E. J. Poole-Connor*
Contents
THIS
little book is intended for the use of beginners in the study of
the
Scriptures concerning the Lord’s Return. It is entirely
non-controversial, and
no reference is made, therefore, to other views. The writer,
however,
is not
unacquainted with them.
Where a word of explanation not suitable for the text is called
for, it
takes
the form of a note at the end of the book.
THE First Edition of this little volume was
issued
in or about the year
1913,
and was approved by Pastors Frank H. White and James Stephens,
M.A.,
whose
views were in accord with those found in its pages. While not
committing
themselves to all its details, Dr. H.G.C. Moule and Dr. Dinsdale
T.
Young also commended it with great cordiality. I recall the
kindness of
these
servants of God, all now passed to their rest, with humble
thankfulness. It is
thirty-four years since it was first committed to print, but I
have
seen no
reason to depart from the beliefs which it expresses, and in
which I
was
nurtured; I have therefore gladly acceded to its being
reprinted. I
must not,
however, commit any branches of Christian work with which I am
associated to
these my purely personal convictions. In that respect, in again
issuing
the
booklet I represent myself alone.
Some six hundred years before Christ was born
a
great King lay on his
bed,
meditating upon the future of the empire over which he ruled--an
empire
daily
growing in power and glory. To what was it tending? How would it
end?
Thus
questioning, he fell asleep and dreamed; and in his dream he saw
a
great image
before him, curiously composed. Its head was of gold, its
breasts and
arms were
of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its
feet
part of iron
and part of potter’s clay. As he contemplated it he saw a stone
smite
the image
upon its feet and break it; so utterly, that the image became as
chaff
of the
threshing floor, and the wind carried it away; while the stone
became a
great
mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Such was the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as
recorded in
the
second chapter of Daniel’s prophecy. And the vision was no empty
product of an
excited brain, but God’s answer to his questionings. It was
given to
him that
he might know "the thoughts of his heart," and what should come
to
pass in "the latter days."
And God who gave the dream, gave, through His servant Daniel,
the
interpretation. The image, the king was told, symbolized the
whole
course of
Gentile rule; Nebuchadnezzar himself being the head of gold. His
kingdom should
be followed by one governmentally inferior,[1] set forth by the
breasts
and
arms of silver, which in its turn should be displaced by a
third, of
which the
brazen portion of the image was the type.
Concerning the identity of these kingdoms there is no question,
since
Nebuchadnezzar was informed that his rule was indicated by the
head of
gold. It
is a matter of history that the Babylonian empire was succeeded
by that
of
Medo-Persia, and later by that of Greece. Moreover, both these
kingdoms
are
expressly named in this prophecy; the former in chapter 5:8, and
the
latter in
chapter 8:20, 21.
The king was further informed that in process of time a fourth
world-power
would arise, strong as iron, which, like iron, would break in
pieces
all
opposed to it. That this fourth kingdom was that of Rome no
direct
Scripture
tells us, but such we know to be the fact. It is this imperial
power
which
looms large and sinister behind all New Testament history. Roman
Emperors,
Roman judges, Roman soldiers, pass through its pages. A Roman
census
drives
Mary to Bethlehem; a Roman tax creates the publican; a Roman
citizenship
affords its temporary protection to the Apostle Paul; and it was
a
Roman cross
on which our Lord was put to death.
But this was not all. The image of the king’s dream had ten toes
upon
its feet,
and these ten toes had their prophetic significance. They
represented
ten
kingdoms into which the Roman empire was itself to be divided;
and "in
the
days of those (ten) kings"--so Daniel was commissioned to
declare--"shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom" (2:44); and
set it
up by Violence and destruction,[2] for "it shall break in pieces
and
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever."
Later, as we are told in the seventh chapter, God was pleased to
confirm, by a
dream given to Daniel, the revelation thus made. In his vision
the
prophet saw
four wild beasts rising from the Great Sea--the first a lion,
the
second
a bear,
the third a leopard, and the fourth diverse from all others,
"dreadful
and
terrible," and having ten horns. From among these ten horns,
another
and a
smaller horn was seen to rise, "having eyes like a man, and a
mouth
speaking great things." As the prophet lifted his gaze, he saw
heavenly
thrones placed, and the Ancient of Days sitting in judgment on
the
great and
terrible beast, and on the little horn which had sprung up amid
the
ten; and he
saw the beast destroyed. He then beheld sovereign rule given to
the Son
of Man,
even "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations and
languages, should serve him: and his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed."
To Daniel also was given the interpretation of the dream. The
four wild
beasts,
he was told, were four kings which should arise out of the
earth. A
comparison
of the dreams of the King and of the Prophet makes it clear that
the
same four
kings, or kingdoms, are foreshadowed in both, though under
different
figures;
while the "ten toes" of the one correspond to the "ten
horns" of the other. But in the vision seen by Daniel, we have
this
further revelation: out of the ten kingdoms into which the Roman
empire
was to
be divided there would arise a king who would "speak great words
against
the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High, and
think to
change
times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a
time,
times, and
the dividing of a time," that is to say, for three years and a
half;
for
in chapter 4:16 "seven times," the period of King
Nebuchadnezzar’s
affliction, clearly mean "seven years," so that "a time, (two)
times, and the dividing of a time" signify half that period.
Consider what this further revelation means. The first three
kingdoms
of which
this prophecy speaks have risen and passed away, but the
division of
the fourth
into the final ten has never yet taken place.[3] This cannot be
too
strongly
urged, nor too clearly recognized. Here, then, is a portion of
God’s
sure Word
awaiting fulfillment, and with it, the fulfillment of the
prophecy
concerning
the blasphemous, persecuting king who shall arise from the midst
of the
ten.
When he appears the end shall be very near.
Let the reader secure a map of the old Roman Empire. Let him
ponder all
that
has happened, for the weal or woe of the human race, within its
borders, from
the days of Nebuchadnezzar to his own; and let him remember,
that,
great as
have been the events of the past, the events of the future shall
be
equally
great. Then let him contemplate the modern nations which form
its
component
parts, and watch. By war, by political treaty, by national
spirit, by
forces
known, it may be, only to God, the kingdoms shall shake and
shift until
they be
ten; from among that ten shall emerge the most awful figure that
has
ever cast
its shadow across history, to be judged as none have yet been
judged;
and with
that judgment Gentile rule shall end, and the rule of Christ
begin.
