THE Apostle here speaks of the second coming of Christ. This is a most solemn subject, but we are concerned in it, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. v. 10).
We shall divide our text into the following heads:
I.—The time when Christ shall come again;
II.—The manner of His coming; and
III.—The object of His coming.
I.—The time when Christ shall come again.
There are different opinions among Christians on this point. The Thessalonians expected Christ to come in their own day; and they thought that the Apostle had in his first epistle given them ground for their expectation. In the fourth and fifth chapters he spoke of the coming of Christ. It is one thing to adduce Scripture in support of one’s views, and another thing to understand Scripture. It was partly to correct their error on the subject of Christ’s second advent, the Apostle wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians. In the second chapter, he says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that day of Christ is at hand”—(verses 1, 2). Christ did not come when the Thessalonians expected Him.
There are other Christians in our own day, who say, with great confidence, that Christ may come within their own life-time. The expectation of these shall be as much disappointed as that of the Thessalonians, for it is not found in the Word of God.
There is, however, certainly a time when Christ shall come again. But of that time no man or angel knows, God only knows it. So Christ tells us: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew xxiv. 36). But although the time when Christ shall come is hid from us for wise purposes, yet there are signs of that time clearly revealed to us in the Word of God. We read in Scripture that several notable events were to take place between Christ’s ascension to heaven and His second coming. We shall mention these events:
1. A falling away from the faith was to take place.
Of this falling away the Apostle, in the second chapter of this epistle, speaks: “Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (verse 3). There can be no doubt but the falling away spoken of here is the apostasy of the Church of Rome, or the Papacy, which took place in the sixth century of the Christian era.
A falling away from the faith has taken place in our own day in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Two of the largest Churches in Scotland—the United Free Church and the Established Church—have fallen away from the doctrines of God’s Word, as these doctrines are contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is more dangerous to fall away from the faith than to fall into any other sin, inasmuch as it is declared in Scripture that it is impossible for those who are guilty of this sin to be renewed again unto repentance (Heb. vi. 4-6). We have sad instances of this impossibility in the case of the Jews and the Church of Rome. Individuals of the Jews have been brought to repentance, but as a body they are now for nearly two thousand years denied the grace of repentance. And although individuals in the Church of Rome have been brought to repentance, yet as a whole they remain in their apostasy to this day, as monuments of God’s judgment. And, judging from God’s dealings with these two bodies, we are warranted to conclude that He will deal in the same manner with the Churches that have fallen away from the faith in our own day. I do not expect that they shall return to the doctrines of the Word of God in this generation; no, not till the millennium. Oh, how many shall perish eternally in these bodies before the dawn of that glorious period! As they are under the judgment of blindness, they will not believe this themselves. They say that they are right, and that those who adhere to the faith are wrong, narrow-minded, and antiquated. The Jews are under the same delusion; they say that they are right, and that Christians are wrong: and the Romanists say that they are right, and that Protestants are wrong.
2. Another event which shall take place before the coming of Christ is the millennium.
The millennium shall be brought about by the preaching of the Gospel to all nations (Matt. xxiv. 14). There are millions of the heathen who have not yet heard the Gospel, and are dying in their sins—without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world (Eph. ii. 12). No (adult) sinner can be saved without the Word of the Gospel (Rom. x. 14, 15). As a preparation for the millennium the Bible is at present widely circulated among the heathen, and is blessed to many. But when that glorious period shall begin, the evangelisation of the world shall go on on a larger scale, and proceed increasingly till “the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. xi. 9). The Word preached shall be accompanied by the Holy Spirit, and sinners shall be converted daily in large numbers, as on the day of Pentecost. This good work begun shall go on till the great majority of men become the disciples of Christ. We have no Scripture warrant to say that there shall be no unconverted sinners during the millennial age. These shall be so few comparatively, and the influence of true godliness so great, that, as Satan is bound in prison, they are laid under a divine restraint that they shall not show any opposition to the people and cause of God. The spirit of grace and supplication shall be poured upon the Jews, and they will receive Jesus, whom they had so long rejected, as their Saviour. Their ingathering to the Messiah shall be as “a resurrection from the dead.”
