Christ: one body, one mind, one in all things, one in tastes, one in desires.
If my heart is right in its affections for Him, I am looking too straight up on high to take notice of the things around me. Plenty of things there are around in the world, plenty of bustle and turmoil, but it does not disturb the blessed calm of my soul, because nothing can alter our indissoluble relationship with a coming Jesus, as nothing should divide us in hope. May the Lord give us such an apprehension of redemption and of our position in Him as may so fix our hearts on Himself that we may be daily walking down here like unto men that wait for their Lord, who has promised to come and take us to Himself, watching in the midst of a night of darkness, aware that it is the night, although we are not of the night, but watching and waiting for the day, having the morning star arisen in our hearts!
J. N. Darby (excerpts from his writings)