Christ Our Life–Soon To Appear
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 26, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear
with Him in glory."
Colossians 3:4.
MY discourse on Sunday mornings is very frequently the gathering up of
the thoughts and experiences of the week– a handful of barley which I
have gleaned among the sheaves. But I could not thrust upon you, this
morning, the poverty-stricken productions of my own insufferable
dullness of brain, weariness of heart and sickness of spirit during
this week, for this were a sure method of making you partakers of my
misery. I have wandered through a wilderness, but I will not scatter
handfuls of the hot sand among you. I have traversed the valley of the
shadow of death, but I will not repeat the howling of Apollyon.
This day of rest is appointed for a far better purpose. Scarcely
knowing how to fulfill the appointed service of this morning, I sit
down and remember the ancient minstrel, who, when the genius of song
had for a time departed from him, was nevertheless called upon to
discourse sweet music. What could he do but play his fingers among the
strings of his harp and begin some old accustomed strain? His fingers
and his lips moved at first mechanically. The first few stanzas dropped
from him from mere force of habit and fell like stones without life or
power. But by and by he struck a string which woke the echoes of his
soul–a note fell on his heart like a blazing torch and the smoldering
fire within his soul suddenly flamed up. The Heaven-born muse was with
him and he sang as in his better times.
So may it be my happy lot this morning–to place my fingers on the
strings which know so well the name of Jesus– and begin to discourse
upon a theme which so constantly has made these walls ring! Although at
first insipid periods may try your patient ears, yet shall they
nevertheless lead to something that may kindle in you hope and joy and
love, if not rapture and delight! O for the wings of eagles to bear our
souls upward towards the Throne of our God! Already my heart warms with
the expectation of a blessing!
Does the earth feel the rising of the sun before the first bright beams
gild the east? Are there not sharp-witted birds which know within
themselves that the sunbeams are on the road and therefore begin right
joyously to wake up their fellows to tell them that the morning comes
leaping over the hills? Certain hopeful, joyful thoughts have entered
within our heart–prophetic of the Comforter's Divine appearing–to
make glad our souls. Does not the whole earth prophecy the coming of
the happy days of spring? There are certain little bulbs that swell,
and flowers that peep from under the black mold and say, "We know what
others do not know, that the summer's coming, coming very soon."
And surely there are rising hopes within us this morning which show
their golden flowers above our heaviness and assure us with joyful
accents that Christ is coming to cheer our hearts yet again! Believer,
you shall once again behold His comfortable Presence! You shall no
longer cry unto Him out of the depths, but your soul shall lean upon
His arm and drink deep of His love! Beloved, I proceed in the hope that
the gracious Lord will favor His most unworthy servant and in His mercy
fulfill our best expectations.
Our text is a very simple one and bears upon its surface four thoughts.
First, that Christ is our life. That, secondly, Christ is hidden and so
is our life. That thirdly, Christ will one day appear. And, fourthly,
that when He appears, we, also, shall appear with Him in glory.
I. The first most precious and experimental doctrine lies in these
words, "CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE." We hardly realize that we are reading
in Colossians when we meet with this marvelously rich expression. It is
so like John's way of talking.
See his opening words in his Gospel, "In Him was life and the life was
the light of men." Remember how he reports the words at Lazarus' tomb,
"I am the resurrection and the life." How familiarly he speaks of the
Lord Jesus under the same Character in his first Epistle–"That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the
Word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us."
How closely John cleaves to Jesus! He does not say, as the preacher of
this morning will–Christ is the food of our life and the joy of our
life and the object of our life and so on. No, but "Christ is our
life." I think that Peter or James would have said, "He is the strength
or guide of our life," but John must put his head right on the Savior's
bosom–he cannot talk at a distance, or whisper from a second seat–his
head must go sweetly down upon the Savior's heaving bosom.
