W. Scott
We are in great danger in the present day of losing sight of this most blessed truth of the primary hope of the saints. "We walk by faith, not by sight," says the apostle, but we reverse God's order, and alas! too often walk by sight, and not by faith. The doctrine of the "coming of the Lord" is accepted, but how many believers are living, and contented to live, in a state practically opposed to that which characterized the saints at Thessalonica. They "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven." 1 Thess. 1:9, 109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10).
Before the Lord left the sorrowing disciples, He gave them the promise that He would come again: "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3). The disciples were sorrowful because their Lord was going to leave them, but what did the Lord Jesus give them to raise them above their sorrows? He gave them the hope that He would come again. He would not always leave them down here in the place of His rejection—in the world which had refused Him, their Lord and Master. They could not expect to be treated any better than their Lord. "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." Then again, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:1919If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:19).
If all their hopes and expectations as to the One for whom they had left all had ended here, then they might still have sorrowed, but the Lord revealed to them another thing. It was that He had not left them down here to get on the best way they could, in a scene where everything was against them, and the enemy of their souls opposing them at every step. Had this been the case, it would have been a very pitiful one. The Lord told them that it was necessary for them that He should leave them for a time. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." John 16:77Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. (John 16:7).
By the Lord's absence we are really gainers, for He has given us blessings that we could never have possessed had He Himself remained with His disciples down here. He is gone to prepare a place for us in the Father's house, and soon He is coming again to take us to be with Himself. How soon we know not, and His desire is that we should be waiting for Him. This is our hope—He is coming again. He has left us His word for it, "I will come again.”
There is one thing that will give the soul a deeper longing for the Lord's return, and that is a deepening knowledge of the One that is coming. Who is the One that is coming? What has He done for us? It is the Son of God who left the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. He humbled Himself, took upon Him the form of a servant, was seen walking down here as a man, the meek and lowly Jesus of whom it is recorded, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." His was a life of perfect, unswerving obedience to the will of God. He could say of Himself, and He was the only one that ever could say it, "I do always those things that please Him." John 8:2929And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (John 8:29). This very obedience to His Father's will brought Him down even into the dust of death (Psa. 22:1515My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. (Psalm 22:15)).
He was a perfect man, the only perfect man that ever lived on this earth. He was just, but He suffered for us the unjust. He knew no sin, but He was made sin for us. On the cross He suffered for us when He offered Himself without spot to God, "who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.”
Now we can say, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7). We have liberty and boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We can find our deepest joy and delight in the presence of God, because His blood cleanseth us from all sin. And He has not only given all that He had—all that He possessed, but blessed be His name, He gave Himself. Could He give more? Impossible! By this He has not only met our need, but He has also glorified God, and brought us into the presence of God as perfect as He is Himself. We are "holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.”
He is now seated in glory at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and He is waiting there for the moment when He shall come and take us to be forever with Himself to share in His glory. He will not be fully satisfied till we are enjoying His presence, till we are with Him where He is. He is waiting there and we are waiting here till we hear that "shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." Then the dead in Christ shall rise, and we shall be changed, when our bodies of humiliation shall be fashioned like unto His own body of glory, and when we shall enjoy Himself and the fullness of His love forever.
By the Lord's grace may we keep this blessed hope ever and always fresh before our souls, and be in living association and communion with Himself while passing through this world, not as those of it, but as those separated to Him who gave Himself for us. May we be so occupied with Him that we are really and truly waiting for Him, looking for and expecting to hear His voice when "this mortal shall have put on immortality," and "death is swallowed up in victory.”
May He preserve us and keep us from being in any degree in the condition of that "evil servant" who says in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming." And may we be ever and always watching and waiting for Him.
“Yet a little while, and He that shall come
will come, and will not tarry.”