We have seen that God was pleased to give to
Daniel a prophecy of vast
importance. But God Who "spake in time past unto the fathers by
the
prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son"; and
not
less
important than the prophecy of Daniel was the prophecy uttered
by our
Lord as
He sat in the midst of His disciples upon Mount Olivet.
This wonderful discourse (recorded for us in Matthew 24, Mark 13
and
Luke 21),
formed the answer to three questions of the disciples, arising
out of
His
statement that not one stone of the Temple should be left upon
another
which
should not be thrown down. "Tell us," they said, " when shall
these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming? and
of the
end of
the age?" To the first question, which had to do with the
destruction
of
the Temple, the Lord replied, "When ye see Jerusalem encompassed
with
armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh . . . for
these
be the
days of vengeance . . . and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the
Gentiles
till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:20-24).
This prophecy, in so far as it concerns the destruction of
Jerusalem,
has long
since been fulfilled; but "the times of the Gentiles," which is
the
period covered in the prophecies already considered in Daniel,
are
still
running on.
The question, third in the order of the disciples’ inquiry, but
second
in the
order of the Lord’s answer, was concerning the sign of the end
of the
age; and
to by "the age" was meant the period which should elapse before
the
Lord returned.
In his reply (Matt. 24:4-14) our Lord gave first an outline of
what
should be
the general character of the age. It would be marked by the
recurrence
of war,
famine, pestilence and earthquake. His followers would have to
endure
persecution. False prophets would arise and deceive many. The
Gospel
should be
preached in all the world for a witness to all nations "and
then,"
said our Lord, "shall the end come." In other words, the age
would
not terminate, nor the Lord return, till in every nation the
Gospel had
been
preached. Such was the clear sign given by the Lord in His
response to
the
disciples’ third question.
The question answered last by our Lord was one of such
importance that
we must
linger awhile over the reply, and consider it somewhat in
detail. The
disciples’ enquiry was, "What shall be the sign of thy coming?"
To
which our Lord thus began to respond "When ye therefore, shall
see the
abomination of desolation,[4] spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in
the
holy place, . . . then let them which be in Judaea flee into the
mountains" (verses 15, 16). Here we pause for a moment to recall
what
we
have already learnt from Daniel’s prophecy. We have been told
that in
the
latter days a blasphemous and persecuting king shall arise who
shall
for a time
wear out the saints. To this we add further information, found
in that
prophecy
(chapter 11:31), concerning this king and his allies, namely,
that
"They
shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the
daily
sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh
desolate."
This is the prophecy to which our Lord referred. The sanctuary"
or
"the holy place "is the Temple; the "abomination of
desolation" is an idolatrous image; and the purport of the whole
is,
that
in the (rebuilt) Temple of Jerusalem the king shall set up an
object of
idolatrous worship. When this is done, "then," said our Lord,
"let him that is in Judaea flee . . . for then shall be great
tribulation
such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time,
no, nor
ever shall
be."
It is evident that this tribulation will be the outcome the
setting up
of the
idol. Some will submit and worship, but others will resist and
be
persecuted.
Probably few, if any, Christian believers will suffer in
Jerusalem
(where the
white heat of the furnace will be), owing to our Lord’s warning
to
flee;
nevertheless, the persecuting spirit will be abroad on the
earth, and
all who
"keep the commandments of Jesus" rather than the commandments of
the
anti-Christian king, will doubtless suffer in varying degrees.
But "for
the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened" ; and
immediately after
the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon
shall not
give her light . . . and the powers of heaven shall be shaken;
and then
shall
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven."
Such, then, is our Lord’s answer to the question, "What shall be
the
sign
of Thy coming?" On earth, the idol in the holy place, and the
ensuing
tribulation; in the heavens, the darkening of the sun and moon,
and the
falling
of the stars. Amid such dread scenes the day of deliverance and
of doom
shall
be ushered in.
Our Lord’s discourse did not end here. He proceeded to say that
neither
men nor
angels knew the day and hour fixed in the divine purpose for His
Return, and
that, the world at large, His Coming would be as unexpected and
as
terrible as
the Flood. " As in the days that were before the flood they were
eating
and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day
that Noah
entered
into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them
all away
so also
shall the coming of the Son of man be" (verse 38). And this
would be
so,
not because that day should come unheralded--for He had just
foretold
the events
which would signify its near approach--but because ungodly men
would
not
regard
His warnings. Men "knew not" that the flood was coming; yet for
years
the preaching of Noah and the building of the ark foretold their
doom.
Even so
no man will know that Christ is at the door unless, by God’s
grace, he
shall
recognize the "knocking" (Luke 12:36). To all, therefore, who
would
escape the judgments His Coming will usher in, our Lord has
uttered
these
solemn words: "Take heed to yourselves lest haply your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of
this life,
and
that day come on you suddenly as a snare; for it shall come on
all them
that
dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every
Season,
making
supplication that ye may prevail to escape all these things that
shall
come to
pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:34-36,
R.N.)--prevail,
that is over the evil influences of that hour, its materialism
and
unbelief;
and so escape, not the tribulation, which is one of the signs of
the
Lord’s
Coming, but the judgments which His Coming will bring.
It will have been
observed that in the Lord’s Olivet discourse He not
only
delivered a prophecy of His own, but quoted and confirmed the
older
prophecy of
Daniel. We come now to a third link in this prophetic
chain--the
Epistles of
Paul to the Thessalonians; for the Apostle, while imparting
certain
truths
respecting the Lord’s Coming which were directly revealed to
him by
God,
nevertheless based the bulk of his instructions upon the
prophecy of
our Lord
and that of Daniel before Him.
That the Apostle was well acquainted with the utterances of
our Lord,
there is
abundant evidence. "Ye ought.., to remember the words of the
Lord
Jesus,
It is more blessed to give than to receive," he said to the
Ephesian
Elders. "I command, yet not I, but the Lord," he wrote to the
Corinthians in quoting another pronouncement of the Lord
Jesus. It need
cause
us no surprise, therefore, to find his teaching on the subject
of the
Lord’s
Coming to be interpenetrated with that teaching which the Lord
Himself
delivered to His disciples on Olivet.
