These words are in almost the last verse of the last book of Scripture, almost the last truth to be revealed from heaven. The Saviour had finished the work of redemption in this world and had gone to sit on the right hand of God, the place of power, from where He rules over everything in this world below. From heaven He gave His apostle John – and, through him, His Church in all ages – a view, in the Book of Revelation, of what would happen before He would return to this world. His Church must not become discouraged because of the length of the way or the difficulties to be encountered on it. But would it be long or short before His second coming? His assurance is: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev 22:20).
Christ will come again just as He left the world. When He had led His disciples out from Jerusalem as far as Bethany, He ascended up to heaven “and a cloud received Him out of their sight”. It was then the two angels told the disciples: “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”. When He does return, “every eye shall see Him”, and, in particular, “they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him”. Clearly it will be a tremendously solemn time for those who leave this world unreconciled to the One who was given to be the Saviour of sinners. Then He will call from their graves all who have died, but for unbelievers it will be a resurrection of damnation. From the judgement seat, where on the last day Christ will sit in all His glory, they will be sent away into everlasting punishment because of their sins. But for the righteous – those who in time believed on Christ – the resurrection will be one of life, according to His promise. This will be the completion of their salvation, when their already-perfected souls will be reunited to their now-glorified bodies. When they appear before the same judgement seat, they will be authoritatively declared to be perfectly free from all condemnation. And, accordingly, they will be brought to heaven “with gladness and rejoicing.
In heaven “there shall be no more curse”. God’s children will have left behind, in the world, all the consequences of sin – the sweat of the brow, the thorns and thistles, and every other element of the curse which resulted from man’s fall into sin. Even more importantly, they will have escaped from sin itself – not only from its guilt but also from its corruption. Heaven will be a place of absolute holiness where God’s children will serve Him for ever without the least taint of imperfection.
When Christ will come the second time, there will be an end of sin everywhere – except for what is shut away for ever in hell. What an appealing prospect an eternity of sinless service to God ought to be! No wonder that the response of the Church to the prospect of Christ’s speedy return is: “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Yet, we might ask, how is the word quickly to be reconciled with the fact that over 1900 years have already passed since the promise was given? Clearly it is not according to our sense of quickly. Yet we must remember that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet 3:8). Alexander Nisbet comments that this “is a truth that none within time can well comprehend; only faith can assent to and make use of it, in judging as He judges, that many years’ delay to us of the performance of a promise is but a very little time compared with eternity; only it may foster a holy longing to be with Him, when we shall partake of His duration as well as of His glory, when there shall not be such a thing as any sad reflections upon past sweetness, or any painful languor for sweetness to come but a constant present possession thereof”.
All God’s purposes must be fulfilled; there can be no unnecessary delays in bringing them to pass. Indeed, all apparent delays are part of God’s plan, and we can be sure that God’s plan was devised in infinite wisdom and that these apparent delays were designed to bring about His greater glory in the end. God’s wisdom is altogether beyond ours. We might think that the wise course of events – what would be most to the honour of God – would be for His kingdom to advance relentlessly throughout the centuries until the whole earth was filled with His glory. But it is clearly otherwise, for that is how history would have turned out if it had been God’s will. God’s thoughts and ways are altogether beyond ours, and we can be sure that He has allowed the opposition against His kingdom – and the success of the opposition – for wise purposes, although we are so limited in our understanding of them.
What is clear is that the nearness of Christ’s coming must be consistent with the fulfilment of all the elements of God’s plan for this world. All these purposes must be put into effect before Christ’s second coming. In particular, all the elect must be gathered into His kingdom before then; all whom the Father gave to Him in the everlasting covenant must first be delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought to a living faith in the One who died for them and rose again. Those who are to be saved will by no means be a small number; John saw them before the throne of God as a “great multitude which no man could number”. And they must all be delivered from Satan’s kingdom before Christ will come again.
