The Fact of
the Redeemer’s Return
Chapter 3
"I will come again and
receive you unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also"
John 14:3
It has been pointed out by another
that the New Testament is concerned mainly with the presentation of three great
facts: first, that the Son of God has been to the earth but
has gone away; second, that the Holy Spirit has come down to this earth and is
still here; third, that the Son of God is coming back again to this earth. To
quote—"These are the three great subjects unfolded in the New Testament
Scriptures; and we shall find that each of them has a double bearing: it has a
bearing upon the world, and a bearing upon the church; upon the world as a
whole, and upon each unconverted man, woman, and child in
particular; upon the church as a whole, and upon each individual member
thereof, in particular. It is impossible for any one to avoid the bearing of
these three grand facts upon his own personal condition and future
destiny" ("Papers on the Lord’s Coming" by C. H. M.) A few words
now on each of these facts.
First; the Son of God has been
to this earth but has gone away. Here is a fact marvelous in its nature and
far-reaching in its effects. This world has been visited by its Creator. The
very feet of the Lord of Glory have trod this earth on which we now dwell. From
heaven’s throne there descended the Only-begotten of the Father, and for upwards of thirty years tie tabernacled here among men.
His appearing was not attended with regal pomp and outward splendor. His glory
was veiled and His Divine prerogatives were laid aside. He who was in the form
of God took upon Himself the form of a servant. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, was made in the likeness of men. He who had received the
worship of angels was born in a manger. What an infinite
stoop! What amazing condescension! What matchless grace! Were it not that we
had grown so familiar with the recital of these things, were it not that our
cold hearts had lost their sense of wonderment, we should be overwhelmed with
adoring gratitude. Were it not that we were so occupied with the things of this
world and our own interests we should prostrate ourselves
before God in worship and cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and
blessing" (Rev. 5:12). Here then is the first great fact presented in the
New Testament—the Son of God came clown to this earth.
How was He
received? What welcome did He meet with? What effect did the coming of the
"Mighty God" (Isa. 9:6) have upon the world? What effect would we
suppose it to have had? Should we expect to learn that the birth of the God-man
was hailed as the most wondrous and blessed event in all history? Should we
expect to find the rulers of the earth casting their scepters at His feet?
Should we expect to find Him an Object of universal worship?
Such expectations would but betray our ignorance of the depths of human
depravity. Of sinners it is written "They did not like to retain God in
their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28). And why? Because "the carnal mind is
enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7)—such it was demonstrated to be when God was
manifested in the flesh. "There was no room for them in the inn"
(Luke 2:7) sums up the whole tragic story. The Christ of God
was not wanted. His ineffable holiness condemned the vile wickedness of
sinners. He came here to "heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance
to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised," but the world hated Him, "hated" Him
"without a cause" (John 15:25). Men said, "This is the heir;
come, let us kill him" (Mark 12:7), and no ordinary
death would suffice and appease the hatred of their wicked hearts. He must die
the death of a criminal, He must be crucified—a form of punishment reserved for
slaves who were guilty of the vilest crimes (Josephus). By wicked hands He was
"crucified and slain" (Acts 2:20).
"Where
sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20). Marvelous are the
ways of God. He maketh even the "wrath of man" to praise Him (Ps.
76:10). Those wicked hands of men which nailed to the Cross the Lord of Glory,
were but fulfilling, unknown to themselves, the eternal purposes of Jehovah.
The Lord Jesus was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God" (Acts 2:23). These words bring before us the
Divine side of that mysterious transaction. As He hung there on the Cross the
Lord Jesus suffered not only at the hands of man, but He was also smitten by
the hand of God (Isa. 58:4, 10) because it was then and there that He
"bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24). On the
Cross, our blessed Savior who knew no sin was "made sin for us" (2
Cor. 5:21). It was because He hung there as the Sin-Bearer
that Jehovah said, "Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the
man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the
sheep shall be scattered" (Zech. 13:7). Thus, the Death of Christ must be
viewed from two great standpoints. From the side of the world His death was a
deliberate, cold-blooded murder; from the side of God it was a satisfaction rendered unto His justice and holiness which had been outraged by
sin. From the side of the world, the Cross was the climacteric display of its
sin and guilt; from the Divine side it was God’s provision to remove the sin
and guilt of all who believe. From man’s side, the world has yet to account to
God for the death of His Son. Therefore it is that God has a
"controversy" with the nations. My reader, you are living
in a world over which hangs the judgment of God! And the day of His vengeance
draws near. God has yet to reckon with a world that is stained with the blood of
His beloved Son and soon will His fearful wrath be poured out upon it. How
rarely, in these days, is this side of the Cross pressed upon men’s consciences
and hearts. The Death of the Lamb of God secured our salvation, but it consummated the world’s guilt. Christ is absent. Why? Because
the world rejected Him. Yet, if the world disowned Him, the heavens received
Him. If men despised Him, God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him the name
which is above every name. We shall consider now, though, more briefly, the
second great fact.
God the
Holy Spirit has come down to this earth and is still here. This, also, is an
amazing and stupendous fact. God did not abandon the world to which in love He
sent His Son, even though that love was requited by the crucifixion of the Holy
One. How strictly just it would have been had God then and there entirely
deserte this rebellious race of ours! He "spared not" the angels that
sinned but "cast them down to hell, and delivered them
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. 2:4), why
then should He continue to deal in mercy with a race that had committed a crime
which far surpassed in wickedness any sin of which the angels could have been
guilty? Ah! God’s ways are "past finding out." Where sin abounded
grace did much more abound. The day of God’s wrath was postponed. A world guilty of murdering God’s beloved Son was granted a
reprieve. In marvelous long-sufferance God gave the world an opportunity, a
protracted opportunity, to repent and thus reap the benefits of the Death
Divine.