In writing to the Thessalonians, his first detailed statement
is
concerning the
dead in Christ. "For this we say unto you by the word of the
Lord"
(we take up His words at verse 15 of the fourth chapter, 1st
Epistle)
"that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord
shall not
prevent 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.
In this utterance we have certain truths stated which were
known to the
Apostle
by direct revelation; to this fact he refers when he says
"This we say
unto you by the word of the Lord." Nevertheless, his mind is
still full
of
the Olivet prophecy. "The voice of the archangel and the trump
of
God" is an echo of the Lord’s words "He shall send forth his
angels
with a great sound of a trumpet " while the reference to
believers who
" are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord" being
"caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air," echoes
that
other word of the Lord concerning "the Son of man coming in
the clouds
of
heaven."
The Apostle then continues " But of the times and seasons,
brethren, ye
have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know
perfectly that
the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they
shall say,
Peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them... But ye
brethren
are not
in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief . . .
Therefore let us
not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober"
(chapter 5:1-6).
In these words we have nothing of the nature of a revelation
specially
given to
the Apostle. The Holy Spirit was simply bringing to his
remembrance
prophecy
already uttered. His statement that the Day of the Lord would
come as a
thief
in the night was but another form of the Lord’s words--"If the
good man
of
the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would
have
watched, and
not suffered his house to be broken up." His confident
declaration to
the
Thessalonians that they were not in darkness: that the Day of
the Lord
should not
overtake them as a thief: was evidently based upon his
knowledge of
what the
Lord had said concerning the signs which should herald His
approach.
The Day of
the Lord would come upon His people, as well as upon the
world, but it
should
not come on the former unexpectedly or hurtfully. God had not
appointed
them to
wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ. Nevertheless,
they were
not to
be slothful or indifferent, but they were, as the Lord had
said, to
watch.
Such was the teaching of the Apostle given in this First
Epistle; and
such was
the teaching given to Thessalonian believers by word of mouth.
Notwithstanding
this, they fell into a snare. They were persuaded to think, in
spite of
the
absence of the heralding signs, that the Day of the Lord had
set in. A
spirit,
probably speaking through some person in their assembly, had
misled
them;
specious teaching had beguiled them; a forged epistle of Paul
had been
circulated among them supporting the error. The result was
agitation,
confusion, and a neglect of daily duty. To them, therefore,
the Apostle
wrote
again--"Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of
the Lord
Jesus
Christ and our gathering together unto him, that ye be not
soon shaken
. . .
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, to
the effect
that
the day of the Lord is come. Let no man deceive you in any
way, for
that day
shall not come, unless there shall have come the apostasy
first, and
the man of
lawlessness shall have been revealed (2 Thess, 2:3, Alford’s
translation).
On what ground could the Apostle so confidently assert this ?
He did
not say it
"by the word of the Lord"--that is, by revelation specially
committed
to him. Here, as before, guided by the Holy Spirit, he bases
his
teaching on
the prophecies of Daniel and our Lord. Daniel had declared
that prior
to the
Coming of the Son of man there should rise one who should
speak great
words
against the Most High, and think to change times and laws:
till the
"man
of lawlessness," therefore, had been manifested, the Day of
the Lord
could
not come.
But the Apostle continues his description of this terrible
being--still
based
upon Daniel’s prophecy (chapter 11:36, 37)--and delineates him
as "He
that
opposeth and exalteth himself above every one called God, or
an object
of worship,
so that he sitteth down in the Temple of God, showing himself
that he
is
God" (Alford).
Once more we stay to recall prophecies going before. Both
Daniel and
our Lord
foretold that this blasphemous king should set up an
idolatrous image
in the
Temple we learn here that the idol will be an image of
himself. The
setting up
of that abomination was declared by the Lord to be one great
sign of
His near
approach; till that sign appeared the Day of the Lord could
not come.
These
things the Apostle had told the Thessalonian believers, but
they had
forgotten
them, or they had been explained away. For their instruction
and for
ours, the
Spirit of God leads him to reassert them, and he thus
concludes--"The
mystery of lawlessness doth already work (only there is One
that
hindereth)
till it be developed out of the midst.[5] And then shall the
lawless
one be
revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of
his
mouth, and
destroy with the brightness of his coming."
In that day shall the long tribulation of the people of God
come to an
end.
Then shall the justice of God be vindicated. "It is a
righteous thing
with
God," says the Apostle in an earlier passage, " to recompense
tribulation to them that tribulate you"--(we venture to coin a
word to
indicate the original)--"and (to recompense) to you who are
tribulated,
rest, with us" (the apostles, and the long line of suffering
and
persecuted saints) "at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from
heaven
with
his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know
not God,
and 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 . . . in that day."
Daniel in Babylon: our Lord on Olivet: Paul in Thessalonica:
these are
the
links in this great prophetic chain. The first foretold the
long course
of
Gentile rule, and the rise in the latter days of the
blasphemous,
lawless,
persecuting king; declared his doings and his doom; and looked
onward
to the
Coming of the Son of Man. Our Lord predicted the treading down
of
Jerusalem
beneath Gentile feet; foreshadowed the character of the age
till He
should
return; and made known the signs, disregarded by the world,
but
recognized by
the believer, which should herald His approach. The Apostle
spake of
the
resurrection of the sleeping saints, the rest from
tribulation, and the
rapture, which that day should bring; declaring it
nevertheless to be a
day of
terror and destruction to the wicked; and he reasserted the
manifestation of
the lawless king as a prophetic sign, without which the Day of
the Lord
would
not come.
The earthly work of both Prophet and Apostle has long since
ceased. In
a far
eastern city the dust of Daniel mingled with the earth; the
dust of
Paul was
scattered in the imperial city of the west; but in Jerusalem
the city
of their
love and prayers, the Lord of both Prophet and Apostle died
and rose
again, and
became the first-fruits of them that sleep. One day, when He
returns,
His voice
shall awake the sleepers, and the body of Apostle and Prophet,
sown in
weakness, shall be raised in power; sown in dishonor, shall be
raised
in glory;
and with them the whole family of faith, who from the earliest
dawn of
history
have turned their eyes of love and longing toward the
Redeemer.
