One who has bowed to God's testimony as to his guilty and lost condition as a sinner (Rom. 3:19-23), but who has been led through grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God (Rom. 3:26), who came into this world to save such. One who in believing has received the forgiveness of sins, and is justified from all things; already in the enjoyment of peace with God, a possessor of God's priceless gift, “eternal life” (John 3:36). Not one who hopes to be saved; for God describes us in our natural state, as “without Christ . . . having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12); but one who is saved “by (in) hope” (Rom. 8:24) of the glory of God. Cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, his sins are gone; the penalty of sin—death—has been borne by his blessed Substitute; judgment passed on Him in his stead, and now, united to Him who sits at God's right hand; one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), he looks with joy for the moment when he shall see his Savior face to face.
In the meanwhile, until that glorious hope is realized, he walks down here in the world as a pilgrim and a stranger (1 Peter 2:11) in the conscious love of God, to whom he is reconciled. He knows and calls Him “Father” (Rom. 8:15), who has made him His child, and cares for him in that relationship.
He knows too, for God has told him in His Word, that he is a citizen of heaven (Phil, 3: 20), that he is not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world (John 17:16); and is called to be a follower of that blessed One, by denying himself, and taking up his cross (Luke 9:23).
He discovers that he is down here in a world which has rejected, cast out, and crucified his Lord. Therefore he can have no fellowship with the world, but must testify against it (Eph. 5:11). This brings out the enmity of the human heart; like master, like servant, and hence he has to suffer for His name (1 Peter 2:21).
How gracious then of his Lord to leave with him the sweet promise of His return and whilst away, to give him that other Comforter, Himself also coming to him, that he might not be left comfortless, or as an orphan in this dreary scene (John 14:16-18).
The world has yet to answer for the rejection and murder of Christ; the day of vengeance of our God will surely overtake the ungodly. But the Christian, through faith in the rejected One, is delivered from it, can look up with joy and confidence into the opened heaven, and there behold his Savior and his Lord at God's right hand, knowing that He who raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken his mortal body by (or, on account of) His Spirit that dwelleth in him (Rom. 8:11).
If he looks back, he sees a condemned world, from which he has escaped; if he looks around, he sees the fearful effects of sin on all sides; if he looks forward here, nothing lies before him but a waste, barren wilderness, a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, and where he may soon miss his way if he once steps out of the path of faith (2 Peter 3:17); if he looks in, he sees that wretched self, and the workings of the flesh; for although not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, the flesh is still in him (Rom. 8:8-9; Gal. 5:16-18). But if he turns away from the world and sin, the flesh and self, altogether, and looks by simple faith into the glory, there he beholds the One so precious to his heart, the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely, the “fairer than the children of men” (Ps. 45:2); and as he gazes, his heart is filled with the person of the Christ enfolding every grace, and he longs for the moment when He who has said, “If I go . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3), shall fulfil His parting promise. Then shall he meet his Lord, leaving every trace of mortality and sin behind him for ever, no more to go out (Rev. 3:12), but to spend an eternity in His own blissful presence.
My dear reader, are you one of those who know the love of Christ, and whose heart beats with love to Him in return? Is this glorious One the treasure of your soul? Have you believed on Him? Are you a Christian? Such alone can enter into these things with joy. But if you are a mere nominal professor, wake up, ere it be too late! Come as a guilty sinner to the Savior. He will in no wise cast you out (John 6:37); and all your soul needs you will find in Him. Come, oh, come to Him now! And peace with God shall be yours, and you with us will joy in God, and rejoice in hope of His glory (Rom. 5:1-11).
(An excerpt from “The Coming and Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by E. H. Chater.)