The Holy
Spirit has come down to this earth. Here is an amazing fact of stupendous
magnitude. There is a Divine person on earth today. He has been here, now, for
eighteen centuries unseen, unknown, and unappreciated by the world, yet here,
nevertheless. Like the absence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the presence of the
Holy Spirit has a double bearing—a bearing upon the world, and a bearing upon
the Church. His relation to the world is a solemn and an
awful one. The Holy Spirit is here to convict the world of its terrible crime
in rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. This is clear from the language of
John 16—"When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of
righteousness bemuse I go to My Father, and ye see Me no
more; Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged" (vv. 8-11).
These verses do not refer to the work of the Holy Spirit in individual sinners,
but speaks of the consequences of His presence on earth toward the world. It is
true that by His gracious operations the Holy Spirit brings sinners to
repentance, but this is not the subject of the above verses: there, as we have
said, we have set forth the relation of the Holy Spirit toward
the "world" in general. The above quotation brings before us the
significance of the Spirit’s presence on earth rather than defines the
character of His work. In the sense that He is now here, the Holy Spirit would
not be present at all if the Lord Jesus had not been cast out by the world. The
Holy Spirit is here to fill the place of an absent Christ. The presence of the
Holy Spirit is the demonstration of the fact that Christ is
absent. Therefore it is that His presence here "reproves the world,"
reproves the world "of the cause" of Christ’s absence, reproves the
"world" of its awful crime in putting to death the Lord of Glory. He
reproves the world of "sin." Furthermore the presence here of the
Holy Spirit reproves the world of "righteousness," of righteousness
because Christ has gone to the Father and the world sees
Him no more, nor will it see Him until He returns in judgment. The
"righteousness" of which the Spirit reproves or convicts the world is
the righteousness of God the Father in His exaltation to His own right hand of
the One cast out by the world. Finally, the presence here of the Holy Spirit
convicts the world of "judgment" because Satan, the prince of this
world, is already judged, though the sentence has not yet
been executed. So much then for the world-ward bearing of the fact of the Holy
Spirit’s presence on earth.
Like the fact of our Lord’s
rejection by the world, the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth also has a
bearing upon the Church—a blessed bearing. God has overruled the
issues of this second great fact. Though the presence here of the Holy Spirit
condemns the world, it involves infinite blessing for the Church. Churchward,
the Holy Spirit is here to take the place of our absent Savior. He is here to
"quicken" (John 8:6) as Christ quickened (John 5:21). He is here to
"teach" (John 14:26) as Christ taught (Matthew 7-29). He is here to
"comfort" (John 16:7) as Christ comforted (John
14:1). In short, the Holy Spirit is here to do for God’s people what Christ
would have done for them had He remained on the earth. The consequences, then,
of the presence here of God the Holy Spirit are unspeakably solemn as regards
the world, but infinitely precious as regards the saints.
We are now
prepared to consider the third great fact which is presented to our notice in
the New Testament scriptures, that fact which forms the subject of this
chapter—the fact of the Redeemer’s Return. And—
1.
The Statement of this Fact.
To state in the fewest
possible words the broad fact itself—the Lord Jesus is coming back again. As we
have seen, He has gone away from this world. He ascended on high. But heaven is
not to retain Him forever. Scripture declares that He is to vacate His Father’s
throne where He is now seated, that He will descend to the air and receive His people unto Himself, and, that subsequently, He
will return to the earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom.
The fact of our Lord’s Return
is set forth in the New Testament as clearly and as fully as either of the
other two facts to which we have referred. The fact and truth of the second advent of Christ occupies a commanding position in
the New Testament. In our Lord’s tender farewell address to His disciples (John
14-16) the prospect and promise of His Return was the first subject to which He
directed their attention (John 14:1-13). After He had left His disciples, yea,
while in the very act of ascending, He sent two of His angels to tell them
"This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven"
(Acts 1:11). In the first Epistle which the apostle Paul was inspired to write,
namely, the "Thessalonian," he referred in every chapter to the
Redeemer’s Return. In his instructions to the Corinthians concerning their celebration
of the Lord’s Supper, he wrote, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come" (1
Cor. 11:26). As we have already stated in another connection, the first promise
that was given to fallen man was that the woman’s Seed should come and bruise
the Serpent’s head—a prophecy which will not receive its fulfillment until the
time of the Lord’s Return. The last recorded words of our blessed Savior, found
in the closing chapter of the Bible, were "Surely I come quickly"
(Rev. 22:20). Thus we see that at the beginning and also at the end of the
Sacred Volume, the Blessed Hope is given prominence, while between these two
utterances of God Himself are literally hundreds of verses which bear directly
upon this precious theme. The same Book which tells us that our Lord came to
this earth and went away; the same Book which tells us that God the Spirit is
now present on the earth, also declares that the Lord Jesus
is coming back again, and, as another has said, "If we admit one fact we
must admit all: if we deny one, we must deny all; inasmuch as all rest upon
precisely the same authority. They stand or fall together."
The fact of our Lord’s’ Return
is stated in the most positive, emphatic, and unequivocal
language. "I will come again" (John 14:3). He did not say "I may
come again," or "I intend to come again," but "I will come
again." Moved by the Holy Spirit the apostle Paul wrote, "The Lord
Himself shall descend from heaven" etc. (1 Thess. 4:16). The apostle did
not say "We shall go to the Lord," or "The Lord will send for
us" but "The Lord Himself shall descend." The fact of our Lord’s
Return is not set forth in mysterious and obscure figures
of speech, but is stated in language so plain and simple that he who runs may
read and is expressed in terms of finality, beyond which there is no appeal.
