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T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
it should be so? We have seen th a t he once offered himself without spot to God, and therefore, When He Gomes a Second Time his present relation to human guilt will finally cease. He will come, moreover, without those sicknesses and infirmities which arise out of sin. At his first ad vent he came in suffering flesh, 'and then he came to hunger and to thirst, to be without a place whereon to lay his head; he came to have his heart broken with reproach, and his soul grieved with the hardness of men’s hearts. He was compassed with infirmity; he came unto his God with strong crying and tears; he agonized even unto blqody sweat; and so he journeyed on w ith all the insignia of sin hanging about him. But when he comes a second time it will be without the weakness, pain, poverty, and shame which accompany sin. There will then be no marred visage nor bleeding brow. He will have re-assumed his ancient glory. It will be his glorious appearing. Then the text adds: “He shall appear without sin unto salvation.” What does th a t mean? It means th a t he will then display the perfect salvation of all those who put th eir tru st in him. He will come to celebrate the great victory of mercy over sin. At his coming he will set his foot upon the dragon’s head, and bruise Satan under our feet. He will come to have all his enemies put under his feet. To-day we fight, and he fights in us. Iiife from th e Dead But th e resurrection is th e salvation principally intended here, j Alas, what evil sin hath done! How'-many of our best beloved lie rotting beneath the clay! The worms are feeding on those whose voices were the music of our lives. The scythe of death has cut them down like grass; they lie together in rows in yon der cemetery. Who slew all these? The sting of death is sin. But when our Lord cometh, who is the resurrection and the life, from beds of dust and silent clay our dead men shall rise; they shall leap
removed in any other way than by the d eath of his dear Son, Jesus would not have died. If there had been within the range of supposition any method of p ar don except by the sacrifice of himself, depend upon it Jesus would never have bowed his head to death. The great F ath e r would never have inflicted death upon the perfect One if it had been possible th a t the cup should pass from him. He could never have inflict ed upon his Beloved a superfluous pain. His death was needful; but blessed be God, having been once endured, it has once for all put away sin, and hence it will never be endured again. II. We come now to look a t the rest of the text. Once, and no second; And Y et a Second “He shall appear a second time.” Yes, Christ Jesus shall appear a second time; but not a second time for the same pur pose as before. He will appear. The appearing will be of th e most open, char acter. He will not be visible in some quiet place where two or three are met, but he will appear as the lightning is seen in the heavens. At his first appear ing he was truly seen : wherever he went he could be looked a t and gazed upon, and touched and handled. He will appear quite as plainly by-and-by, among the sons of men. The observation of him will be far more general than at his first ad vent; for “every eye shall see him.” Every eye did not see him h ere when he came the first time, for he did not travel out of Palestine, save only when, as an infant all unknown, he was carried down into Egypt. But when he comes a sec ond tim e all the nations of the world shall behold him. They th a t are dead shall rise to see him, both saints and sinners; and they th a t are alive and remain when he shall come shall be absorbed in this greatest of spectacles. His second appearing will be without sin. T h at is to say, he will bring no sin- offering with him, and will not himself be a sacrifice for sin. What need th at
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