He must feel himself in the closest, nearest possible contact with his
Lord. And so he puts it, "The life was manifested," getting to the very
pith and marrow of it at once. Paul has somewhat of the same loving
spirit, and if not entitled to be called, "that disciple whom Jesus
loved," the angel might well have addressed him as he did Daniel, "O
man, greatly beloved." Therefore, you see, he leaps at once into the
depths of the Truth of God and delights to dive in it. Whereas others,
like the Israelites, stand outside the bound which surrounds the mount,
he, like Moses, enters into the place where God is and beholds the
excellent glory.
We, I fear, must compass this holy Truth round about before we can
fully enter into it. Blessed is it to wait at the doors of such a
Truth, though far better to enter in. Let it be understood that it is
not natural but spiritual life of which the text treats and then we
shall not mislead the ignorant.
1. Christ is the source of our life. "For as the Father raises up the
dead, and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will." Our
Lord's own words are–"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears My
Word and believes on Him that sent Me has everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that hear shall live."
Four verilies, as if to show the importance of the Truth here taught to
us. We are dead in sin. That same voice which brought Lazarus out of
the tomb brings us out of our grave of sin. We hear the Word of God and
we live according to the promise–"Awake you that sleep and arise from
the dead and Christ shall give you light" (Eph. 5:14). Jesus is our
Alpha, as well as our Omega–He is the Author of our faith, as well as
its Finisher. We should have been to this day dead in trespasses and
sins if it had not been said, "And you has He quickened." It is by His
life that we live. He gives us the living water which is in us a well
of water springing up unto everlasting life.
2. Christ is the Substance of our spiritual life. What is life? The
physician cannot discover it. The anatomist hunts in vain for it
through flesh and nerve and brain. Be quick, Sir, with that scalpel of
yours! "Life's just departed," men say. Cut quick to the heart and see
if you cannot find, at least, some lingering footprint of the departed
thing called life. Subtle anatomist, what have you found? Look at that
brain–what can you see there but a certain quantity of matter
strangely fashioned? Can you discover what is life?
It is true that somewhere in that brain and in that spinal cord it
dwells and that heart with its perpetual pumping and heaving has
something or other to do with it–but where is the substance, the real
substance of the thing called life? Ariel's wings cannot pursue it–it
is too subtle. Thought knows it but cannot grasp it–knows it from its
being like itself, but cannot give a picture of it–nor represent what
it is. In the new nature of the Christian there is much mystery, but
there is none as to what is its life! If you could cut into the center
of the renewed heart you would find sure footprints of Divine life, for
you would find love to Jesus.
No, you would find Christ Himself there! If you walk in search of the
springs of the sea of the new nature, you will find the Lord Jesus at
the fount of all. "All my springs are in You," said David. Christ
creates the life-throbs of the Believer's soul! He sends the
life-floods through the man according to His own will! If you could
penetrate the brain of the Believer you would find Christ to be the
central thought moving every other thought and causing every other
thought to take root and grow out of itself! You would find Christ to
be the true Substance of the inner life of the spiritual nature of
every soul quickened by the breath of Heaven's life.
3. Christ is the Sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed
upon but Jesus' flesh and blood? As to his natural life he needs bread,
but as to his spiritual life, of which, alone, we are now speaking, he
has learned that, "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word
which proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live." "This is the
bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man may eat of it and not
die. I am the living bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eats
of this bread, he shall live forever–and the bread that I will give is
My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
We cannot live on the sand of the wilderness. We want the manna which
drops from on high. Our skin bottles of creature confidence cannot
yield us a drop of moisture–we drink of the Rock which follows us and
that rock is Christ. O wayworn Pilgrims in this wilderness of sin! You
never get a morsel, much less a meal to satisfy the craving hunger of
your spirits except you find it in Christ Jesus! When you feed on Him
your soul can sing, "He has satisfied my mouth with good things, so
that my youth is renewed like the eagle's." But if you have Him not,
your bursting wine vat and your well-filled barn can give you no sort
of satisfaction–rather you will lament over them in the words of
Wisdom– "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"
O how true are Jesus' own Words, "For My flesh is meat, indeed, and My
blood is drink, indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood
dwells in Me and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me and I live
by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me." Christ is
the solace of our life! Noah's ark had but one window and we must not
expect more. Jesus is the only window which lets light into the
Christian's spirit when he is under sharp affliction. Kirke White's
picture of his midnight voyage, when one star alone of all the train
could guide the mariner's foundering boat to the port of peace, is a
faint but truthful representation of the Christian's life in its hour
of peril.