"For yet a little while and He that shall come will come, and will not
tarry" (Heb. 10:37). And again, "Surely I come quickly ( Revelation
22:20).
2.
The Interpretation of this Fact.
This third great fact which is
presented to our notice in the New Testament must be interpreted on precisely
the same lines and by the same canons as the other two Facts,
i. e., the Scriptures which set forth the Second Advent of Christ must be
received just as we receive those statements which tell us of His first advent
and of the descent to earth of the Holy Spirit. Those verses which treat of the
Redeemer’s Return must be taken at their face value: they must be received by
faith just as they read: they must be understood literally. We press this point
upon our readers because there have been many teachers who
have sought to spiritualize the Scriptural references to our Lord’s second
coming and who have treated them as though their language must be regarded as
figurative and symbolical. Just as the Lord Jesus came to the earth the first
time in person so will lie come the second time. Our Redeemer is to return
bodily and visibly. The language of Holy Writ gives as much
reason for believing in a literal and personal return of Christ as it did for
His First Advent. "Occupy till I come." "If I will that he tarry
till I come." "Ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come"
"Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait
for His Son from heaven." These are representative passages, and no one
reading them for the first time without theological bias would ever
think that they meant anything else than a literal, personal Advent. And yet
the plain language of the Word has been twisted and distorted and made to teach
almost anything and everything other than its obvious signification. We shall
not weary our readers by examining and refuting at length every forced and
fanciful interpretation which has been indulged in by various commentators; such
a task is unnecessary and would be unprofitable. Those
theories which have gained the most adherents may be grouped into three
classes.
First; there, is a class of
commentators who regard the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost
as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to return. This view is based
upon our Lord’s Word in John 14 where, after declaring to His disciples that He
would give them "Another Comforter" who would abide with them
forever, He immediately added, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will
come to you" (vs. 18). But to regard me descent of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost as the accomplishment of Christ’s promise "I will come
again" is to confuse the Persons of the Holy Trinity. A sufficient
refutation of this error is found in the fact that the Epistles which were all
of them written alter Pentecost contain numerous references to and promises
concerning the personal return of Christ.
Second; another class of
commentators regard the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman
armies in A.D. 70 as the fulfillment of our Lord’s promise to come back to the
earth and, untenable as this theory is, strange to say, it has met with a very
wide acceptation among Christian theologians. This theory is based upon a
careless exposition of Matthew 24. At the beginning of this chapter we learn
that His disciples asked our Lord three questions: First, "Tell us, when
shall these things be?" The "these things"
look back to the previous verse where Christ had foretold the destruction of
the temple. Second, "And what shall be the sign of Thy coming?"
Third, "And of the end of the age?" Now in order to understand our
Lord’s complete answer to these three questions it is necessary to pay close
attention to the parallel passages found in Mark 13 and Luke 21. A careful
comparison of these chapters will make plain the different
answers which our Lord returned to His disciples’ questions. In His answers tie
made a clear distinction between the destruction of Jerusalem and His
subsequent personal return, though we must remember that as "history
repeats itself" some of the signs which heralded the approach of each
event were common to both. When speaking of the former He said,
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh" (Luke 21:20); but when referring to the latter
He declared, "And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, and in
the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and
the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them with fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers
of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory, And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh"
(Luke 21:25-28). That the destruction of Jerusalem did not exhaust the
predictions made by our Lord with reference to His own return is evident from the fact that in the book of Revelation—written
at least twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem—He promises, no less
than six times, to "come again."
Third; another class of
commentators regard the death of the believer as the fulfillment
of our Lord’s promise to come back again and receive His own unto Himself. This
error has already been refuted in an earlier chapter so that nothing further
needs now to be said concerning it.
In Acts 3:18 we have
enunciated a principle which supplies a sure and certain key to prophetic interpretation—"But those things, which God
before had shewed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer,
He hath so fulfilled." The important words here are "so
fulfilled." How had the Old Testament prophecies concerning the
"sufferings" of Christ been "fulfilled"? The answer is
literally. And, in like manner, will be accomplished those unfulfilled
prophecies which speak of the coming "glory" of
Christ. Just as those predictions which made it known that Christ should be
sold for "thirty pieces of silver," that His hands and His feet
should be "pierced," that He should be given "vinegar, mingled
with gall" to drink,—just as these were fulfilled to the letter, so the
Scriptures which declare that He shall descend from heaven with a shout,"
that "every eye shall see Him" when He comes back
to earth, that He shall return in power and great glory and shall be
accompanied by "ten thousands of His saints"—just so shall these
predictions be fulfilled to the very letter.
3.
The twofold bearing of this Fact.
We come now to a point
concerning which it behooves believers, particularly young believers and
beginners in the study of prophecy, to be quite clear upon. Like the other two
great Facts which we have reviewed—the First Advent of our Lord to this earth
and His going away, and the presence now of the Holy Spirit upon this earth—this third great fact of the Redeemer’s Return also has
a double bearing, a bearing upon the Church and a bearing upon the world. The
Second Coming of Christ will occur in two stages. Just as a man living in New
York might take a railroad journey to California, and while enroute break his
journey at Chicago, so Christ will break His journey from heaven to earth. He
is now in heaven; He will return to the earth. His ultimate
destination is the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4), but He first breaks His
journey in the air (1 Thess. 4:16). It is highly important to the understanding
of unfulfilled prophecy that these two stages in the Return of Christ should be
clearly distinguished; failure to do so will inevitably result in the utmost
confusion. There are not yet to be two Returnings of Christ, but one Return in
two stages.
