That the Lord will come a second time is as sure in the Word of God as the fact that He did come the first time. But why must He come again? If we understand the solid reasons for His coming again, it will not only give us a more certain hope but also a richer joy in anticipation.
GOD MUST VINDICATE HIS SON
“Every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him” (Rev 1:7).
This vindication–the clearing of His name–will be done when the Lord Jesus reappears to those who despitefully used and abused Him. Men of the world, spend fortunes trying to clear their name. There is nothing so terrible as a man dying under suspicion or wrongful accusation. That is how the Saviour died!
“This deceiver said, ‘He saved others Himself He cannot save if He be the Christ the chosen of God.'”
It was plain to see that they understood the implications, there would be a Messiah, but a Messiah that ended up on a cross, must be false!
“Write not, the King of the Jews” , but that He said He was. “He said,” we, the chief priests who protested to Pilate certainly do not believe it. So Pilate and Herod; Ananias and Caiaphas; the Scribes and the Pharisees: the Centurion and the Soldiers–all will see Him again. “They will look on Him whom they pierced.”
The last the nation of Israel saw of Him, He was impaled in shame on a tree. What a shock to the national conscience when their Messiah enters Jerusalem via the Mount of Olives bearing the marks of Golgotha’s crucifixion. And the thrice spoken words from the excellent glory will be seen by all to be true. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
HE MUST VALIDATE HIS CLAIMS
“You shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming tn the clouds of heaven” (Mk. 14:62).
He said He was Messiah to the woman at the well; He said He was a King to Pilate in the judgment hall; He said He was the Son of Man to Nathanael, and to the blind man He was the Son of God.
The Messiah is Jehovah’s anointed King.
Will He be King? Yes, says Zechariah, the prophet. “He shall be King over the whole earth” (Zech 14:9).
Is He truly Messiah? Yes, and when Israel sees Him they will cry out, “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried (away) our sorrows.” We thought at the time His claims were false, they will say, and because of that, we saw him “as stricken of God and afflicted.” Now we know He is our Messiah–“wounded for our transgression and bruised for our iniquities” (Isa 53:4-5).
This involves, the discipline, restoration, unification and pardoning of Israel. The messianic prophecies of the Old Testament that demand a literal fulfillment by the return of Christ will enable the Saviour to claim the crown rights, not only of a greater Israel, but of the whole earth.
In recent years in the Restoration Movement, within the Evangelical Church there has been a resurgence of teaching, (the old Post Millennium doctrine) that says, there is no future for Israel as a nation; no millennial reign of Christ and no literal fulfillment of Old Testament messianic prophecies regarding a coming kingdom. To hold such a position renders many of the prophecies of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms without meaning. We must have confidence to sing Isaac Watts hymn:
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,
Doth it’s successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moon shall wax and wane no more.
The vindication of His name, and the validation of His claims, therefore, are two prime reasons why the Saviour must and will return.
But there is a third reason, personal and precious, why the Saviour must return:
TO FULFILL A PROMISE TO HIS OWN
“I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am there you may be also” (Jn. 14:3).
Where is He now? He is glorified. And so shall we be glorified in Him. In His high priestly prayer in John 17, the Son requests the Father to have His human nature, which He acquired on earth, glorified. He is asking that it be received up and into the place of glory where He had been, before there was any created thing, in the solitude of Eternity. He is asking that His manhood reap the fruit of its obedience in a glory to which no other created being ever attained.
We know that request was granted and He entered in and sat down on the “right hand of the Majesty on high.” His manhood is now glorified.
But that was not all He prayed. He continued, “Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold My glory” (v. 24). With His perfect humanity glorified, He now asks that all of us–sons of a fallen race, redeemed and reconciled through the blood of the cross, be with Him in His exaltation. And for that to take place, we too must be glorified. Then the promise will be fulfilled, “I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” What a prospect!
HE MUST RETURN TO RESTORE CREATION
The apostle Paul, writing to the Romans (ch. 8), talks about creation as though it saw and felt as a creature (v. 19), waiting with head erect and neck outstretched. Why such anticipation? Why is creation so interested in the revealing of the sons of God? Why this mysterious harmony and empathy between the creation and the creature? The Apostle is telling us that nature has shared in the curse brought about by man’s fall. Nature feels it, although blameless.
So creation waits and groans. While it waits, the people of God are also waiting and groaning under the bondage of corruption. All is not well, all is not as it should be, and, praise God, not as it will be.
The mechanics of creation’s moving parts swell and creak, sometimes exploding in frustrated anger–earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, typhoons, hurricanes. The Bible word “corruption” is now modernized and called “pollution.” A prominent politician recently referred to this planet as an “environmental nightmare.” The cancer cell, the scourge of present-day living, is only one by-product of a polluted world. Man talks about protection from radio activity, the danger of holes in the ozone layer, clean air zones. Yet never were the atmosphere, the rivers, the seas, and the oceans more polluted.
We could think, too, of moral pollution. This world is a cesspool of wickedness. The sun shines on the wicked as well as the just; the rain waters the crops of the rebel as well as the righteous. But soon all will change. All is going to be delivered when the Lord Jesus returns. Soon He will come to the air for His Church, and then to the earth to cleanse, restore, and purify it with a refiner’s fire. There will be rapid reversal of the present world system. What will happen?
There will be a time of undeterred prosperity. There will be a time when the animal creation and nature itself will be restored to its pristine condition. There will be the reintroduction of longevity of life. There will be reigning in righteousness and peace.
He must display publicly the glory of His church
From God’s viewpoint, the Church is a thing of exquisite beauty–and will be seen to be so, for when He returns, that will be made universally known. He will present it to Himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle . . . (Eph. 5:27).
Two words are used of this manifestation. Ephesians 2:7 states, “That He might show . . . ” this is public acclamation and demonstration “That He might present . . . ” (Eph. 5:27). We, in marvellous grace, will be placed alongside Him!
At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, her husband was the first to be on his knees at her feet, paying homage. But think of this; our Lord Jesus Christ, Head over all things to the church, will place us in that crowning day by His side. We shall be the reflection of His glory and power, “wondered at in all them that believe” (2 Thess. 1).
“Let all that look for hasten that coming joyful day
By earnest consecration to walk the narrow way,
By gathering in the lost ones for whom our Lord did die;
For the crowning day is coming by and by.”