Paul says that during his disastrous voyage, "neither sun nor stars for
many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on them and all hope that
they should be saved was taken away, but then, just then, the Angel of
God stood at his side." And even so will the Lord Jesus appear to His
saints in their extremities and be their joy and safety. And, Brethren,
if Christ appears, what matters it where we are?–
"Midst darkest shades if He appears My dawning is begun. He is my
soul's bright morning star, And He my rising sun."
Do not talk of poverty! Our tents are the curtains of Solomon and not
the smoke-dried skins of Kedar when Christ is present! Speak not of
need! There are all manner of precious fruits laid up for my Beloved
when He comes into my cot. Speak not of sickness! My soul is no longer
sick except it is of love, but full of holy health when once the Sun of
Righteousness has risen with healing beneath His wings! Christ is the
very soul of my soul's life. His loving kindness is better than life!
There is nothing in life worth living for but Christ. "Whom have I in
Heaven but You and there is none upon earth that I desire beside You!"
The rest is mere skim milk and curds fit to be given to the swine, but
Christ is the cream. All else is but the husk and bran and coarse
gritty meal. The Lord Jesus is the pure flour. All that remains is the
chaff–fan it and the wind shall carry it away, or the fire shall burn
it and little shall be the loss! Christ is the golden grain, the only
thing worth having. Life's true life, the true heart's blood, the
innermost fount of life is in Jesus. To the true Christian, Christ is
the object of his life. As speeds the ship towards the port, so hastens
the Believer towards the haven of his Savior's bosom. As flies the
arrow to its goal, so flies the Christian towards the perfecting of his
fellowship with Christ Jesus. As the soldier fights for his captain and
is crowned in his captain's victory, so the Believer contends for
Christ and gets his triumph out of the triumphs of his Master.
"For him to live is Christ"–at least it is this he seeks after and
counts that all life apart from this is merely death in another form.
That wicked flesh of his. That cumbrous clay. Those many temptations.
That Satanic trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil–all these
mar his outward actions. But if he could be what he would be, he would
stand like the bullock at Christ's altar to be slaughtered, or march
forward like a bullock in Christ's furrow to plough the blood-bought
field. He desires that he may not have a hair of his head
unconsecrated, nor heave one breath which is not for his Savior, nor
speak one word which is not for the glory of his Lord!
His heart's ambition is to live so long as he can better glorify Christ
on earth than in Heaven and to be taken up when it shall be better for
him and more honorable for his Master that he should be with Jesus
where He is. As the river seeks the sea, so, Jesus, I seek You! O let
me find You and melt my life into Yours forever! It follows from all
this that Christ is the Exemplar of our life. A Christian lays the life
of Christ before him as the schoolboy puts his copy at the top of the
page and he tries to draw each line, down-stroke and up-stroke,
according to the handwriting of Christ Jesus.
He has the portrait of Christ before him as the artist has in his
studio his Greek sculptures, busts and torsos. He knows that there is
all the true anatomy of virtue in Christ. If he wants to study life, he
studies from Christ, or, if he would closely learn the beauties of the
antique, he studies from the Savior, for Christ is ancient and modern,
antique and living, too! Therefore God's artists in their
life-sculpture keep to the Savior and count that if they imitate every
vein and fetch out every muscle of their great Copy, they shall then
have produced the perfection of manhood. I would give nothing for your
religion if you do not seek to be like Christ! Where there is the same
life within, there will, there must be, to a great extent, the same
developments without.
