Unsearchable Riches

Some of the Relationships of Christ to His People

By Edward Dennett

Chapter 13

CHRIST OUR HOPE.

ONLY once do we find in the Scriptures the expression, " Christ our hope." " Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope" (i Tim. i. 1). But although the term itself is not repeated, the thing signified by it is found in almost every book, and in some books almost in every page, of the New Testament. For the characteristic of every Christian is that he is waiting for the Lord Jesus, who will return, according to His own promise, to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also (John xiv. 3). It belongs, therefore, to our position, as left in the world, that we are waiting for Christ, because it is at His coming that we shall enter upon the full fruits of our redemption. For it is then that our bodies are also redeemed (Rom. viii. 23); "that He will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself " (Phil. iii. 20). Hence we are said to be saved by (rather, in) hope (Rom. viii. 24). Even now we receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls (1 Peter i. 9); but we look forward to the moment, when our bodies likewise shall be redeemed from the power of death and the grave; for God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Rom. viii. 29).

Accordingly it belongs to our present position that we are waiting for the coming of our Lord; for it is at His return that this consummation of our blessedness will be effected. He is our Hope, therefore, because it is Himself for whom we wait in connection with it. And not only so; it is for Himself we wait, because the One who has redeemed us is He on whom our hearts are set. Apart, therefore, from every other consideration, Christ is our Hope —Christ in His coming—because we desire to be with the object of our affections. We are thus brought into fellowship with His own desires, for if we wait for, and desire to be with, Him, He waits for the moment when the desires of His heart will be fulfilled in having us with Himself (John xvii. 24).

We shall find, therefore, that during His sojourn with His disciples He continually prepared them, and exhorted them to watch for, His return. Sometimes He presented this truth—the hope of His coming—in relation to their responsibility as servants. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing" (Matt. xxiv. 46); again, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching " (Luke xii. 35-37). Some times, He presented His coming as ushering His waiting ones into fulness of blessing, as bringing them into His own presence, to be with Him for ever. For ex ample, in the scripture already referred to, when His disciples were plunged into sorrow at the prospect of His speedy departure, He says, " Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 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 xiv. 1-3). The Lord here not only presents Himself to His sorrowing disciples, as the object of their faith in His absence from them, and as one who was departing in their interests to prepare a place for them, but also as the object of their hope in returning to receive them unto Himself.

In entire accordance with this is the teaching of the epistles. The apostle says of the Thessalonians, that they " turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven " (1 Thess. i. 9, 10). This scripture is exceedingly important, in as much as it shows, beyond dispute, that the coming of Christ was no advanced truth imparted to a few of the spiritual, and no peculiar doctrine adopted by a class, but an essential part of the Christianity of these early believers. It may be well also to remark, that this was St. Paul's earliest epistle, and that it was written, there fore, to very young converts; and it is such that he reminds that, by their conversion, they were not only turned to God, &c., but that they also were brought upon the ground of waiting for God's Son. His coming was their hope.

Evidence of the same character might be adduced from almost every epistle. A few citations will suffice. Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle says, " So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. i. 7); to the Philippians, " Our conversation is in heaven; whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ," &c. (Phil. iii. 20). James also says, " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord " (James v. 7); and in the last chapter of the inspired canon, the blessed Lord Himself announces three times His speedy return (Rev. xxii. 7, 12, 20). But it is St. Paul who was especially commissioned to reveal this truth in its specific character as the hope of the Church; and he does it with precision and fulness in his First Epistle to the Thessalonians. He says, " I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." He then proceeds to explain, how it comes to pass that the saints will return with Jesus, i.e., at His appearing; for if they return with Him then, they must have been with Him previously; and he is specially charged to unfold this mystery. Hence he adds, " For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not pre vent (an old word, signifying to go before, or anticipate) them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (i Thess. iv. 13-18). Two things plainly appear from this scripture: first, that the Lord will return for His saints, both those who have fallen asleep, and those who may be alive at that time on the earth, before His appearing; and, secondly, that when He comes back to earth, His saints will be with Him. (See also Colossians iii. 4.)

There is another class of passages which speaks of our looking and waiting for the appearing rather than the coming of Christ. One of these has been cited (1 Cor. i. 7). We add another, " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing (rather, the appearing of the glory) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," &c. (Titus ii. 1 1-1-3). There is a reason for this. It will be found that whenever believers are looked at as under responsibility on the earth—as, for example, in service —the " appearing " is the goal rather than the " coming." Thus St. Paul says to Timothy, " That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Tim. vi. 14). Some have concluded from this, and similar passages, that the Church will be left down here until the appearing, having to pass through the sore tribulation of which our Lord speaks in Matt. xxiv. This is, however, an entire mistake, as seen, indeed, from the scripture already cited (1 Thess. iv. 13-18). The fact is, the appearing is spoken of in connection with responsibility, because as earth has been the scene of the service, earth also shall be the witness of the displayed recompense. Hence in 2 Thessalonians, after that the apostle has unfolded the proper hope of the Church in the coming of Christ, in writing to the same saints, and speaking of their patience and faith in all their persecutions and tribulations that they were enduring, he points them on to the time -when they should have rest, "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe " (have believed) (2 Thess. i. 4-10). This is in no way inconsistent with, but is rather the complement of, the truth of the Lord's coming for His saints being our proper object of hope.