Hitherto we have
followed the broad stream of prophecy, and have spoken
of our
Lord’s coming as affecting two main classes: the people of God
and the
people
of the world. But as we pursue our Lord’s teaching another
aspect of
the solemn
subject comes to our view. We find in His utterances repeated
warnings
that the
Church itself would become corrupt, and that at His Coming He
will
pronounce
judgment, not only upon those who openly reject Him, but upon
His
professed
followers.
Nor need this fact, for all its sadness, greatly surprise us.
God’s
work has
ever been opposed by a personal spirit of evil, as subtle as
he is
powerful.
And while he has not been permitted to prevent the setting up
of the
Church on
earth, he has been allowed to hinder it sorely, both from
without and
from
within.
This aspect of the Lord’s return is particularly brought
before us in
certain
parables recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 13, 22 and 25.
In chapter 13 we have a series of parables setting forth some
of the
methods of
the enemy. In the Parable of the Sower he is depicted as
catching away
the truth
as it is sown in men’s hearts. In the Parable of the ‘fares he
is seen
planting
unregenerate men in the professing Church. In the Parable of
the
Mustard Seed
we are forewarned that the Church would forsake its lowly
position and
assume,
as we know it did under the Roman bishops, the place of a
world-power;
and in
this "tree" the "fowls"--the powers of evil--should find
their nest. And although in the Parable of the Leaven[6] we
have the
picture of
an apostate system leavening wholesome truth with corrupting
error, it
is still
the enemy’s work which is being done.
How truly our Lord’s forewarning has been fulfilled let the
present
condition
of Christendom declare. When we call to mind the history, from
the
Middle Ages
till today, of the various sections of the professing
Church--Roman,
Greek and
Protestant; when we remember the errors promulgated throughout
the
world in the
name of Christ; when we contemplate the number of those who,
while
bearing the
title of Christian, have manifestly never been born from
above; we may
well
believe that when the Lord returns it will be necessary for
Him "to
gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do
iniquity."
The parable which sets forth most fully the necessity and
certainty of
such a
judgment is the Parable of the Tares. "The kingdom of heaven,"
said
our Lord, shall be likened to a man which sowed good seed in
his field.
But . .
. his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.
The tares (zizania) to which our Lord refers are
semi-poisonous plants
so like
to wheat in their earlier stages that even the experienced
farmer does
not
venture to separate the two. The Lord, therefore, warns us
that those
unregenerate souls planted in the professing Church by the
Evil One
will often,
in all external matters, be indistinguishable from the true
children of
God.
Nevertheless, the parable shows equally clearly that when the
Lord
returns they
shall be manifested and separated. "In the time of harvest I
will say
to
the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them
in
bundles to
burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." When the
zizania and the
true wheat are fully developed, the difference between the two
is so
marked
that a child cannot mistake them. Even so in that "harvest"
which is
"the end of the age," the Lord’s own people will he
distinguished
from all others, for they shall "be changed, in a moment, in
the
twinkling
of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:51, 52), and shall "shine forth" bodily
and literally, "as the sun." But no such glorious change shall
pass
over the unregenerate however lofty their religious
profession. Today
there are
many of whom it is impossible to say whether they be wheat or
tares. In
that
day there shall be no longer any doubt. And then shall the
angels
"gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity.[7]
In chapter 22 we have the Parable of the Wedding Feast; and in
the
closing
portion of the parable we find teaching of a similar import. A
king,
said our
Lord, made a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants
to call
them
that were bidden, but they would not come. A second messenger
was sent.
Some of
the invited guests made light of it; others ill-treated the
servants
and slew
them. The king being wroth sent his armies, destroyed the
murderers,
and burnt
up their city. He then sent his servants out into the highways
and
commanded
them to bid as many as they found to the feast, and the
wedding was
furnished
with guests, both bad and good.
Here we are on sure ground. The bidden guests who refused to
come, and
slew the
servants, were the Jewish people in their rejection of the
Gospel call.
The
burning up of their city was the destruction of Jerusalem at
Roman
hands. The
going out into the highways and bidding as many as could be
found to
the feast
is the calling of the Gentiles. But the parable does not stay
here. It
carries
us on to the Coming of the Lord. "The king came in to behold
the
guests,
and saw a man there that had not on a wedding garment. . . .
Then saith
the
king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot and take him away
and cast
him
into outer darkness."
Let it be noted that this man had not refused the invitation,
but he
had
refused the wedding garment-- a type of the man who, while a
professed
recipient
of salvation, has never submitted himself to the
"righteousness of
God"; and in the "day of finding" he shall be severed from the
company of true believers and shall be cast out. It was
doubtless this
parable
which was in the mind of the Apostle Paul when, after
enumerating to
the
Philippians the things which constituted his own
righteousness, he
wrote--"I have suffered the loss of all (these) things and
count them
as
dross that I may gain Christ, and be found"--found by the
King--". . .
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but .
. . the
righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3:8, 9). "Be
diligent," says the Apostle Peter, seeming also to echo the
words
"that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and
blameless" (2
Peter 3:14).
Finally, in chapter 25 we have the Parable of the Virgins, in
which is
pictured
a company of those who were waiting for the bridegroom; of
whom some,
having
oil in their vessels to maintain their lamps, went in to the
marriage
feast;
while others, having no oil, and not being ready to meet the
bridegroom
when he
came, were shut out. Here, once more, we have the same truth
taught us.
The
foolish virgins represent those who make a Christian
profession, but
have not
received the Spirit in their hearts; and "if any man have not
the
Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his." To such the Lord, Who "knoweth
them
that are his" shall say when He shall come, "Verily I say unto
you, I
know you not."
Such are the solemn truths stated and repeated by our Lord;
and in all
considerations of His Coming they should be given their due
and serious
weight.