I have heard it said and I think I have sometimes noticed it, that
husbands and wives who are truly knit together in near and dear
conjugal affection, grow somewhat like each other in expression, if not
in feature. This I well know, that if the heart is truly wedded to the
Lord Jesus and lives in near fellowship with Him, it must grow like He
is. Grace is the light, our loving heart is the sensitive plate, Jesus
is the Person who fills the lens of our soul and soon a heavenly
photograph of His Character is produced. There will be a similarity of
spirit, temper, motive and action. It will not be manifest merely in
great things but in little matters, too, for even our speech will
betray us.
Thus you see I have only been wading along the banks, or at best
conducting you up to the knees in the gently flowing stream of my text.
Experience must lead you further, for there is a great deep here. Paul
could perceive it, for he does not say as I have been saving, "Jesus is
the Source of our life, the Substance of our life, the Solace of our
life, the Object of our life, the Exemplar of our life." Paul says,
"Christ is our life," and so He is, indeed.
Just as we have a natural life of which we know so little, so we have a
spiritual life which is more mysterious by far and of that we know
beyond its effects and operations little more than this–that Christ is
that life. That when we get Christ we have eternal life. That if we
have life it is only because we have Christ in us, the hope of Glory. I
must pause a minute here to say that what is true concerning our
spiritual life, now, is equally true of our spiritual life in Heaven.
Different as are the circumstances of the life in Heaven and the life
on earth, yet as to real essence there is only one life in both places.
Saints in Heaven live by precisely the same life which makes them live
here.
Spiritual life in the kingdom of Grace and in the kingdom of Glory is
the same–only here it is uneducated spiritual life–there it is
educated and trained. Here it is undeveloped, it is the babe, the
child–there it is developed, manifested, perfected. But in very deed
the life is precisely the same. Saints need not to be born again after
once being regenerate. You who have been born again have now within you
the life which will last on throughout eternity! You have the very same
vital spark of heavenly flame which will burn in Glory, world without
end. It will be no digression if we here remark that as we have eternal
life in having Christ, this marks our dignity.
"Christ our life!" Why, this cannot be said of princes or kings! What
is their life? Talk of blue blood and pedigree, and so on–here is
something more, here is God's own Son–our life! You cannot say this of
angels. Bright spirits, your songs are sweet and your lives are happy,
but Christ is not your life! No, this cannot be asserted of archangels.
Gabriel! You may bend yourself before God's Throne and worship Him in
praises too high for me, but you cannot boast what I can surely
claim–that Christ is my life!
Even those mysterious presences–angels of whom we read in Ezekiel and
Revelation called the four living creatures–though they seem to bear
up the moving throne of Deity, creatures who appear to be an embodiment
of Divine power and glory–yet even of these it is not written that
Christ is their life! Herein men–redeemed, elect, favored men rise to
a supernatural light, for they can say what no spirits but those
redeemed by blood may venture to assert–"Christ is our life." Does not
this account for Christian holiness? How can a man live in sin if
Christ is his life? Jesus dwells in him and he continues in sin?
Impossible! Can he sin without his life? He must do so if he sins,
because Christ cannot sin and Christ is his life.
Why, if I see the saint ever so self-denying, ever so zealous, ever so
earnest, ever so like his Lord, it is no wonder now, when I understand
that Christ is his life! See how secure the Christian is. No dagger can
reach his life, for it is hidden beyond the skies. No temptation, no
hellish blast, no exhalation from the Stygian pits of temptation can
ever, with burning fever or chill consumption, waste the life of the
Christian spiritually. No, it is hid with Christ! It is Christ and
unless Christ dies, the Christian's life dies not. Oh how safe, how
honored, how happy is the Christian!