The Papists shall renounce their superstition and idolatry, and return to the faith once delivered to the saints; and the heathen shall forsake their paganism, and join the Christian Church. There shall be one flock and one Shepherd. At the millennium denominational distinctions, which now exist in the visible Church, shall be broken down, and all Christians throughout the world will join the one Church of Christ on the terms set forth in God’s Word. That union shall be quite different from the union of Churches which so many advocate in our day. They seek union at the expense of throwing away the Word of God. But the union at the millennium will have God’s Word as its basis. The Church shall be called the Church of God or the Church of Christ. If it be denominated with respect to its government, it will be called the Presbyterian Church, as it was in the days of the Apostles. In the millennial age peace shall reign in the Church and in the world; no strife in the Church, and no war in the world (Isaiah xi. 9). They shall learn war no more for a thousand years.
Some are of opinion that at the beginning of the millennium Christ will come down from heaven, and remain on earth to the end of the thousand years. But there is no real ground for that opinion in the Bible. We read of His first coming and of His second at the end of the world, but not of His third coming. If John in the Isle of Patmos could not bear a sight of the dazzling glory of Christ when He appeared to him, much less can unconverted sinners endure a sight of Him. They would be fleeing from Him as they would flee from a flaming fire! Besides, we are told, that the heavens must contain Him till the times of restitution of all things (Acts iii. 21); and that the heavens and the earth shall flee before Him when He comes (Rev. xx. 11).
3. Another event which shall take place before His coming again is the great apostacy that will happen after the close of the millennium.
Satan shall be loosed then; and he shall go forth to deceive the nations of the world, and when he succeeds in his evil work he will employ those he has gained to his side to attack the small remnant of God’s people—the fruit of the millennium. Now, how long will it be between the end of the millennium and the coming of Christ? Will there be another thousand years? No, for it is called “a little season.” “And that he (Satan) must be loosed a little season,” or a short time. Immediately after that short time expires, Christ shall come again; for John saw a great white throne (Rev. xx. 11).
II.—The manner of His coming.
In speaking of the manner we shall have to refer to several passages of Scripture bearing on the subject.
1. He shall come in His glory.
So Christ Himself says in Matthew xxv. 31, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory.” When He came first, He vailed His glory. But when He shall come again, the glory of His godhead and the glory of His humanity shall be manifest to all. There shall be no veil upon His glory.
2. All the holy angels shall accompany Him;
“and all the holy angels with him” (Matthew xxv. 31). When He came first some of the holy angels came with Him. They announced His birth and ministered to Him during His state of humiliation; but when He shall come again, all the holy angels shall come with Him. In our text these are said to be mighty angels. “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.” We shall farther on show the reason why all the holy angels come with Christ when He shall come the second time.
3. He shall come suddenly.
He told this before He left the world: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. xxiv. 27). There is no motion quicker than that of the lightning.
4. His coming shall be unexpected.
His own people look for His appearing, but the generality of men living in the world when He shall come shall be very wicked, and if one warned them to prepare for the coming of Christ to call them to account they would laugh at him. There shall be scoffers who shall deny that He shall come at all (2 Peter iii. 3, 9). Christ foretold the state of that generation: “For 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 the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. xxiv. 38, 39). As the flood came unexpectedly upon the people of that generation, and swept them away, so shall the flood of God’s wrath come upon the wicked at the day of judgment; and as the people before the flood lived carelessly, forgetting God and minding the things which pertained to this life only, so the generality of men shall be when Christ shall come. Some shall be dancing at a wedding, some at the theatre, some singing vain songs at a concert or at the drunkard’s table, some at the football match or some other amusement, when the trumpet shall sound, announcing that the Judge is at the door!
What terrible consternation poor sinners shall be put into at that critical moment. There is no time left to cry for mercy, the door of mercy is closed, the invitation of the Gospel is sealed up; for Christ is now come, not to seek and to save lost sinners, but to judge the quick and the dead. O careless sinner, take warning while it is yet “the accepted time, and the day of salvation!”
5. He shall come in a flaming fire.
This denotes:
(1) That He comes to execute wrath upon His enemies.