Far deeper than any distinction between fruitful and
unfruitful
believers is
the distinction between believers and unregenerate professors
of
religion;
between the spiritually living and the spiritually dead. Our
Lord
speaks
frequently of coming to His Church and finding His servants
unready to
meet
Him. But many of His servants--servants in profession, that
is--are
even
now
unready to meet Him, in that they are as truly strangers to
the new
birth as
the avowed unbeliever. It cannot be too strongly insisted that
readiness to
meet the Lord consists primarily in a renewed condition of
heart; in a
personal
experience of that change of nature which is wrought by the
Holy Spirit
of God.
To the professing Church, therefore, Christ addresses
Himself--to the
Church as
He foreknew it would be: a mixed body of wheat and tares, of
wise and
of
foolish virgins, of faithful and of wicked servants--and to
all within
its
borders He gives His earnest counsel, "Be ye also ready"--see
that ye
are children of the kingdom, guests truly garbed in the
righteousness
of
Christ, virgins having the oil of the spirit in the
heart--"for in such
an
hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." To all merely
human
calculation the coming of Christ will seem furthest off when
it is most
nigh.
The heralding events will be as little understood by the
unsaved
professor of
religion as by the materialistic man of the world. To the
"evil
servant" the Lord will come "in a day when he looketh not for
Him" as truly as to the man who is His open enemy. Ability to
recognize
the signs will be found, not in a powerful intellect, but in a
renewed
heart.
Of all mankind, it is only to the regenerate believer it can
be
said--"That
day shall not overtake you as a thief."
To this issue the Lord directs the weight of His teaching. To
be
strangers in
heart to the grace of God is not only to be unready to meet
Him, but is
also to
be morally incapable of recognizing the events which tell that
He is
near.
Therefore let every professed servant of His--such is His
solemn
counsel--see to
it that he belongs to the new and heavenly order, that he has
been born
of the
Spirit; for if that be not so, then, whether he die first, or
live till
the
Lord returns, the outer darkness shall be his portion, for
ever and
ever.
And God grant that upon the conscience of no Christian teacher
may it
ever lie
that he has misinterpreted his Master’s words, and turned the
edge of
these
solemn, searching, and vital truths.
In Matthew 25
there is recorded a further
parable relating to the
Lord’s
coming, known as the Parable of the Talents, which may thus be
summarized: A
certain man, going into a far country called his own servants,
and
delivered
unto them his goods. To one he gave ten talents, to another
five, and
to
another one, each according to his several ability; and
straightway
took his
journey. After a long time the Lord of those servants
returned, and
reckoned
with them, rewarding the faithful, but condemning the wicked
and
slothful
servant to be cast into outer darkness.
The general teaching here conveyed is similar to that found in
the
parables
already considered, and has reference to the "judgment which
begins at
the
house of God" (1Peter 4:17). The wicked and slothful servant
belongs to
the same order as the man without a wedding garment; both are
cast into
the
outer darkness. The additional solemn suggestion of this
parable is,
that a man
may even be entrusted with spiritual powers and opportunities
of
service, and
yet prove to be a son of perdition at the last; a sad
possibility
vividly made
real by the story of Judas, and foretold in the words of our
Lord,
"Many
shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in
thy name,
and in thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful
works. Then
will I
profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye
workers of
iniquity" (Matt. 7:22, 23). But while the general teaching of
the
parable
is thus similar to that already met with, we find in the
earlier verses
a truth
indicated which we have not hitherto faced, namely, that the
Lord’s
Coming will
not only be to "gather out of His Kingdom all things that
offend, and
them
that do iniquity," but will also be to make enquiry into the
service of
those who are really His own, and to reward them according to
their
works.
Here, then, is a doctrine of great importance, concerning
which it
behooves us
to be clear. Let us remember, on the one hand, that no child
of God can
fail of
blessings secured to him by covenant-grace. Resurrection and
transfiguration
cannot be delayed even by unfaithfulness, nor can glory be
forfeited.
"Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at
His
coming" is the divine order which nothing can interrupt. All
who are
"children of the kingdom" shall, whatever their attainments in
holiness, "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father."
"If children," says the Apostle, "then heirs, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ." "Whom he called, them he also
justified;
whom he justified, them he also glorified." But let us not
forget that
they who are children of God are also servants of Christ, and
as such
must
render to Him an account of their stewardship. "The Lord of
those
servants
cometh and reckoneth with them." All that which goes to make
up the
believer’s life--his outward conduct and his inward
motives--shall one
day be
brought under review. "We shall all stand," says the Apostle,
"before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I
live,
saith
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess
to God,
So then
every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans
14:10-12).
It was this great fact to which the Apostle Paul appealed in
writing to
the
Corinthians concerning Apollos and himself, "Every man shall
receive
his
own reward according to his own labour. . . . Other foundation
can no
man lay
than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build
on this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
every
man’s work
shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because
it shall
be
revealed by fire; for the fire shall try every man’s work of
what sort
it
is." Apollos and he were alike true servants of Christ; were
alike
building
on the sure foundation; yet the ministry of neither could
escape the
divine
testing. Should it prove to be "gold, silver, precious
stones," all
would be well; should there be found "wood, hay, stubble," it
would
be consumed. "If any man’s work abide," the Apostle says, "he
shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he
shall
suffer
loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (1
Cor.
3:8-15).
"It is a very small thing with me," he says later, "that I
should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge
not mine
own self.
For I am conscious of nothing against myself;"--so may his
words be
translated-- "yet am I not hereby justified; but he that
judgeth me is
the
Lord. Therefore," he concludes, "judge nothing before the
time, until
the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things
of
darkness, and
make manifest the counsels of the heart; then shall every man
have
praise of
God." And lest any should imagine that the divine
investigation did not
cover every detail of life, the Apostle was led to write to
the
Christian
slaves of Colosse, "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the
Lord . .
.
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward . . . but
he that
doeth
wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and
there is no
respect
of persons" (Col. 3:24, 25).