The two stages in the Return
of Christ are clearly distinguished in the New Testament. We now call attention
to some of the leading differences between them. 1. The first stage will be in
grace, the second will be in judgment. 2. The first stage will
reach no farther than the air, the second will reach to the earth itself. 3.
The first stage is when the Redeemer returns to catch up the saints unto
Himself, the second is when He returns to the earth to rule it with a iron. 4.
The first stage will be secret unseen by the world, the second will be public
and seen by every eye. 5. The stage is Christ returning as "The Morning
Star" (Rev. 22:16), the second is His appearing as
"The Sun of Righteousness" (Mal. 4:2). 6. At the first stage He comes
for His saints (John 14:3), at the second He returns with His saints (Jude
1:4), 7. The first stage, His secret coming for His saints, it not the subject
of a single Old Testament prophecy, the second stage, when He returns to the
earth, is referred to in numerous Old Testament predictions. 8. The first stage
of Christ’s Return will be followed by God’s Judgments
being poured forth on the earth, the second will be followed by God’s blessings
being poured upon the earth, and by the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all
flesh. 9. The first stage will be followed by Satan coming down to this earth
in great wrath (Rev. 12:9), the second will be followed by Satan being removed
from the earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2, 3). 10. Between the present hour and the first stage of Christ’s Return nothing
intervenes, no prophecy needs first to be fulfilled, for our Lord may return at
any moment; but before the second stage of Christ’s Return can occur many
prophecies must first be fulfilled. 11. Concerning the first stage of our
Lord’s Return we "wait for God’s Son from heaven" (1 Thess. 1:10),
whereas the second stage is distinguished as "the coming of the Son of Man." 12. The first stage was typified by the
translation of Enoch to heaven (Heb. 11:5), the second was foreshadowed by
Elijah who has yet to return to this earth to herald the judgments of the great
and terrible day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). 13. The first stage is our Lord’s
Coming as our Savior (Heb. 9:28), the second is His return to earth as King
(Rev. 19:11, 16). 14. The first stage will be followed by the
saints coming before the "judgment-seat" (Bema) of Christ to be
judged according to their works and rewarded for their service (2 Cor. 5:10),
the second will be followed by the "Throne of glory" upon which shall
set the Son of Man who will judge the nations that are upon earth at the
beginning of His millennial reign and apportion them their positions in His
Kingdom (Matthew 25:31-46). Here then is the double bearing
of the Fact of the Redeemer’s Return—it respects first His own people and then
the whole world.
These two stages in the
Redeemer’s Return are in strict accord with the order of events which
transpired at His First Advent. At the first coming of the Lord Jesus there was a secret or private manifestation of Himself, and
subsequently a public revelation. The newly-born Savior was actually seen by
very few. The shepherds in the field, the wise men from the East. Anna and
Simeon in the temple saw the Redeemer in the days of His infancy, but Herod and
Pilate, the scribes and the Pharisees—the unbelieving civic and religious
heads—saw Him not! After His return from Egypt on the death
of Herod, He retired to Nazareth and it was not until an interval of nearly
thirty years had passed that He was publicly manifested. Thus will it be at His
second coming. First there will be the secret manifestation (in the air) unto
His own people, and then after an interval of seven years or more He will be
publicly revealed to the world.
4.
The Fact of the Redeemer’s Return was typified in the lives of Joseph and
Solomon.
In the Old Testament there are
numerous references to the Second Coming of Christ,
references both direct and typical, but in every instance it was His return to
the earth which was in view. The secret coming of Christ into the air, to catch
up the saints to Himself, was an event quite unknown to the Old Testament
prophets, an event kept secret until revealed by God to the apostle Paul who,
when writing to the Corinthians upon this particular aspect of our subject,
said, "Behold, I show you a mystery (In Scripture the
word "mystery" signifies "a previously hidden truth, now
Divinely revealed, but in which a supernatural element still remains despite
the revelation." —Scofield.); We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump! for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall
be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51, 52).
Many of the Old Testament
characters were remarkable types of Christ: In Adam we see Christ’s headship;
in Abel, Christ put to death by His own brethren according to the flesh; in
Enoch, Christ’s ascension to heaven; in Noah, Christ providing
a "refuge" for His own; in Melchizedek, Christ’s Kingship; in
Abraham, Christ’s Nazariteship; in Isaac, Christ the willing Sacrifice; in
Jacob, Christ toiling for a "bride;" in Moses, Christ the faithful
Servant; in Aaron, Christ the great High Priest; in Joshua, Christ conducting
His people into their inheritance. And so we might continue right through the
Old Testament.
Foremost among the typical
personages of the Old Testament is Joseph. In almost every detail of his life
we see Christ typified. The son of his father’s love, yet the object of his
brethren’s bitter, hatred. His very name meaning "adding" as Christ
is adding to the inhabitants of Heaven by the seed which issues from His
travail. Sent by his father to inquire after his brethren’s
welfare, he is despised and rejected by them. They plot against his life and
sell him into the hands of strangers. While yet in his youth he was carried
down into Egypt. In Egypt he entered into the degradation of slavery and
rendered faithful service to his master. He was sorely tempted yet sinned not,
but though innocent he was falsely accused and cast into prison. While in prison—the place of shame—he was associated with two
others, one of whom—the butler—heard from his lips a message of cheer telling
of his restoration to the king’s favor, the other the baker—receiving the
sentence of death. So, when the Lord Jesus hung upon the Cross—the place of
shame—two malefactors were crucified with Him one of whom heard from His lips a
message of cheer telling of his restoration to God’s favor,
while the other died in his sins. Surely such perfect typification of Christ,
such numerous points of analogy are not so many coincidences, but are a Divine
delineation of the person and work of the Redeemer—a picture drawn by the hand
of the Holy Spirit Himself. If then the type is perfect, if the picture be
complete, ought we not to look for something in it which foreshadowed
our Lord’s exaltation and coming glory? Assuredly. Nor do we look in vain—The
sequel to Joseph’s humiliation clearly pointed forward to the Return of our
Lord to this earth in power and majesty.