But we may not linger longer, time warns us to proceed. There is much
more than ever we shall be able to bring out. Let down your
buckets–here is a deep well! I hope you have something to draw
with–and you that have life within have. You that have not may look
down the well and see the darkness, or the reflection of the water–but
you cannot reach the cooling flood. It is only you who can draw who can
know the excellence of this living water. I pray the Lord help you to
drink to the full and draw again! There is no fear of ever draining the
inexhaustible fullness of this deep Truth of God.
II. Now, as our Lord Jesus has not yet appeared in His Glory, OUR LIFE
IS THEREFORE HIDDEN. "The earnest expectation of the creature waits for
the manifestation of the sons of God," but as yet they are unknown and
unmani-fested. The major part of the Believer's life is not seen at all
and never can be by the unspiritual eye. Where is Christ? To the
worldling at the present moment there is no such Person as Christ. He
says, "I cannot see Him, touch Him, hear Him. He is beyond all
cognizance of my senses. I do not believe in Him." Just such is
spiritual life to the unbeliever.
You must not expect, because you are a Christian, that unbelievers will
begin to admire you and say, "What a mystery! This man has a new life
in him! What an admirable thing, what a desirable possession! We wish
we partook of the same." Nothing of the kind. They do not know that you
have such a life at all. They can see your outward actions, but your
inward life is quite out of reach of their observation.
Christ is in Heaven today. He is full of joy. But the world does not
know His joy. No worldly heart is boasting and rejoicing because Christ
is glad in Heaven. Christ today is pleading before the Father's Throne,
but the world does not see Christ's engagements. Christ's occupations
are all hidden from carnal eyes. Christ at this present moment reigns
and has power in Heaven and earth and Hell–but what does the worldly
man see of it? Jesus has fellowship with all His saints everywhere–but
what does the ungodly discern? I might stand and preach until midnight
concerning my Lord, but all that men who are unconverted would gain
would be to hear what I have to tell and then to say, "Perhaps it is
true." But they could not possibly discern it–the thing is beyond the
cognizance of sense.
So is our spiritual life. Beloved, you may reign over sin, but the
sinner does not comprehend your being a king. You may officiate as a
priest before God, but the ungodly man does not perceive your
priesthood and your worship. Do not expect him to do so! Your labor is
lost if you try by any way to introduce him to these mysteries except
by the same door through which you came yourself. I never try to teach
a horse astronomy–and to teach an unconverted man spiritual experience
would be a folly of the same sort. The man who knows nothing of our
inner life takes up "Pilgrim's Progress," and he says, "Yes, it is a
very wonderful allegory."
It is, Sir, but unrenewed minds know nothing about it. When we have
sometimes read explanations of the Pilgrim's Progress, we could not but
detect that the writer of the explanation had need to have had it
explained to himself. He could describe the shell, but the kernel of
the nut was far beyond his reach! He had not learned to crack the shell
and to feed upon the meat. Now it must be so, it must be so, if Christ
is our life. Christ has gone away and cannot be seen. It must be so
that the greater proportion of the spiritual life must be forever a
secret to all but spiritual men.
But there is a part which men do see and that I may liken to Christ
when He was on earth–Christ seen of men and angels. What did the world
do with Christ as soon as they saw Him? Set Him in the chair of State
and fall down and worship His absolute perfection? No, not they–"He
was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief." Outside of the camp was His place! Cross-bearing was for Him
His occupation, not of one day, but of every day. Did the world yield
Him solace and rest?
Foxes, you have your holes! Birds of the air, you have your nests! But
the Son of Man had no where to lay His head! Earth could afford Him no
bed, no house, no shelter! At last it cast Him out for death and
crucified Him and then would have denied Him a tomb if one of His
disciples had not begged His body! Such you must expect to be the lot
of the part of your spiritual life which men can see. As soon as they
see it to be spiritual life, they will treat it as they treated the
Savior.
They will despise it. "Sure!" they say, "pretty fancies, fine airs,
nice ideas." You expect them to give you comfort, do you? Worldlings to
give you comfort? Do you think that Christ will have anywhere to lay
His head in this world today any more than He had 1800 years ago? You
go about to find what God gives the foxes and the birds–but what He
never meant to give to you in this world–a place to lay your head.