Such is the clear teaching of our Lord and His Apostle
concerning the
day when
He shall come to reckon with His servants; and it is evident
that the
whole
weight of the emphasis is thrown on the fact that the entire
life of
the
believer will come under review. It will not merely be what
the servant
was
doing when the Lord came that will count in that solemn
enquiry, but
how he was
occupied during His absence. The question as to the actual
employment
of the believer
when death, or the Coming, shall find him is one of
importance, but it
is not
the main consideration. The matter of supreme concern is how
he shall
have
ordered his life from the first day that grace called him into
the
service of
Christ till the day when earthly labour came to an end. Thus
regarded,
the fact
of the Lord’s coming has a sanctifying power which is entirely
unaffected by
the knowledge of preceding events. If every servant of the
Lord knew,
as Peter
and Paul knew, that he should die before the Lord returned,
the solemn
certainty of the judgment seat would not he altered thereby,
nor would
the
believer be deprived of a single incentive to holiness. It is
the sure
approach
of that day, not when and how it comes, that matters. Long
years have
passed
since the Apostle, who taught that every one must give an
account of
himself to
God, passed to his rest; yet the Apostle’s own service shall
as surely
undergo
the coming testing as that of the last convert born of God
before
the trumpet sounds. "We make it our aim," said the same
inspired
teacher, "whether present or absent"--whether present in the
body or
absent from it when the Lord returns--"to be well-pleasing
unto Him.
For
we
must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ,
that
everyone may
receive the things done in the body according to that he hath
done,
whether it
be good or bad" (2 Cor. 4:9, 10, R. V.).
Here is the true perspective of the Lord’s Coming, and here
its true
power. The
motive for holiness of life and for earnestness of labour is
found, not
in a
fear that the Lord may stealthily come and catch His servants
momentarily off
duty, but in a solemn conviction that all our days of service
must be
accounted
for to Him; that whether our lot be resurrection or
translation, our
lives
shall equally be subjected to the scrutiny of Him whose eyes
are like a
flame
of fire; and that in proportion to our fidelity there shall
be, in ways
but
obscurely revealed at present, certain reward or certain loss.
In following the
teaching of our Lord and His Apostle concerning His
Coming, we
cannot have failed to observe the constant repetition of the
exhortation to
watch. It is the lesson, implied or stated, of almost every
parable;
the
warning attached to almost every prophecy. It behooves us,
therefore,
to ponder
the word, and to ascertain all that it is intended to convey.
And
having
learnt, in some degree, the relation of the Lord’s Coming to
the world,
to the
professing Church, and to the genuine servant of Christ, we
are so far
better
fitted to pursue the enquiry.
In turning to the passages in which the exhortation is found,
we at
once
observe that the word is used to convey more than one meaning.
To be
exact, two
different Greek words are used in the original; and while the
difference
between the two is very slight, yet the fact itself is
suggestive. And
a closer
examination of the passages in question shows that the
application of
the word
is varied and distinct.
We find the word used by our Lord, for example, in urging upon
the
members of
the professing Church the need for wakefulness concerning
their
spiritual
condition. At the close of the Parable of the Ten Virgins we
read
"Watch,
therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour" (R. V.). The
wise
virgins
had been awake to their need of oil, and alert to secure it;
and so, in
spite
of slumbering while the bridegroom tarried, they went in to
the
marriage feast.
But the foolish virgins had neglected so to do; and to them
the door
was shut.
In the Book of Proverbs--that book which inculcates wisdom and
dissuades
from
folly-- frequent warnings are given against the sloth which
imperils
the
future.
"A little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so
shall thy
poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed
man." It
is
against the folly of such spiritual sloth that our Lord also
gives
warning. If
there be no recognition of the need of grace in the heart, and
no
earnestness
to seek it, death or the Lord’s Return shall come, even to the
professed disciple,
as something utterly unexpected and terrible. To all such, the
Lord
utters His
sternly-gracious words, first sent to the Church in Sardis, "I
know thy
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art
dead. Be
watchful,
and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die .
. . If
therefore
thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt
not know
what hour
I come upon thee." To be possessed, not of religion, but of
eternal
life,
is a matter of such infinite importance that it dwarfs all
beside it.
Oh, to be
awake to secure that!
We find the word used also as a command to the Lord’s people
to be on
their
guard against influences hostile to the spiritual life. "Watch
ye at
every
season, making supplication, that (so) ye may prevail to
escape all
those
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
Man"
(Luke
21:36, R. V.).
The Lord’s own words have made it abundantly clear that the
days that
will
immediately precede His Return will be characterized by utter
absorption in the
things of this life. Eating, drinking, marrying, buying,
selling,
planting:
these are the terms used by the Lord to set forth the pursuits
in which
the
world shall be engrossed; so engrossed that in spite of solemn
signs
and
arresting portents, in spite of prophetic warning and
corrective
judgment, the
Day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief, and as
fatally as
a
snare. Against this spirit the Christian warrior must contend,
with
whole-hearted earnestness. "Take up," says the Apostle, in a
passage
which echoes the words of the Lord, "the whole armour of God,
that ye
may
be able to stand in the evil day... praying at all seasons, in
the
Spirit, and
watching thereunto in all perseverance" (Eph. 6:8). The grace
of God
assures
that the believer will escape the doom of the ungodly; he is
not in
darkness
that the Day of the Lord should overtake him as a thief; God
has not
appointed
him to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, who
died for
him, that
whether he shall wake or sleep, he shall live together with
Him. But he
shall
escape, not by presumptuous indifference, but by heeding his
Lord’s
commands;
by seeking and obtaining strength to watch and to be sober, to
put on
the whole
armour of God; and so to resist the influences of the dark
hour that
precedes
the dawn.
Yet again, the word is used in exhorting those who have the
spiritual
oversight
of their fellows to see to their charge, and to be on the
outlook for
the
returning Lord. There is a passage of great moment to all such
watchmen
found
in Mark 13:33 (R. V.): "Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye
know not
when
the time is. It is as when a man sojourning in another
country, having
left his
house, and given authority to his servants, to each man his
work,
commanded the
porter to watch!" Observe the final clause. The absent Lord
has not
only
left His servants to work, but He has appointed a porter, and
commanded
him to
give warning of danger to his fellow-servants, and to announce
their
Master’s
return. So the Apostle Paul acted in his ministry to the
Ephesian
Church; and
so he bade the elders act when he had gone. "Therefore, watch,
and
remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to
warn every
one night
and day with tears" (Acts 20:31). So, too, should every
faithful
servant
of the Lord act, as the age draws to its close; warning those
for whose
souls
he watches against the spirit of the time, and lifting up his
voice as
he sees
the Coming of the Lord draw near--not evolving his message
from his
inner
consciousness, but basing it upon prayerful study of the
inspired Word,
and a
Spirit-taught observance of the signs which shall herald the
Lord’s
return. And
that which is the special duty of the Lord’s watchman, is, in
its
degree, the
duty of each toward all. "What I say unto you, I say unto all,
Watch!" (Mark 13:37).