Above, we followed the typical
history of Joseph to the point where he, through no fault
of his own, was sentenced to suffer the shame of being cast into an Egyptian
prison. But at this point of Joseph’s life there was a dramatic change.
Joseph’s history did not terminate in shame and suffering but in power and
glory. From the dungeon he was exalted to Egypt’s throne! And, mark, his
sovereignty was foretold years before he entered into the enjoyment of it. As a
boy he dreamed of seeing the other sheaves all bowing down
before his, which signified that his brethren would yet pay homage to him. So
the prophetic Scriptures bear witness to the coining sovereignty of our Lord
over this earth many centuries before He actually takes the scepter in His
hands. After his elevation to the Throne of Egypt Joseph’s sovereignty was
publicly recognized and acknowledged, for all men were compelled to "bow
the knee" before him (Gen. 41:48), and thus will it be
with our Savior when He takes unto Himself His power and sits upon the Throne
of His Glory. To complete the picture, we find that after Joseph’s exaltation
his brethren were reconciled to him, and then in wondrous grace they are given
a land in which to dwell—the land of Goshen, the best in all Egypt; so when
Christ returns to earth His brethren according to the
flesh—Israel—shall be reconciled to Him and receive from Him the land of Palestine
in which to dwell throughout His beneficent reign. Thus, as Joseph was exalted
to power and glory after the period of his humiliation was ended, so shall our
blessed Redeemer yet return to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
In the glorious reign of
Solomon which followed the checkered career of David we have another striking
type of the position which the Redeemer shall occupy during the Millennium.
This is one of the composite types of Scripture. There are a number such where
two or more objects or persons were necessary in order to give a complete picture. For example: in the great Levitical
offerings (Lev. 1-6) we find five—the Burnt, the Meal, the Peace, the Sin, and
the Trespass offerings—were required to give a complete foreshadowing of the
person and work of the Redeemer. In the Tabernacle, no less than seven pieces
of furniture in addition to its structure and materials, were needed to set
forth fully the varied glories of Christ. So it was with
reference to living persons. Enoch and Noah, Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha
supplemented each other in their typical characteristics. Thus it was with
David and Solomon—the latter was the complement of the former and the two must
be studied together in order to secure a complete picture David was a type of
Christ in His humiliation, Solomon foreshadowed Christ in His glorification.
David pointed to Christ at His First Advent, Solomon looked
forward to Christ at His Second Advent.
In many particulars David
typified the humiliation of his "greater son." He was born in
Bethlehem of Judea. He is described as "of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon," thus reminding us of Him who
"increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man," and
who to the believer is the Fairest among ten thousand and the altogether Lovely
One. By occupation he was a "shepherd," and during his shepherd life
he repeatedly entered into conflict with wild beasts. He was pre-eminently a
man of prayer and is the only one in all Scripture termed a
"man after God’s own heart." He was the tree who slew Goliath—the
opposer of God’s people and type of Satan, foreshadowing the conflict between
the Serpent and the woman’s Seed who, by His death, delivered God’s people from
the toils of their great Enemy. When his arch-enemy Saul was in his power he
acted in great mercy by sparing his life, just as in Gethsemane our blessed Lord refused to summon the angels to destroy His foes and as
on the Cross lie prayed for the forgiveness of His murderers. He was a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, suffering chiefly from those of His own
household.
After David came Solomon who
foreshadowed the glory and the millennial reign of Christ.
The word "Solomon" means "Peaceable" and thus his name
suggests the Kingdom of Christ over which He shall rule as the "Prince of
Peace." He was "anointed" some time before he was crowned: so
the Lord Jesus was "anointed with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:38) at
His baptism but is yet awaiting the day of His coronation. Gentiles took part
in the crowning of Solomon (1 Kings 1:38, 39). typifying
the universal homage which Christ shall receive during the Millennium. At the
time of his coronation, Solomon was followed by an army of soldiers (the
Cherethites and the Pelethites) (1 Kings 1:38), just as our returning King
shall be accompanied by "the armies in heaven" (Rev. 19:14). Solomon
was not only King of Israel but, like the One he foreshadowed, he was King of
Kings (see 1 Kings 4:21, 24). During his reign "Judah
and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from
Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings 4:25): so it
will be with Israel again during the Millennium (see Jeremiah 23:6). Solomon
was the builder of Israel’s Temple, so also we read of Christ that He will
"return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen
down" (Acts 15:16); and again, "Behold the Man
whose name is the Branch; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall
build the temple of the Lord" (Zech. 6:12). At the dedication of the
Temple, Solomon was the one who offered up the sacrifices to God (1 Kings
8:36), thus foreshadowing the One who shall be "a priest upon His
throne" (Zech. 6:18). Solomon’s fame spread abroad far and wide so that
"all the earth sought to Solomon" (1 Kings 10:23)
and came up to Jerusalem to pay him homage, and thus will it be with David’s
"son" and Lord—"It shall come to pass, that every one that is
left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 14:16). During
Solomon’s reign, for the first and last time until the Millennium, all
Palestine rested in peace. The glory and majesty of
Solomon’s reign has never been equaled before or since—"King Solomon
exceeded all the Kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom" (1 Kings
10:28); "And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all
Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any King
before him in Israel" (1 Chron. 29:25). Thus we see that the peaceful, international, and glorious reign of Solomon, following the
death of David, typified the millennial reign of the Redeemer.