Your place to lay your head is up yonder on your Savior's bosom, but
not here. You dream that men will admire you, that the more holy you
are and the more Christ-like you are, the more peaceable people will be
towards you. My dear Friends, you do not know what you are thinking!
"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant
as his lord. If they have called the master of the house, Beelzebub,
how much more shall they call them of His household?" I believe if we
were more like Christ we should be much more loved by His friends and
much more hated by His enemies. I do not believe the world would be
half so lenient to the Church, today, if it were not that the Church
has grown complacent to the world.
When any of us speak up boldly, mercenary motives are imputed to us!
Our language is turned upside down and we are abhorred of men. We get
smooth things, Brethren, because I am afraid we are too much like the
false prophets who prophesied peace, peace, where there was no peace.
Let us be true to our Master! Stand out and come out and be like He,
and we must expect the same treatment which He had. And if we receive
it we can only say, "This is what I expected."–
" ' Tis, no surprising thing
That we should be unknown.
The Jewish world knew not their king,
God's everlasting Son."
III. CHRIST WILL APPEAR. The text speaks of it as a fact to be taken
for granted. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear." It is not a
matter of question in the Christian Church whether Christ will appear
or not. Has not Christ appeared once? Yes, after a certain sort. I
remember reading a quaint expression of some old Divine that the book
of Revelation might quite as well be called an Obvelation, for it was
rather a hiding than a revealing of things to come. So, when Jesus came
it was hardly a revealing, it was a hiding of our Lord.
It is true that He was "manifest in the flesh," but it is equally true
that the flesh shrouded and concealed His Glory. The first
manifestation was very partial–it was Christ seen through a
glass–Christ in the mist of grief and the cloud of humiliation. Christ
is yet to appear in the strong sense of the word "appearing." He is to
come out and shine forth. He is to leave the robes of scorn and shame
behind and to come in the Glory of the Father and all His holy angels
with Him. This is the constant teaching of the Word of God and the
constant hope of the Church, that Christ will appear.
A thousand questions at once suggest themselves–How will Christ
appear? When will Christ appear? Where will Christ appear? And so on.
What God answers we may enquire, but some of our questions are mere
impertinence. How will Christ appear? I believe Christ will appear in
Person. Whenever I think of the Second Coming, I never can tolerate the
idea of a spiritual coming. That always seems to me to be the most
transparent folly that can possibly be put together, because Christ
cannot come spiritually–He is always here! "Lo! I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world."
Christ's spiritual coming never can be that which is spoken of in
Scripture, as the day of our release. I sometimes say to Brethren, "Do
you think if Christ were to come spiritually now, we should observe the
ordinances better?" "Yes, certainly." "Do you think, for instance, the
ordinance of the Lord's Supper would be better attended to?" "Yes, no
doubt it would." Yes, but then this proves that this is not the coming
which the Bible speaks of, because it is expressly said of the Lord's
Supper that we are to do it in remembrance of Him, till He comes. A
spiritual coming would make us do it more zealously.
There must be another form of coming which would justify our giving up
the Supper altogether and that must be of a personal character–for
then, and then only, might the Supper properly cease. We shall not need
to have a supper to remind us of the Person, when the Person Himself
shall be present in our midst reigning and triumphant in His Church! We
believe in a Personal reign and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
how will He come? He will doubtless come with great splendor. The
angels of God shall be His attendants. We gather from Scripture that He
will come to reign in the midst of His people. That the house of Israel
will acknowledge Him as King–yes, that all nations shall bow down
before Him and kings shall pay Him homage.
None shall be able to stand against Him. "Those that pierced Him shall
wail because of Him." He will come to discern between the righteous and
the wicked, to separate the goats from the sheep. He will come
graciously to adjudge His people their reward according to their works.