Finally, the word is used as counseling His own servants to
have ever
before
them the coming day of reckoning. "Let your loins be girded
about, and
your lamps burning,"--the symbols of active service and holy
living--"
and be ye yourselves like men looking for their Lord, when he
shall
return from
the marriage feast,"--men who expect to render an account;
"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
12:5-37).
With such varied application does the Lord bid His people to
watch. To
the
professing Church, with its admixture of the true and the
false, the
word is a
solemn counsel to awake to the need of regenerating grace,
before the
door is
shut. To the true believer it comes as a warning to guard
against the
adverse
influences which would dim his vision of eternal and spiritual
things;
a
command to be vigilant concerning dangers which threaten the
church,
and to be
looking for the signs that herald His return; an exhortation
to have
ever
before him the tribunal of his Master; and to know that
whether the
great day
be near or distant, its final approach is as certain as the
existence
of the
God who appointed it; it bids him expectantly to wait for His
Son from
heaven,
and for the dawn of the day of resurrection and of rapture;
the day of
the
saint’s deliverance, and the day of the sinner’s doom.
The central
affirmation of New Testament teaching is that there are
certain
spiritual blessings secured to the believer apart from his
merit or
desert. A
clear knowledge of the privileges so secured is of manifest
importance
in any
enquiry concerning the Coming of the Lord.
Moreover, "He who has ordained the end has ordained the
means"; and
the methods by which God is pleased to execute His plans are
equally to
be
taken into account in the consideration of the solemn theme.
For these
reasons
(although a reference has been made to these aspects of truth
on
previous
pages), we propose to examine, somewhat more in detail, what
Scripture
has to
say concerning the purposes of grace and the means by which
those
purposes are
accomplished.
The great charter of the believer’s privileges is found in
Romans
8:8-30. It
commences by clearly defining those to whom the privileges
belong. "So
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are
not in
the flesh
but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you. Now if
any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Here are words which are perfectly lucid. They teach that
mankind
consists of
two classes; those who are "in the flesh," that is, unrenewed
sons of
Adam, and those who are "in the spirit," that is, believers,
who by
the new birth are possessed of the spirit of Christ. Only
those over
whom the
regenerating change has passed can truly claim to be His. But
being
His,
certain consequences follow: --"If Christ be in you the body
is dead
because of sin"--still liable to death, that is--"but the
spirit is
life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up
Jesus
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the
dead
shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in
you."
This, then, is the first privilege secured by grace to the
believer;
the
quickening, or raising again, of the body. While the
indwelling of the
Spirit
does not preserve the outward man from dissolution, it does
assure his
future
resurrection. In other words, a change of nature here is the
pledge of
a change
of body hereafter.
The words that follow emphasize this:--"If ye live after the
flesh ye
shall
die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body ye
shall
live." If a man lives habitually in sin and self-will, he is
assuredly
not
born from above, and shall not share in the " resurrection
unto
life." But if by the Spirit evil impulses and actions are
being slain,
he
is spiritually alive now, and shall live again bodily when the
Lord
returns.
The Apostle continues: "For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God,
they
are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of
bondage
again to
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, Abba
Father."
Here the prospect broadens. "Adoption" (which means literally
"placing as a son ") is a Scriptural expression which is
associated
with dignity and ruling power. Israel’s title of honour is
God’s son
(Ex.
4:22). Christ, in the kingly second Psalm is so addressed,
"Thou art my
Son" (Ps. 2:6). In the Epistle to the Hebrews He is spoken of
as a
"son over his own house" in contrast to Moses as the servant
in the
house (Heb. 3:5, 6). So that to be given the spirit of
adoption is more
than to
be made a child of God: it is to be constituted an heir of the
kingdom.
This
the Apostle proceeds to state:--"The Spirit himself beareth
witness
with
our spirit that we are the children of God; and if children,
then
heirs, heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer
with him,
that we
may be glorified together."
Emphasis is given to this truth by the statement that creation
is
eagerly
waiting not only for the manifestation of Christ, but of those
also who
are
co-heirs with Him:--"The earnest expectation of the creature
(or
creation)
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." This is so,
not only
because the final deliverance of God’s children coincides with
the
deliverance
of creation from the curse, but because they shall then
resume, with
their
Lord, the beneficent rule committed to Adam, and long since
lost. This
great
thought finds expression in the Apostle’s summary of the
purposes of
grace:
"Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many
brethren."
Conformity to the image of God at the first creation was not
only moral
and
physical, but governmental also. "Let us make man in our image
and
after
our likeness" God said "and let them have dominion . . . (Gen.
1:26).
Even so conformity to the image of the Son, as the issue of
the new
creation,
is to be construed in its widest sense as moral, physical, and
governmental.
The sons of God will be like their Lord in stainless holiness,
in
glorious
immortality, and in kingly power. This is the final privilege
secured
by
covenant grace; and so surely will God fulfil His purpose that
it is
stated in
terms of accomplished fact: "Whom He did foreknow. . . them He
also
glorified." A voice from the throne has said, It is done.
Similar teaching is found in the Epistle to the Ephesians,
chapter 1
(R. V.):
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath
blessed
us with every spiritual blessing. . . in Christ; even as he
chose us in
him
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and
without
blemish
before him in love; having foreordained us unto adoption as
sons
through Jesus
Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of
the glory
of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved."