The day of His coming is a day of wrath. It is the wrath of the Lamb (Rev. vi. 16)—the wrath of the Mediator between God and men. God the Father is angry with sinners, and in a day of mercy Christ comes between the sinner and the wrath of the Father; but now, as Christ is the only Mediator, there is none to interpose between the sinner and the wrath of Christ. This makes the case of the sinner hopeless. There is no escape now!
(2) It denotes that He comes to burn up this world.
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter iii. 10). Some one compared this world to a scaffold set up to a house in course of construction. The scaffold is needed till the house is finished, but as soon as it is finished the scaffold is taken down. In like manner, God is building a house—the Church—for Himself in this world, and as soon as it is finished the world shall be destroyed—reduced to nothing, out of which it had been called. I am aware that some interpreters hold the idea that the world shall not be annihilated at the day of judgment, but purified by fire, and made the abode of the redeemed for ever; but where they got that idea is a mystery to me. One thing I am sure of is that they did not get it in the Bible, and therefore we do not believe it. The teaching of Scripture is opposed to it. We read in the Bible that when Christ shall come again the earth and the (visible) heaven shall flee away, and there shall be no place found for them (Rev. xx. 11). Supposing, for the sake of argument, that these men were correct, is it conceivable that Christ, His redeemed, and all the holy angels should leave heaven and come down to dwell on earth for ever? No, the idea is preposterous.
III.—The object of His coming.
When Christ came to the world first, He had an object in view in coming. He came to do the work which His Father gave Him to do—to work out everlasting redemption for His covenant people—which cost Him His humiliation unto death. His object in coming again is to judge the world—the quick and the dead. The Father committed all judgment to Him because He is the Son of man. Judging the world is the last, and the crowning, step of Christ’s exaltation. Many judged Him when He was in His state of humiliation, but He is the only and final Judge of all now. As Judge He shall sit upon the throne of His glory (Matthew xxv. 31)—a white throne (Rev. xx. 11) from which pure justice shall proceed.
Those judged:
All nations shall be gathered before Him (Matthew xxv. 32)—every individual of the human race from Adam downward to the last individual of his posterity must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ (2 Cor. v. 10). We shall be among them.
The resurrection of the dead shall precede the judgment. Some shall be living on earth at the day of judgment, but the great majority are dead. The dead shall be raised by Christ. This He told the Jews, who denied His godhead: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John v. 28, 29). The grave shall give forth the dead, and the sea, the bodies of men buried there (Rev. xx. 12, 13). The Sadducees denied the resurrection of the body, but at the day of judgment they shall see their error, when it is too late.
When all these are raised to life, and re-united to their immortal souls by Christ, then He shall employ the holy and mighty angels to gather them—good and bad—to His judgment-seat. When they are all gathered, the great Judge of all will now begin to separate them into two classes—the righteous and the wicked—”And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” Hitherto, the righteous and the wicked mingled together, with respect to their bodies, in the same family, in the same town or country, in the same Church, some at the same communion table; but now they are separated one from another so completely, that there is not one of the wicked left among the righteous, or one of the righteous left in the society of the wicked; no tares among wheat, as no wheat among the tares. Oh, what a solemn thought this is! But we shall be in either company. “The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm i. 5, 6).
After this separation the work of trial begins. None are condemned or acquitted without conviction. They are judged according to what is in the books. The books are opened (Rev. xx. 12). What are the books?
(1) The Bible shall be opened.
Christ said to the Jews, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you at the last day” (John xii. 48). Many sit as judges on the Bible now, but the Bible will judge them at the last day. Let the “higher critics” take warning from this.
(2) The book of remembrance which God keeps
—not that He needs this book for Himself, but that sinners might be put in remembrance of all the sins which they had committed, and had forgotten. They shall be brought before their eyes, so that they may see that they are not punished without a real cause.
(3) The book of memory shall be opened.
Memory is a storehouse which keeps all that is put in it. Some may now complain of a bad memory, but at the day of judgment there shall be no reason for such a complaint. At that day memory shall be very active, and shall reproduce everything that has been put in it. Unpardoned sinners shall remember all the sins which they had committed. All these sins shall spring up readily, and as fresh as if they were committed at that very moment. Sinners may now have some control over their memory in the way of forgetting their sins, but at that day memory shall prove to be stronger than they. The Lord’s people knew something of this when convinced by the Spirit of their sins in a day of mercy: “He told me all things I ever did.” Memory shall maintain its power in full force throughout eternity.