He will give to those who have been faithful over a few things to be
rulers over many things. And those who have been faithful over many
things shall be rulers over many cities. He will come to discern
between the works of His people–such as are only wood, hay and stubble
will be consumed. Such as are gold and silver and precious stones will
stand the fire.
He will come to condemn the wicked to eternal punishment and to take
His people up to their everlasting mansions in the skies. We look for
such a coming and without entering into minute details, drawing charts
and painting pictures, we are content to believe that He is coming in
His Glory to show Himself to be what He always was–King of kings and
Lord of lords, God over all, blessed forever! He is to be adored and
worshipped and no more to be despised and rejected of men.
When will He come? That is a question which Unbelief asks with a start.
Faith replies, "It is not for you to know the times and seasons. Of
that day and of that hour no man knows." Some simpleton says, "But we
may know the week, month, or year." Do not trifle with God's Word and
make a fool of yourself because you must know that the expression means
that you do not know anything about the time at all and never will.
Christ will come in a time when we look not for Him. Perhaps when the
world and the Church are most asleep. When the wise and the foolish
virgins have, alike, fallen into a deep slumber. When the stewards
shall begin to beat their fellow servants and to drink and to be drunk.
At midnight, or perhaps not till cock-crowing, He will come like a
thief and the house shall be suddenly broken up.
But come He will, and that is enough for you and for me to know. And
when He comes we shall appear, for as He shall appear, we shall also
appear with Him in glory.
IV. The fourth thought is THAT WHEN CHRIST SHALL APPEAR, WE ALSO SHALL
APPEAR. Do you ever feel like those lions in the Zoological Gardens,
restlessly walking up and down before the bars of their cage and
seeming to feel that they were never meant to be confined within those
narrow limits? Sometimes they are for thrusting their heads through the
bars and then for dashing back and tearing the back of their dungeon,
or for rending up the pavement beneath them as if they yearned for
liberty. Do you ever feel like that?
Does your soul ever want to get free from her cage? Here is an iron bar
of sin, of doubt, and there is another iron bar of mistrust and
infirmity. Oh, if you could tear them away, could get rid of them all
you would do something for Christ–you would be like Christ! Oh, if you
could but by some means or other burst the bands of this captivity! But
you cannot and therefore you feel uneasy. You may have seen an eagle
with a chain upon its foot, standing on a rock–poor unhappy thing! It
flaps its wings–looks up to the sun–wants to fly right straight ahead
at it and stare the sun out of countenance–looks to the blue sky and
seems as if it could sniff the blue beyond the dusky clouds and wants
to be away.
And so it tries its wings and dreams of mounting–but that chain, that
cruel chain, remorselessly holds it down. Has not it often been so with
you? You feel, "I am not meant to be what I am. I am sure I am not. I
have a something in me which is adapted for something better and higher
and I want to mount and soar–but that chain–that dragging chain of
the body of sin and death keeps me down."
Now it is to such as you that this text comes and says to you, "Yes,
your present state is not your soul's true condition. You have a hidden
life in you. That life of yours pants to get out of the bonds and
fetters which control it and it shall be delivered soon, for Christ is
coming! And when Christ shall appear you shall appear–the same
appearance that belongs to Him belongs to you! He shall come and then
your day of true happiness and joy and peace and everything that you
are panting for and longing for shall certainly come."
I wonder whether the little oak inside the acorn–for there is a whole
oak there and there are all the roots and all the boughs and everything
inside that acorn–I wonder whether that little oak inside the acorn
ever has any premonition of the summer weather that will float over it
a hundred years from now and of the mists that will hang in autumn on
its sere leaves and of the hundreds of acorns which itself will cast,
every autumn, upon the earth, when it shall become in the forest a
great tree?
