The Second Coming of Christ - The Only Christian Hope, continued

The modems have gone Just to the other extreme. They do not look for the kingdom of God at all. They magnify the sacrificial into unscriptural proportions, and omit the kingly altogether. They exclude the kingdom of God, knowing nothing of it, and believe in nothing concerning it, while the death of Christ over-shadows and ensanguines every doctrine in their religious system. The disciples only saw the king in Christ, and expected his manifestation in their own times; the moderns only see the sacrifice, and consider his mission accomplished in the saving of supposed immortal souls at death.

The mistake of the disciples was corrected in due time. The occurrence of Christ's crucifixion and subsequent resurrection and ascension, supplied the lack in their knowledge, enabling them to see that the promised glories of the future age were not attainable by mortal man without a sacrificial intervention--a tasting of death for every man, by which "many sons might be brought to glory." But this addition to their knowledge did not divert their attention from these glories. Far otherwise; the death of Christ, apart from its prospective relationship, had no attractiveness; its interest and importance arose out of its connection with the glorious result it achieved. So that instead of shutting out the kingdom from their mind, it only intensified their appreciation thereof, by showing them its value in the greatness of the sacrifice necessary to secure it. It gave eagerness to their ardency, leading them intensely to desire the consummation of "the glory to be revealed." They therefore said, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" They evidently had no idea of Christ leaving them again. They had forgotten the many parables in which he had taught them his approaching departure into "a far country" from which he should afterwards return, to take account of his servants. (Luke 19v 12; Matt. 25v 14, etc.). Only one feeling was uppermost in their minds--a desire that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

When, therefore, "he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight, they looked steadfastly toward heaven," evidently struck with wonderment at the unexpected and inexplicable occurrence. Christ taken away from them again! They were utterly unable to understand the new disappointment. Their hopes had been raised to the highest pitch by a companionship of forty days, and the grief which had overwhelmed them during their master's incarceration in the tomb, had been effaced by a sweet communion on "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God "; and now again, their Lord and Master, their best friend, their hope and salvation, he on whom their whole affection and the most yearning desire were concentrated, had left them. What were they to do? They were again cast upon the world; again thrown into perplexity. But this time relief was at hand:--

"Two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? THIS SAME JESUS WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU INTO HEAVEN SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN" (Acts 1v 10, 11).

And here begins the specific testimony in support of the proposition of the lectures. The disciples were comforted in their perplexity by being assured that Jesus would come again; this was the balm administered to their troubled spirits; this, the hope by which they reconciled themselves to the absence of their Lord and Master. From that day forward, it became the central doctrine around which all their teaching revolved, the constantly prominent and essentially distinguished feature of the glad tidings they proclaimed.

Jesus himself had repeatedly taught them the doctrine of his return, even previous to his crucifixion. The parable of the nobleman (Luke 19v 11, 12) was intended for this very purpose, for it is said that he used it "because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." Its teaching is very manifest--

"A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom AND TO RETURN. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come . . . And it came to pass that WHEN HE WAS RETURNED, having received the kingdom, then he commanded those servants to be called unto him."

By this the disciples were informed that Jesus should be taken up to heaven to do a work of preparation, and be invested with power, and should afterwards return to the earth, and THEN judge his servants; awarding to them the rulership of ten cities, or the ignominy of a shameful rejection, according to their deserts (see rest of the parable). It was an amplification of his other statement: "Thou shalt be recompensed AT THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST "--a resurrection which does not take place until "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout" (I Thess. 4v 16). The parable of the ten virgins is to the same purport. The absent bridegroom is put for the ascended Christ, and the waiting virgins for those who "look for his appearing." Besides other parables of a like effect, Jesus had plainly said, "The days will come when the. bridegroom shall be taken from them (the disciples)" (Matt. 9v 15); and had assured. them. without a figure: "If I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN AND RECEIVE YOU UNTO MYSELF" (John 14v 3).

But they were not able to understand the simple lesson, for the reason that Christ was with them, and they never expected him to leave them. They could not see what his "return" could mean, when they knew nothing of a going away; but when the days came that the bridegroom was taken from them, "then remembered they his words." The announcement of the angels would doubtless revive the many lessons which Jesus himself had taught them as to his purposed departure and his intended return to establish the kingdom; and thenceforward did the second coming of the Lord become their cherished hope --the great event to which they looked for salvation. It was the thing they preached and wrote about, the thing they hoped and. prayed for, the top-stone of the system of faith which they promulgated.

Of course, it did not, and could not exclude, but rather involved and necessitated the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice for sin, and the necessity for contrition and personal regeneration; for the second coming of the Lord was only good news to those who loved him, and who were prepared to meet him, and were fitted to be with him. Yet it was the great doctrine to which the others were subordinated. We find Peter teaching it in one of his first addresses after the ascension of Christ:--

"And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive, UNTIL the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3v 20, 21).

And the same apostle, in writing to the elders among "the strangers scattered abroad," repeated the doctrine in the following connection :--

"The elders who are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ; and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God... AND WHEN THE CHIEF SHEPHERD SHALL APPEAR, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (I Pet. 5v 1, 2-4).

Thus, as regards the immediate disciples of our Lord, it is proved beyond all question, that his second coming was their great hope,--in fact, their only hope, for what other hope could they have? They loved their master dearly, and knew that his return to them would be their own deliverance from the imperfections of a sinful body, and the afflictions of wicked men, and not only so, but the establishment on earth of "glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." To what other event, then, could they look with Christian hope than to the coming of Christ?

To what other event could they look with any hope at all? No event in their lifetime had promise for them; and what was there in death except a lightning-bridge to the resurrection? For them it had none of the fascination with which modern preaching has invested it. They did not recognise in "sudden death .... sudden glory." Death to them, instead of being the "portal of bliss," was "the gate of corruption." It was the bondage of that hereditary mortality from which Christ had come to deliver them--the bereaving grave-sleep in which they should deeply slumber till the return of their master to wake them to an incorruptible resurrection, when they should say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

No; their hope was not death, but the return of the Lord, to which all their personal hopes and fears, and all their expectations concerning the fulfilment of God's promises, inevitably directed them. Now, as it was with the apostles, so did it become with those who were afterwards converted to the Christian faith. The gospel preached, conveyed the same hopes which filled the bosoms of the preachers. Having proffered immortality for its basis, Christ's sacrifice as the means presented for faith, and the promised kingdom as "the inheritance" in which immortality would be enjoyed, it naturally led then minds to the coming of Christ as the great realising event; for all the promises contained in it go forward to "the revelation of Jesus Christ" as the time of fulfilment. Did Paul desire to attain to the resurrection from among the dead? (Phil. 3v 11). He expected to be included among "they that are Christ's AT HIS COMING" (I Cor. 15v 23). Did he look forward to "a crown of righteousness" to be received from "the Lord, the righteous judge"? (II Tim. 4v 8). He did not expect its bestowment till "HIS APPEARING and his kingdom" (verse 1), referred to as "that day," in verse 8.