Here,
however, the stress is laid upon the truth that every
spiritual
blessing to
which the believer is heir has already been bestowed upon
Christ, as
the
representative of His people, as the Head over all things to
the
church, which
is His body. Whatever variety there may be in the gifts, or
service, or
rewards, of the individual members, whatever differences of
administration
there may be in the kingdom which is yet to be revealed, the
church is
one. To
every member of that one body belongs, by inalienable right,
participation in
all that is bestowed on Christ as the Head; and the "exceeding
greatness
of the power" which lifted Him from the grave to the throne,
and "put
all things under his feet," is to be exercised to place beside
Him
every
unit of that blood-bought company.
These, then, are some of the Scriptural statements concerning
the goal
to which
grace will conduct the people of God. But by what road must
they travel
to
reach this goal? What are the means by which the ends of grace
are
achieved?
In the first place, the purposes of grace are wrought out in
perfect
consonance
with righteousness and truth. It is the repeated affirmation
of the
Scriptures
that in all God’s dealings with men no principle of holiness
or justice
is ever
violated. It is so in the justifying of the sinner; it is not
less so
in the
glorifying of the saint. "We know," says the Apostle, "that
the
judgment of God is according to truth . . . who will render to
every
man
according to his works; to them that by patient continuance in
well
doing seek
for glory and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but to
them who
are
factious and obey not the truth shall be wrath and
indignation,
tribulation and
anguish" (Rom. 2:2-9, R. V.). No man is justified by his
works; his own
holiness is no title to heaven; yet among all those who shall
share the
heavenly glory there shall not be found one who did not on
earth repent
of sin,
and set his feet upon the King’s highway. "Be not deceived,"
says the
Apostle again, in writing to the Galatians, "God is not
mocked; for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that
soweth to
his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth
to the
Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:8). No
other highway
but that of holiness can terminate in resurrection life. No
"worker of
iniquity" shall be recognized by Christ as His own when He
returns.
Further, the purposes of grace are effected by means of the
diligence,
the
whole-souled earnestness of the believer, in-wrought by the
Spirit of
God.
There is perhaps no scripture which sets forth this fact more
vividly
than the
utterance of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:8-14. "I count
all
things
to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord:
for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, . . . that I may know
him, and
the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his
sufferings,
becoming
conformed unto his death; if by any means I may attain unto
the
resurrection
from the dead. . . . I count not myself to have apprehended;
but one
thing I
do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching
forward to
the
things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the
prize of
the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus." (R.V.)
No doctrine of Scripture is clearer than that if a man attains
to the
"resurrection from among the dead," it is due, not to his own
efforts, but to the divine mercy. Eternal life of the body, no
less
than that
of the soul, is the gift of God. Nevertheless it is by the
path of
eager
earnestness, willing self-sacrifice, the spirit of the runner
speeding
on
toward the prize, that the God-given end is attained. It is
thus a man
works
out his own salvation with fear and trembling, while it is God
who is
working
in him to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12,
13). "Fight
the
good fight of faith," the Apostle writes to Timothy, using the
same
athletic figure as in the Philippian passage, "lay hold on
eternal
life,
whereunto thou art also called" (1 Tim. 6:12). Strive, he says
in
effect,
like the wrestler or racer who calls forth every energy of
brawn and
brain;
"agonize" in the holy contest, and lay hold of resurrection as
the
victor seizes the crown. It was not that the end was
uncertain. The
sovereign
grace of God had called Timothy to eternal life; but not
through
indolence was
the purpose to be fulfilled. Conflict with the body, wrestling
with
spirits of
evil, resistance of the world, fervent labour in
prayer--through such
"agonia" as these lay for Timothy the pathway to the glory.
"He
that cometh to God," says the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews,
speaking with reference to the translation of Enoch, " must
believe
that
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him"
(Heb.
11:6).
Further still, the purposes of grace are fulfilled through the
endurance of
suffering borne for Christ’s sake. Persecution, in greater or
lesser
degree, is
the inevitable lot of the true disciple. "If they have
persecuted me
they
will persecute you." So said our Lord. By much tribulation
must the
Kingdom be entered. If any man will not take up his cross and
follow
Christ he
cannot be His disciple. It is the man who endures testing, and
endures
it to
the end, who shall receive the crown of life (Matt. 24:13;
James 1:12).
"If
so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified
together," is
not
a qualifying clause threatening some of God’s children with
the loss of
their
birthright, but it is a declaration that for all the heavenly
family
the way of
the cross is the only way to the crown.
Finally--nor is this fact the least important--the purposes of
grace
are
wrought
out by means of the obedience of the Lord’s people to the
admonitions
of His
holy Word. Believers are matured in holiness by being warned
concerning
the
consequences of spiritual declension, as well as by being
instructed in
the
blessings of obedience. Exhortations not to draw back, to hold
fast
their
profession, to take heed lest there be an evil heart of
unbelief in
departing
from the living God, are means continually used by the Holy
Spirit for
the
preservation of His people. The saints who are alive when
Christ
returns will
be saved from the Day of the Lord overtaking them as a thief,
not by
any
mechanical or unnatural methods, but by being led of the
Spirit to heed
His
counsels against spiritual surfeiting and drunkenness, and by
obeying
His
exhortations not to sleep as do others, but to watch and be
sober. The
solemn
warnings associated with the Lord’s return are not
contradictions or
modifications of the purposes of grace; they form part of the
very
means by
which those purposes are wrought out.
So, then, the believer is "to go to both extremes." He may
rest with
triumphant security in all that grace assures. Let him not be
hardened
or
terrified by fears of being left behind when Christ comes for
His own,
or
weighed down with dread that he shall not sit down with the
Lord on His
throne.
He is the heir of covenant blessings. Let the child of God
rejoice in
these
with all his heart. Then let him give himself, with all
diligence, to
observe
whatsoever the Lord has spoken, and to walk in the path by
which the
covenant
blessings are obtained. Let no man vainly imagine that if he
dallies
with sin,
and folds his hands in spiritual slumber, if he shuns the
cross, and
habitually
disobeys the Word, he belongs to some order of "low-level
Christians," who, although missing certain blessings, shall
yet find
heaven at last. Let such an one look to his very beginnings,
for
assuredly the
Spirit of Christ is not in him. "The foundation of God
standeth sure,
having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His, and, Let
him that
nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity." "The mercy of the
Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting . . . to such as keep His
covenant and
to those
that remember His commandments to do them."