Waiting for the Son of God from Heaven
If you had asked a Thessalonian Christian what he was waiting for, what would have been his reply? Would he have said, “I am waiting for the world to improve by means of the gospel which I myself have received? or, I am waiting for the moment of my death when I shall go to be with Jesus?” No. His reply would have been simply this, “I am waiting for the Son of God from heaven.” This, and nothing else, is the proper hope of the Christian, the proper hope of the Church. To wait for the improvement of the world is not Christian hope at all. You might as well wait for the improvement of the flesh, for there is just as much hope of the one as the other. And as to the article of death—though no doubt it may intervene—it is never once presented as the true and proper hope of the Christian. Thus, if the apostle would refer to the interesting question of his own personal connection with the beloved saints at Thessalonica, he says, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.” Again, if he thinks of their progress in holiness and love, he adds, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints” (chap. 3:12, 13). It is impossible for any proof to be more simple, direct, and conclusive than this. The Thessalonian Christians, as we have already remarked, were converted to the hope of the Lord’s return. They were taught to look out for it daily. It was as much a part of their Christianity to believe that He would come, as to believe that He had come and gone. We merely quote it here as one of the almost innumerable proofs of the fact that our Lord will come again, personally, really, and actually; and that His personal coming is the true and proper hope of the Church of God collectively, and of the believer individually. We shall close this paper by reminding the Christian reader that he can never sit down to the table of his Lord without being reminded of this glorious hope, so long as those words shine on the page of inspiration, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till”—when? Till ye die? Nay; but—”till he come” (1 Cor. 11:26). How precious is this! The table of the Lord stands between those two marvelous epochs, the cross and the advent—the death and the glory. The believer can look up from the table and see the beams of the glory gilding the horizon. It is our privilege, as we gather, on each Lord’s day, round the Lord’s table, to show forth the Lord’s death, to be able to say, “This may be the last occasion of celebrating this precious feast; ere another Lord’s day dawn upon us, He Himself may come.” Again we say, How precious is this!
Taken from Papers on the Lord’s Coming by C. H. Mackintosh. Originally published in 1898. Public Domain.