It may perhaps tend to make this, if possible, more evident, if we show that there is nothing, as far as the Scriptures reveal, between us and the return of the Lord —that He may return at any moment to receive His waiting people. If, indeed, there were a single event which must necessarily, to our knowledge, intervene between us and His return, His coming would not be our immediate hope. In that case, we should look first for the predicted event or events, and after that we might be able to expect the coming of the Lord. Two or three scriptures will show that it is our privilege to look at any time for the return of the Lord.

After our Lord's resurrection, and ere His ascension, in one of His interviews with His disciples, Peter said to Him concerning the disciple whom Jesus loved, " Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me" (John xxi. 21, 22). Now, without pausing to enter upon the special significance of these words as applied to John, it is clear upon the surface, that had there been necessarily a long intervening space between the Lord's departure and return, rendered necessary by the accomplishment of earthly events, these words could not have been spoken. Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when dealing with the resurrection of the body, the apostle says, " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," &c. (1 Cor. xv. 51); and also in the passage from the Thessalonians which has been remarked upon, he says, " We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." A great deal of ingenious reasoning has been expended upon these scriptures to destroy their evident teaching, that St. Paul knew of nothing to hinder the Lord's return during his lifetime. Had he known that a long course of prophetic events and earthly judgments must first be accomplished, he could not have thus classed himself, as he does by the word " we," among those who might never die.

But it is objected that our Lord Himself prepared the minds of His disciples, in other scriptures, to expect a long course of events before His return; and Matthew xxiv. is freely adduced by those who seek to obscure the distinctive hope of the Church. What, then, do we find there? After describing a time of special tribulation, the Lord thus speaks, " Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. xxiv. 29-31). Now, it is freely conceded that if thi3 be a description of the Lord's return for the Church, there must yet elapse, it may be, a long interval of time. But does this scripture contemplate the Church? There are several reasons in the chapter itself which forbid the conclusion. In the fifteenth verse the Lord gives a sign, " When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not," &c. This sign, as all must confess who will take the trouble of reading the prediction of Daniel, refers exclusively to a temple (hereafter to be rebuilt) in Jerusalem. Again, our Lord urges upon them to pray that their flight might be " not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day" —a prayer which could scarcely be offered by a Christian, seeing that the Sabbath—the seventh day, and no other, i.e., Saturday —is to him as any other day of the week. If, moreover, one should come, according to the twenty-third verse, and say to a believer, " Lo, here is Christ, or there," how could he be deceived? Would he not reply, " Christ is at the right hand of God? " But there would be nothing so calculated to deceive the Jew who was eagerly looking for the advent of the Messiah. Indeed, it is undeniable that the whole chapter applies to the Jews who will be, at the time spoken of, in Jerusalem and Judea. It can be shown even more convincingly. Examine the order of events detailed in the passage cited. After the tribulation, the sun is darkened, &c., and then appears the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth mourn, and then they see the Son of Man coming, &c.; and it is not till after all this that He sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather together His elect, &c. So that, if this applies to the Church, it is not gathered together until after the appearing. But what says St. Paul? " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory " (Col. iii. 4). Both scriptures cannot, therefore, apply to the same thing, or they would be mutually contradictory. Since, then, the scripture in Matthew xxiv. differs from that in Colossians iii., it is evident that it cannot apply to the Church. Indeed, the application is to the elect remnant among the Jews, who will be gathered, in the manner there described, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory.

In Revelation xix. we shall find confirmatory evidence. " And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called the Word of God" (vers. 11— 13). This is a description of the coming of the Lord Jesus in judgment, as the sequel shows; in other words, of His appearing. It is at this time that He returns with His saints. Let the Word speak for itself. "And the armies that were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean" (ver. 14). Who are these? Their dress is distinctive, and supplies the answer. " The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses " (τὰ δικαιώματά) of saints " (vers. 7, 8). The armies, there fore, who followed upon the white horses are saints; but if saints, they must have been with Christ before He issues forth for judgment at His appearing. This is in accordance with St. Paul's statement, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory " (Col. iii. 4).

It is thus abundantly plain that the Lord returns for His people before He appears in judgment, and hence that there are no necessarily intervening events between us and the Lord's coming. This might be gathered, indeed, from the Lord's own words, " I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star "— for the star of hope which burns aloft in the sky is the herald and harbinger of the coming day, the star to which we turn in earth's darkest hours, in the longing expectation that we shall soon be caught up, and associated with Him in all His heavenly splendours. " He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly." Happy they who can from full hearts respond, " Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus " (Rev. xxii. 20).