5.
The Fact of the Redeemers Return was foreshadowed in the Ritual on the annual day
of Israel’s Atonement.
The order of events on the Day
of Atonement are described in Leviticus 16, a chapter which is exceedingly rich
in its typical signification. The Day of Atonement had to do with the putting
away of Israel’s sins, therefore, its dispensational application refers mainly
to Israel though, as we shall see, the Church was also typically
represented. We shall not now attempt anything more than a bare outline of the
happenings of that most memorable, day on Israel’s sacred calendar. The order
of its ritual was as follows:
First, Aaron washed in water
and then attired himself in the holy linen garments. It is
to be noted that Aaron was provided with two sets of garments—those which were
"for glory and for beauty" (Ex. 28:2), and the plain linen garments
which were used when he offered sacrifice to God: the change from the latter
into the former is referred to in Leviticus 16:23, 24, it was the plain, linen
garments which were worn by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, because,
clad thus in robes of spotless white he prefigured the
sinlessness of the One who came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Second, Aaron offered "a
bullock of the sin-offering" to "make an atonement for himself and
for his house" (vs. 6). Our Great High Priest was without sin, He
"knew no sin," yet He became so identified with
His people that God "made Him to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:20), hence
in the type Aaron makes atonement not only for his "house" but for
"himself" as well. But observe particularly "and for his
house." That is where the Church is seen, the Church which by Peter is
termed "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:5 —cf.
Hebrews 8:6).
Third, Aaron took two goats
and presented them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle where he cast
lots upon them "one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the
scapegoat" (vv. 7,8). The two goats bring before us the two great sides of
Christ’s cross-work, namely, the Divine and the human. The death of the Lord Jesus not only provided a salvation for lost sinners but it
also vindicated and glorified God Himself. On the Cross Christ met the claims
of God’s justice, satisfied the demands of His holiness, vindicated His
governmental rights and publicly exemplified His righteousness. "One lot for
the Lord" then, is what God obtained in the death of His beloved Son.
Fourth, the goat of the
sin-offering was killed and its blood brought within the veil and sprinkled
both upon and before the mercy-seat (vs. 15). The mercy-seat was God’s
"throne" in Israel. Observe that the blood was sprinkled but once
upon the mercy-seat and seven times before it (vv. 14,15). Once was sufficient
to meet all the claims of God, for that which the blood of
the goat typified—the "precious blood" of Christ—was of infinite
value in the sight of heaven, but seven times it needed to be sprinkled to meet
our deep, deep need in order to provide tot us a perfect standing ground before
God!
Fifth,
after making atonement for the holy place and the altar—showing there is that,
even in our communion with and worship of God, which needs cleansing—Aaron laid
both his hands on the head of the second, live goat, and confessed over him
"all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions in all their sins, and putting them upon the head of the
goat" and sending him away into the wilderness, into
"a land not inhabited" (vv. 21, 22). Just as the first goat
represented the great troth of propitiation, the Divine side of Christ’s
cross-work, the satisfying and glorifying of God, so this second goat
represented the other great truth of substitution, the manward side of Christ’s
cross-work, the acting of the Lord Jesus as the Surety of His people and
bearing away their sins "as far as the east is from
the west." The laying on of the priest’s lands upon the head of the
innocent goat signified an act of identification, the counterpart of which now
enables us to say by faith "I was crucified with Christ" (Gal.
2:20—Greek). The confession of Israel’s iniquities over its head, intimated the
transference of guilt, pointing forward, as it did, to Christ bearing "our
sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24). The
thrice repeated "all" evidenced the completeness of the atonement
there made, and thus it was with the Antitype "who gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:14). The sending away
of the goat bearing Israel’s sins into "a land not inhabited,"
typified the complete removal of sin; and blessed be God our sins have all been
completely taken away so that it is written "There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom.
8:1).
Sixth, after atonement had
been effected, the high priest came out of the Holy of Holies, attired himself
in his robes of beauty and glory and returned to the waiting Congregation
in the outer court (vv. 23, 24). It is in this last act of Aaron that we arrive
at the point which is specially germane to our present study. The Antitype, our
great High Priest, has already made atonement and has passed through the veil
into the Holy of Holies on high ‘now to appear in the presence of God for
us," but soon He shall divest Himself of the sacrificial garments and
attired in robes of glory and beauty He shall come forth to
His waiting people whose sins and iniquities shall be remembered "no more
for ever." It is to this coming forth of our High Priest that Hebrews 9:28
(speaking in the very language of the above type) refers—"So Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He
appear the second time without sin (our sins gone) unto salvation." Thus
we see that the Ritual of Israel’s annual Day of Atonement
foreshadowed not only the cross-work of Christ and His present session at God’s
right hand but that it also typified and looked forward to His return in glory.
6.
The fact of the Redeemer’s Return is illustrated in the Gospel narratives.