Christ will indeed return quickly, in the true understanding of the word – God’s understanding, not ours. The Thessalonians understood Paul’s teaching, in his First Epistle, about Christ’s second coming as implying that it would take place without any delay. But, in his Second Epistle, Paul had to make clear that there were certain events which must occur before Christ could come. There must first be “a falling away” from the faith, and “that man of sin”, the Roman Antichrist, must also appear. These events have long since occurred, yet there are other prophecies which have not been fulfilled. But fulfilled they will be before Christ will come, and yet the fact remains that He will come quickly.
We are promised that Satan’s chain will be shortened for a long period of time – Revelation 20 refers to it as 1000 years, which is, to our understanding, long. During that time, his power will be restrained far beyond the extent to which God restrains that power today. Today Satan is allowed great success in hardening the hearts of sinners, even under the preaching of the pure gospel. He is permitted to have huge success with his temptations, so that “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed”. And ordinary people likewise oppose the interests of the cause of God.
Yet there is one thing that prevents the complete success of Satan and his followers; it is the pronouncement of God the Father in heaven: “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion”. The fact that Christ is King over His Church means that the Church can never be overwhelmed. He was victorious over Satan at the cross, and He will yet rescue from Satan’s kingdom everyone given to Him by the Father; none of them will be lost. And when the time is right, Christ’s victory will be made evident to the whole universe – on the day of judgement. Because Christ is ruling over everything – all principalities and powers have been made subject to Him – every promise in the Word of God pointing to the spread of the gospel will yet be fulfilled. So, in God’s appointed time, the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”. Not only will multitudes of Gentiles throughout the world be brought into the Church of God, but the Jews also will be restored to their place in the Church, and this will be as “life from the dead” for the Gentiles.
But will this happen quickly? If we were to think of answering in human terms, we should realise that it is beyond our power to do so and we ought at once to give up the attempt. But if we look at the matter in relation to eternity and to the purposes of God, we must say that it will happen quickly. There will most certainly be no delay; it will be brought about at the time appointed by God from all eternity.
There can be no delay in the progress of Christ’s kingdom, in the sense that everything has been foreordained and nothing is out of control. Christ is on the throne and He will bring everything to pass that has been revealed in the Word of God, and it will all happen at precisely the time appointed. In particular there will be, to an extent never before seen in the world, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in days of gospel blessing. Finally there will follow in due time the second coming of Christ – not to convert the world but to bring it to judgement.
The timing of that last event is surrounded by much mystery. Accordingly it becomes us to be humbly submissive to what it has pleased God to reveal in His Word. Yet we are to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”, echoing the words already quoted: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”. Prayer is called for. We are to seek the coming of that blessed time when evil will be banished to the place prepared for the devil and his angels. We are to seek that final manifestation of the glory and the victory of Christ on the day of judgement, when all the fallen angels and unregenerate human beings will go without resistance to their own place and when all the holy angels and believing men and women will go to take their place before the throne in heaven.
Meanwhile, the people of God have an opportunity to serve Him in this world, however limited their sphere of usefulness. If nothing else, they are all in a position to pray for the coming of Christ’s kingdom – for the fulfilment of all the purposes of God in connection with His Church in this world until all the elect are gathered in. And they are to go on in faith, even when everything seems out of control. They are to grasp firmly the fact that their King is on the throne. This is what the Scriptures reveal, in truths which have been given for their encouragement in all generations. These truths cannot fail; however dark the present may be and however dismal the future may seem, Christ will come at the appointed time to bring to an end all the opposition to His kingdom.
Yet let us ask ourselves if we have become subjects of this kingdom. If we refuse to submit to Christ’s authority, there can be no hope for us. Still we have an opportunity of obtaining salvation through Christ, however brief that opportunity may turn out to be. Only thus can we be safe when Christ will come the second time; only thus can we be safe at the judgement; only thus can we be safe throughout eternity. Let us not squander our opportunity!