You and I are like that acorn! Inside of each of us are the germs of
great things. There is the tree that we are to be–I mean there is the
spiritual thing we are to be–both in body and soul! Even now within us
and sometimes here below, in happy moments, we get some inklings of
what we are to be. And then how we want to burst the shell, to get out
of the acorn and to be the oak! Yes, but stop. Christ has not come,
Christian, and you cannot get out of that till the time shall come for
Jesus to appear. Then shall you appear with Him in glory.
You will very soon perceive in your rainwater, certain ugly little
things which swim and twist about in it, always trying, if they can, to
reach the surface and breathe through one end of their bodies. What
makes these little things so lively, those innumerable little things
like very small tadpoles? Why are they so lively? Possibly they have an
idea of what they are going to be. The day will come when all of a
sudden there will come out of the case of the creature that you have
had swimming about in your water, a long-legged thing with two bright
gauze-like wings which will mount into the air and on a summer's
evening will dance in the sunlight!
It is nothing more nor less than a gnat! You have, swimming there, a
gnat in one of its earliest stages. You are just like that–you are an
undeveloped being–you have not your wings yet and yet sometimes, in
your activity for Christ, when the strong desires for something better
are upon you, you leap in foretaste of the bliss to come! I do not know
what
I am to be, but I feel that there is a heart within me too big for
these ribs to hold! I have an immortal spark which cannot have been
intended to burn on this poor earth and then to go out. It must have
been meant to burn on Heaven's altar.
Wait a bit and when Christ comes you will know what you are. We are in
the chrysalis state now and those who are the liveliest worms among us
grow more and more uneasy in that chrysalis state. Some are so frozen
up in it that they forget the hereafter and appear content to remain a
chrysalis forever. But others of us feel we would sooner not be than be
what we now are forever. We feel as if we must burst our bonds and when
that time of bursting shall come, when the chrysalis shall get its
painted wings and mount to the land of flowers, then shall we be
satisfied.
The text tells us–"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear"–when
He comes out in all His Glory–"we also shall appear with Him in
glory." If you would like these gracious promises drawn out into detail
with regard to the body you may listen to just such words as these. "It
is sown a soulish body, it is raised a Spiritual body. The first man is
of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from Heaven. As is the
earthy such are they, also, that are earthy. As is the heavenly such
are they, also, that are heavenly."
Whatever Christ's body is in Heaven, our body is to be like it.
Whatever its glory and strength and power, our vile body is to be
fashioned like unto His glorious body! As for our soul, whatever of
absolute perfection–whatever of immortal joy Christ possesses, we are
to possess that. And as for honor–whatever of esteem and love Christ
may have from intelligent beings, we are to share in the same. And as
for position before God–whatever Christ has–we are to stand where He
stands.
Are His enemies put to confusion? So are ours. Do all worlds discern
His Glory? They shall discern ours, too. Is all dishonor wiped away
from Him? So shall it be from us. Do they forget forever the shame and
spitting, the Cross and the nails? So shall they in our case. Is it
forever, "Gory! And honor! And power! And dominion! And bliss without
end!"? So shall it be in our case! Let us comfort one another,
therefore, with these words and look up out of our wormwood and our
chrysalis state to that happier and better day when we shall be like
Christ, for we shall see Him as He is.
All this has nothing to do with a great many of you. You will die but
you will never rise like Christ. You will die and you will die–why did
I say, "and you will die?" Why, because you will have to feel the
Second Death, and that second death, mark you, is as much more
horrifying than the first as the trumpet of the angel is more terrible
than the voice of the preacher can be this morning!
Oh, I would that Christ were your life, but you are dead and God will
say of you one of these days as Abraham said of Sarah, "Bury the dead
out of My sight," and you must be put out of His sight as an obnoxious
putrid thing. Oh that He would quicken you this day! "There is life,"
says the hymn, "in a look at the Crucified One." God help you to
exercise one look at that Christ of whom I spoke and then you shall
join with the rest of His people in saying, "Christ is our life."
May God bless these feeble words of mine and own them because of their
weakness–the more to illustrate His own Grace and power, for Jesus'
sake. Amen.