(4) The book of life shall be opened.
In this book the names of all men that God, out of His own good pleasure, elected from all eternity unto eternal life are written. All whose names are written in this book of life are now standing on the right hand of Christ, the Judge. Their effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification are the effects of their election. The book of life is opened, and the names therein read, to show that Christ lost none of those given Him by the Father to save, and to show also that they are made meet for heaven—the souls of those who died were made perfect in holiness at death, and their bodies are now made conformable to the glorious body of Christ (Phil. iii. 21). After reading their names, Christ will say to His Father, “Behold I and the children thou hast given me” (Heb. ii. 13). “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost” (John xvii. 12). They are all here. All this shall be publicly proclaimed in the hearing of all the human race now standing before the judgment-seat, and in the hearing of all the holy angels, and in the hearing of Satan and his host of fallen spirits. The proclamation will cause joy to the redeemed and to the holy angels, but sorrow to Satan and his innumerable followers of lost men and evil spirits.
In connection with the opening of the books, I wish to point out that the heathen who had not the Bible shall be judged, not by that Book, but by another standard. We find this expressly stated in Scripture. The Apostle Paul, speaking on the subject, says: “For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law” (Romans ii. 12).
The Apostle evidently means by “those who have sinned without the law,” the heathen who had not the written law, as the Jews had, and as we have. They had only what is called “the light of nature” to guide them in their conduct. They were possessed of a conscience, which, though in its depraved state is not a sure guide in all things, accused them when they did wrong, and excused them when they did right. They did not act up to the light they had; and although they did, they could not be saved without the written Word of God, or the Gospel. Some say that the heathen who live and die without the Word of the Gospel are saved. But what does the Apostle Paul say on the subject? He says that they shall perish: “For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law” (Romans ii. 12.)
In our text the heathen are meant by “them that know not God” (verse 8). They had not the Bible, in which we have the only revelation He has given of Himself as the God of salvation. And those who had the Word of the Gospel, and remained disobedient to the gracious call of the Gospel are described as they “that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The punishment of the latter shall be greater than that of the former, as Christ foretold (Matthew xi. 20, 24).
The sentence pronounced by the Judge on both parties—those on His right hand, and those on the left. Those on His right hand shall be judged first. Some may ask: “Why is it necessary to judge those at the day of judgment, seeing that they were judged and acquitted from all guilt when God justified them on their believing in Christ?” There are two reasons for it: (1) The act of God in justifying them on their believing in Christ was more privately done; it was a transaction between themselves and God. Their fellow-creatures were not witnesses to it. But now their justification is publicly proclaimed in the presence of all reasonable creatures, good and bad, standing before the judgment-seat. They are now publicly acknowledged as the redeemed of the Lord—made free by the Son, and therefore free indeed. Some on the left hand called them heretics, hypocrites, etc., but now the Judge of all publicly acknowledges them as His people. (2) At the day of judgment they are publicly acquitted. Acquitted from what? Not from any real guilt, but from all the false accusations wicked men and Satan—the accuser of the brethren—brought against them. Some of the Lord’s people died under many scandalous charges falsely heaped upon them by their enemies. But at the day of judgment they shall be fully and for ever acquitted from all these charges. These are reasons why it is necessary to judge those on the right hand of Christ. The Apostle Paul includes himself among those who shall be judged at the last day: He says, “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ” (2 Cor. v. 10). Having publicly acknowledged them, and cleared their character from all false charges, the Judge now proceeds to pronounce the last sentence upon them in the presence of the wicked, which will aggravate the misery of those on the left. What is the sentence? It is this: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew xxv. 34).
In our text we are told what they shall enjoy in that kingdom. They shall enjoy rest. “And to you who are troubled rest with us” (2 Thes. i. 7). When they were in the world they had troubles of various kinds; but now they have rest—perfect rest. They had the rest of faith before, but now they have the rest of glory. The former rest was often disturbed by various causes, but the latter shall never be disturbed throughout eternity. They shall have rest of enjoyment—the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. They had foretastes of this on earth—drops out of the ocean to refresh and strengthen them on their way home—but now their cup overflows.