We refer now to the incident
of Christ walking over the water to the aid of His storm-tossed disciples, the
dispensational significance of which has already been pointed out by several
writers. Immediately after our Lord had fed the five thousand, He retired into
a mountain while His disciples went down unto the sea, and
entering into a ship, they essayed to journey to Capernaum. But as they rowed
"the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew." It was dark, and
Jesus was not come to them, and all the progress they had made after hours of
hard rowing was "twenty-five or thirty furlongs." Then it was that
Jesus drew nigh, and with a gracious "It is I; be not afraid" He
stilled their fears. The statement that follows is a remarkable
one—"Then they willingly received Him into the ship: and immediately the
ship was at the land whither they went" (John 6:15-21). At the risk of being
considered "fanciful" we shall attempt to expound the typical and
dispensational bearings of the above incident.
Christ on
the mount, praying, points to His present position on high where He is
interceding for us at the right hand of God. The restless, tossing sea, aptly
figures the world’s unrest in its opposition to God. The ship in the midst of
the sea represents the Church which is in the world but not of it. The storm
beating down upon the ship caused by the "great wind" that blew, prefigures
the attacks and assaults upon the Church by the
"Prince of the power of the air," seeking to destroy it during the
time of Christ’s absence. The rowing of the disciples and their failure to make
headway against the storm, shows the powerlessness of the Church to improve the
world as such. Nineteen centuries of Gospel preaching and Christian witnessing
have failed to effect any real change in the world at large. The unrest of the world still continues, its hostility while not so open is
yet just as real, and Christ is "hated" as bitterly as ever. The
Church may pull at its oars, but it cannot still the sea—the storm will not be
hushed until the Lord Jesus appears! All that the disciples could do was to
keep the ship from sinking, and in that they were successful. There again our
type is perfect. The world may be hostile to the Church and
Satan may fling his angry winds and waves against it, but as its Founder
declared, His church is built upon the Rock and "the gates of Hades shall
not prevail against it," and blessed be God they have not. After almost
two thousand years of human and Satanic opposition, after every conceivable
weapon has been employed to encompass its destruction, Christ’s Church still
survives. And in the midst of the storm; at the darkest
hour, in the fourth watch, Christ came to the deliverance of His disciples. So
it will be at His Second Advent: He will come back to and for the Church which
He ransomed with His own blood. He came to His disciples and, be it noted, He
appeared not with a word of reproach but with a message of cheer—"It is I;
be not afraid." Thus will it be at the Redeemer’s Return: He
will descend from heaven with a shout of welcome, bringing joy and gladness to
the hearts of His own. Observe the blessed sequel—"and immediately the
ship was at the land whither they went." The typical meaning of this is
obvious: when our Lord comes back again the Church’s conflicts will be over,
its journey is then completed, its voyage ended, its destined harbor is safely
reached. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
"For the coming of the
Bridegroom,
Whom, the’ yet unseen, we
love;
For the King of saints
returning
For the shout that shakes the
prison,
For the trumpet loud and
clear,
For the voice of the
archangel,
For the light beyond the
darkness,
When the reign of sin is done;
When the storm has ceased its
raging,
For the joy beyond the sorrow,
Joy of the eternal year,
For the resurrection splendor,
We are
waiting, waiting here."
7.
The Fact of the Redeemer’s Return had a spectacular setting forth on the Mount
of Transfiguration.
The
Transfiguration of Christ is perhaps as familiar as any of the leading events
recorded in the four Gospels, yet is it less understood than the other great
crises in His blessed life. The purpose and meaning of the Transfiguration is
defined in the closing verse of Matthew 16—"Verily I say unto you, There
be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of
Man coming in His Kingdom." This is the verse which
has puzzled many Bible readers, yet its meaning is simple if we pay heed to its
exact wording. Observe that Christ did not here say, "There be some
standing here which shall not taste of death till the Son of man come in His
Kingdom." but "until they see the Son of Man coming in His
Kingdom." The word "See" furnishes the key to the above
declaration. Observe further, that our Lord said to the
disciples, "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom."
The above verse is the closing
one of Matthew 16 and it is exceedingly unfortunate that a chapter division has
been made to immediately follow it and thus obscure its real
meaning to many readers. What follows in the next chapter is the fulfillment of
Christ’s promise to the disciples as is clear from its opening
statement—"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his
brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured
before them"—the "And" connecting Matthew 17 with chapter 16,
the "after six days" dating from the promise given the disciples, and the "some" finding its fulfillment in
"Peter, James, and John." Here then is the key to the significance of
the Transfiguration scene—it was the disciples, seeing "the Son of Man
coming in His Kingdom:" it was a pattern and sample of the glory in which
our Lord shall return to the Mount of Olives; it was a visible representation,
a spectacular setting forth of each of the leading elements which shall be found in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. To
particularize.
"And after six
days"—"about an eight days after" (Luke). Every detail in the
description of this remarkable event is worthy of our closest study. A careless
and flippant reader might ask, "Why are we told that our Lord was
transfigured just six days after He had given His promise
to the disciples?—What does it matter to us whether it was six or sixteen
days?" But the reverent student of Holy Scripture has learnt that
everything in God’s Word has a meaning and value. "Six days after,"
then it was a seventh-day scene, a Sabbatical scene, in a word—a Millennial
scene. Some students will differ from us upon this point, but we record it as
our belief that the above words furnish Scriptural
verification of a view which was commonly held by the ancients, by the Rabbis
and by the Church "Fathers," namely, that in line with the statement
found in 2 Peter 8:8—"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years"—the
seven days of Genesis one are to be regarded as a definition of the duration of
earth’s history, i. e., six thousand years of toil and labor followed by a thousand years of rest and peace, the Sabbath-day thus
pointing forward to the Millennium.