Such is the teaching of the Word of God, and very many profess to receive and to hold it. But it is one thing to hold the doctrine, and quite another to live in the power of it, to be possessed and moulded by the truth which it expresses. To hold the doctrine that the Lord is at hand, and to be living as if this scene were our home, to be engrossed in its cares, activities, or pleasures, or to be associated with things which are not suited to Him for whom we profess to wait, i3 practically to deny our hope, and even to turn the grace of God into an occasion for the liberty of self-will and the pleasing of self. It behoves every one, there fore, who believes that the Lord is at hand, to judge himself, his heart, and his ways, by the light of the Word, that he may be brought into a state conformable to his expectation, suited to the presence of Him whom we so soon expect to see face to face, and with whom we hope to be for ever. Let us, then, collect a few examples of the effect which this blessed hope should practically produce upon our walk and ways.

The parable of the ten virgins (Matt. xxv.) shows that, whatever our profession, we are not prepared to meet the Lord unless we have "oil" in our vessels; and the effect of the cry, " Behold the bridegroom," was to awaken both the wise and foolish as to their condition and needs. But every one will understand, that none but those who are born again through the Word and by the power of the Holy Ghost can be ready for the Lord's coming. There was a second thing. The cry was, " Go ye out to meet Him." With this corresponds another scripture. St. John, after revealing to us that when Christ is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, adds, "Every man that hath this hope in Him (in Christ) purifieth himself, even as He is pure " (1 John iii. 2, 3). The effect of the expectation of Christ, therefore, when held in living power, will be to separate, and to produce in us an ever-increasing separation. With Himself before our souls, and looking for Him hourly, our desire will be to be apart from all which would not please His eyes, and to be possessed of all that would delight His gaze. Hence we may measure the reality and intensity of our hope by its separating power upon our hearts and lives. How were it possible, indeed, to cleave to a single thing, however innocent even in itself, if it be not distinctly for Christ, if we were expecting every moment to see His face? No; waiting for Him, our aim would be to be found just as He would have us to be, so that, weaned from every earthly thing and object that might bind our heart to the scene through which we are passing, we may have nothing to leave but the wilderness itself, when He descends from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

It will also help us to keep our lamps trimmed and burning. All the ten virgins had fallen asleep, and when roused from their unfaithful slumbers, their first anxiety was for their lamps. " Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps" (ver. 7). They had been careless about this before, but immediately they hear the cry, " Go ye out to meet Him," they turn to see if their lamps can be prepared in time to meet Him. But they should have been kept both trimmed and burning all through the darkness of the night; and had they really been waiting for the bridegroom, it could not have been otherwise. How is it now with us who profess to be expecting the Lord? Are our lights burning —burning steadily and brightly through the surrounding darkness? The light is Christ. Are we then reflecting Him? "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house" (Matt. v. 14, 15). In like manner if, by the grace of God, Christ is in us, it is that He may be displayed. " For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, for the shining forth (πρὸς φωτισμὸν) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv. 6).

St. Paul applies this truth in many ways. " The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing," &c. (Phil. iv. 5, 6). He would thus have us without a single care in the prospect of His coming. He uses the same truth to comfort the hearts of the sorrowing in the passage already adduced (1 Thess. iv.). And what can comfort the heart of the bereaved like the expectation of Christ? For even while the bodies of our dear ones are lying in the house, or on their way to the grave, we are entitled to hope that the Lord may return; and then, raised from their sleep of death, and we ourselves changed, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The Apostle James exhorts to patience on the same ground. " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh " (James v. 7, 8). The prospect of the Lord's return is thus an antidote to the weariness, the trials, and the difficulties of our wilderness journey.

The Lord Himself continually uses the uncertainty of the time of His return as an incentive to fidelity. When He represents Himself in the parable as departing to receive a kingdom and to return, and delivers the " pounds " to the servants, His word is, " Occupy till I come " (Luke xix. 12, 13). Again He says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that He shall make him ruler over all His goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth " (Matt. xxiv. 45-51).

These are but samples of the practical uses of the truth of the coming of Christ for His people. An examination of all the passages that treat of the subject will show that it is interwoven with every detail of Christian life and walk. To ignore it, therefore, is to lose one of the most powerful motives to holiness which is given to us in the Scriptures. More than this: it is, as before remarked, an integral part of Christianity; and hence the Christian who has not received the truth of the Lord's coming is ignorant of the character of the place into which he is brought, as well as of the fulness of the grace of God. Is the coming of Christ— Christ Himself in His coining—your hope, dear reader? Can any prospect be so fraught with joy to the believer? To see the face of Him, whom not having seen we love! To be like Him, and to be with Him for ever! Surely if our hearts respond in ever so feeble a measure to what He is to us, and to His love, we must long for the moment when He will enter upon the fruition of His own joy in receiving His own to Himself, and when our joy will be consummated in the everlasting possession of the object of our affections.

May the Lord bring many more of His beloved saints into acquaintance with it, and enable those who by His grace do wait for Him to maintain the truth in living power—walking under its full separating influences every step of their wilderness path!

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