While the Apostle speaks of the perfect rest of the saints in heaven, he omits not to speak of the glory of their Redeemer, through whose mediation they are brought to that place of perfect bliss. When Christ finished the work of redemption the Father glorified Him. But this is a glory He receives in connection with the application of redemption to His people, whom He found as sinners and changed them into saints by His Spirit and Word. They were imperfect saints on earth; they are perfect saints in heaven. They shine so brightly in the perfect image of Christ that He is clearly seen in them. Christ shall be thus, as the Apostle says, “Glorified in them.”
Christ shall also be admired in them. If the holy angels looked at the saints in heaven and admired them, the saints would say to them, “Look not at us, admire us not, but look at our glorious Redeemer; admire Him, for it was He that made us shine so brightly in the beauty of holiness.” Yes, it is Christ that shall be admired in them. Christ, the Head, with His mystical body, shall be the object of admiration in heaven throughout eternity.
The sentence pronounced on those on the left hand: “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. xxv. 41). They are driven away to hell. How is the Judge to deal with them there? According to our text, He will (1) take vengeance on them (verse 8), that is, He will vindicate the glory of His justice in rendering them retribution for all the evil they had done in the body (2 Cor. v. 10). Those who caused trouble to God’s people shall be recompensed with tribulation: “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you” (verse 6). Those who persecuted God’s people, massacred, and burned them at the stake, shall receive a full measure of suffering in return (Matt. vii. 2).
(2) He will punish them.
The suffering of the lost in hell is a punishment, and the cause of the punishment is their sins.
God punishes none but for sin. Their punishment is called a destruction—“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction” (verse 9). Some heretics say that destruction here means annihilation, but those forget that the soul of man is immortal, and that after the resurrection the body is immortal also (1 Cor. xv. 53). The Lord said to a people who existed, and were living in the world: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself” (Hos. xiii. 9). Although they destroyed themselves they were not annihilated. Those who say that the lost shall be annihilated speak according to their wish (Rev. vi. 15, 17), but not according to Scripture. The punishment is everlasting. Some say that the suffering of the wicked in eternity is not everlasting, but limited, and shall come to an end. They infer this from their own interpretation of the word in the original, translated here everlasting, because the word in some other parts of Scripture means a long duration, but limited. But it has also the meaning of a duration without any limit or bounds. If the sufferings of the lost shall come to an end, the happiness of the redeemed in heaven shall also come to an end, for it is the same word that is used in both cases. “And these (the wicked) shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal, or everlasting” (Matthew xxv. 46).
There is another error widely taught in our day by false teachers, to which I must refer as a warning to the rising generation, viz., that the heathen who died without hearing of the name of Jesus Christ—the only name by which sinners can be saved—shall get a second chance of the offer of the Gospel in eternity, and that those in Gospel lands who had not a full opportunity of knowing the grace of God, shall get another opportunity in a future life! Where did these men find that teaching? Not certainly in the Bible of God, but in the false bible of their own sinful hearts. It is the “Larger Hope,” whose author is Satan—the father of lies—to deceive men. Another speculation, widely circulated in this evil day by men who are, in their own conceit, wise above what is written in the Bible, is that the day of judgment will be a thousand-year day. Who told them that? It was not God. These men “do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matt. xxii. 29).
We conclude this solemn subject with the prayer of the Apostle: “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (verses 11, 12).
“I am a Backslider.”
“I am a Backslider.”—The Bible Investigator says: “Dr. Dods was one of the most powerful and persistent of the men who set themselves to break the faith of the Protestant Churches in the inspiration of the Scripture. . . . ‘I AM A BACKSLIDER’ gives the sum of the matter. This so-called ‘forward’ movement is backsliding. Dods had full warning in the experience of his fellow-professor, Dr. Bruce, who died, as The British Weekly has said, ‘without one Christian conviction.’ Not one of these men, from W. Robertson Smith onwards, displayed the slightest advance in spiritual power. They were clouds without water; trees without fruit.” These were the men that wrecked the peace of the pre-Union Free Church with their God-dishonouring teaching, and when they came to the end, it is with confessions that breathe despair rather than hope.