"And His face did shine
as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light" (Matthew 17:2). With
this statement should be compared Peter’s inspired commentary—"For
we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we make known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His
majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came
such a voice to Him from the excellent Glory (i. e., the Shekinah Glory), This
is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this Voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy
mount" (2 Pet. 1:16-18). During the days of Christ’s humiliation when He
endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, we are told, "His
visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of
men" (Isa. 52:14), but here on the Mount of Transfiguration "His face
did shine as the sun." The disciples were favored with
a glimpse of Christ in His resurrection glory! It is thus He now appears in
Heaven as is evident from the blinding effects of Christ’s glory as manifested
to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. And it is thus He will appear when He
shall return to this earth, arising as "The Sun of righteousness with
healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2).
"And, behold, there appeared
unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him" (vs. 3). From the fact that
Moses (representative of the Law) and Elijah (standing for the Prophets) were
with Christ at this time we may learn that the Old Testament saints shall have
their part and place with Christ in His Millennial Kingdom. There is also another fact revealed here—precious thought!—when our Lord
returns to the earth He will be accompanied by two classes of saints here
represented by Moses and Elijah namely, those who have passed through death and
those who have been "changed" and raptured to heaven without seeing
death. The three disciples—Peter, James, and John—may be regarded as
representatives of the Church, not, of course, the Church
in its Divine unity, but in individual capacity.
"While He yet spake,
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud
which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye
Him" (vs. 5). The mention of the "bright cloud" here is deeply significant,
the more so as it was out of it that the Voice of God was
heard speaking. This was the "Cloud" which had been withdrawn from
Israel centuries before but which now suddenly appeared again. This was the
"Cloud" in which Jehovah appeared of old—the Cloud of the Shekinah
glory. It was the "Cloud" which filled the Tabernacle—"Then a
cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the Glory of the
Lord filled the Tabernacle" (Ex. 40:34). This was the "Cloud"
which guided Israel throughout their wilderness wanderings—"And when the
cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went
forward in all their journeys: but if the cloud were not taken up, then they
journeyed not till the day that it was taken up" (Ex. 40:36, 37). This was
the "Cloud" in which Jehovah appeared in the Holy
of Holies upon the mercy-seat (Lev. 16:2). This was the "Cloud"
which, filled the Temple of Solomon (1 Kings 8:10). Little wonder then that the
disciples "fell on their faces and were sore afraid" (vs. 7)! The
appearing of the Shekinah "Cloud" on the mount of transfiguration was
the intimation that it shall be visible to Israel again in the Millennial
Kingdom. That it will be is further evident from the prophecy
of Isaiah 4:5—"And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount
Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a
flaming fire by night: for above all the glory shall be a defense"—the
context here, shows that this has reference to the Millennium. See further
Ezekiel 43.
"And
when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only" (vs.
8). This touch to the picture is a very beautiful one. It tells us that in the
Millennium our blessed Lord shall be exalted high above all, that He shall
occupy the position of pre-eminency, that all human glories shall pale and
disappear before His. As it is written, "And the loftiness of man shall be
bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (Isa. 2:17).
The hour when the
Transfiguration occurred is significant. From Luke’s account we gather that it
happened at night, for we read, "But Peter and they that were with him
were heavy with sleep’’ (Luke 9:82). Thus will it be at the close of the long,
dark night of Israel’s dispersion—they shall look up and
behold their Messiah returning in power and glory, accompanied by ten thousands
of His saints who shall be on such terms of holy familiarity with Him (compare
"Moses and Elijah talking with Him") that the world shall marvel at
that wondrous grace which made them "joint-heirs with Christ."
The Transfiguration also
revealed the blessedness of that time when Christ shall set up His millennial
Kingdom. "Lord, it is good for us to be here" (vs. 4) was the
exclamation that fell from the lips of the astonished Peter. Thus will it be in
the Millennium. "Lord, it is good for us to be here" will well
express the contentment and the joy of those who will be
upon earth in those days. O! what a time that will be. Satan removed, the
Antichrist destroyed, and all that opposes the Gospel swept from the face of
the earth. Israel penitent and restored, the heathen nations then completely
evangelized, and creation itself delivered from its bondage of corruption. The
saints "with Christ," wearing their glorified bodies and
participating in His reign over an earth full of the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Christ Himself on the throne, the Holy
Spirit poured out upon all flesh, and outwardly, God’s will done upon the
earth, as it is in heaven. Yes, then indeed, shall it be said, "Lord, it
is good to be here."
Striking
indeed was the vision vouchsafed to the three favored disciples. Remarkably
full was that manifestation of the glory of Messiah’s coming Kingdom. But the
sequel to the Transfiguration was equally wonderful in its typical
signification, and was needed to complete this spectacular setting forth of the
Redeemer’s Return to the earth.
"And when they were come
to the multitude, there came to Him a certain man, kneeling down to Him, and
saying, Lord have mercy on my son: for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed: for
oftentimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. "And Jesus
rebuked the demon: and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour" (vv. 14, 15, 18). What a sight was
this which confronted our Lord and His disciples as they came down from the
"holy mount"! What a picture of Israel in particular and of the world
in general! Thus will it be at the time of our Lord’s Return to this earth. The
first thing which the Savior did after He had given the disciples a vision of
His glory in the coming Kingdom, was to cast out a demon; and
the first thing He will do when He returns to the earth, will be to cast out
the Devil and secure him for a thousand years in the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 20:2,
3). God hasten that blessed day!
Thus we see that the Fact of
the Redeemer’s Return not only occupies a prominent position
in the didactic instruction of the Church Epistles, but that it was also the
subject of Old Testament prophecy and typology, was pictorially illustrated in
the miracles recorded in the Gospels, and received a spectacular setting forth
in the wonderful scene which was enacted upon the Mount of Transfiguration.