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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
April 1924
“ In Christ J esus —Glorified ” Dr. A. T. Pierson
keynote of both of the epistles to the Thessa lians is promptly struck in the third verse of > first chapter, in the phrase, patience of hope our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are turned
2. OVER SUFFERING, endured at the hands of the wicked. 3. OVER DEATH, in resurrection and translation. 4. OVER ANTICHRIST and the devil. And in this triumph the saints are to be in every respect copartakers with Christ. His triumph is theirs, and His joy is theirs. Only in this grand consummation will it be possible to un derstand what it is to be in Christ Jesus. In our present experience several necessary hindrances exist to our full realization of the blessedness of our estate in Him. First, All this sphere pertains to the invisible. We as yet belong to a material and temporal order. Things visible, sensible appeal to us, because our physical senses are on the alert to receive impressions. We walk by sight naturally and inevitably; and the unseen and eternal can be ap prehended and appreciated only in part, dimly, even by those whose inner, spiritual senses are exercised to discern good and evil. To see the. visible we need only to open our natural eyes-i—it is easier to keep them open than shut, and to walk by sight requires no effort. But to See the invisible and feel the power of the eternal, is not natural nor easy; it requires sedulous and constant effort— the daily discipline of our higher senses. These things evade and escape us if we are careless, nay, unless we are most prayerful and careful; and at times the most devout and circumspect believer loses the vision of their entrancing loveliness, preciousness, and glory, and sets his eye on the lower good that seems so much easier both to see and grasp. But when Christ comes again and is manifested, He will be revealed, and all our being will be filled with the enamor ing sense of his reality, and we shall never lose sight of Him more. The now unseen and eternal will then be as vividly real as any objects of sight or sense. Second, This sphere of our life in Christ is now of ne cessity, partial. We are in this world, however little we may be of it, and we can not escape more or less of its contact, however free from its contamination. Our enjoy ment of Christ is interrupted by earthly and carnal sur roundings, even when the lower cravings are subdued. From time to time we are recalled to a painful sense of the fact that sin is in us, however free we may be from sins and sinning. We are compassed about with infirmity of body, mind, and will; and the thorn in the flesh can not be wholly forgotten in the all-sufficient grace. The weakness is there, even while the strength is made perfect, for that is the con dition of its perfect exhibition and manifestation. Perhaps it is not too much to say that perfect enjoyment of God is impossible, for our condition and character are yet im perfect or unperfect. How different when the last bond is broken, the last tie severed, and we are free to be only in Christ, not even the body longer hindering our perfect re semblance to Him and perfect communion with Him. What approximation to perfection may be possible, probably no saint has yet known or shown doubtless greater measures of resemblance to Him and more complete absorption in Him are possible and practicable than any saint has ever yet experienced; but it is plain that we must wait until He comes, and we meet Him face to face, and with bodies fashioned like unto His, ourselves without blemish,, as He is, before our inspherement in Him can reach its complete ness. (Continued on Page 246)
toward \the future, the second coming of Him in Whom we find the sphere of our final triumph over all foes. Hope looks forward to the future and fixes its gaze on this con summation, and hence becomes the profound secret of patience in present trials. The same blessed thought re appears in verses 9, 10. “To serve the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” These two epistles therefore carry us to the climax of the glorious truth which has lifted us to higher and higher elevations, as we have gone from summit to summit in studying this progress of doctrine; here the Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse of our final, ultimate, and complete vic tory in Christ over all dnemies and all trials. Here we are emphatically reminded of His reappearing, at which time this gathering together of all saints is to take place about the very Head of the mystical body; and their manifestation in Him, because He himself is to be mani fested in glory. The Holy Spirit guides the pen of Paul to write of these two future and crowning relations of blessing that yet await all God’s saints. Comp. 2 Thess. 2:1, 8. “By our gathering together unto Him,” and, “the brightness of His coming”— the epiphany of His Parousia. Here we have both thoughts; and in fact both are found in the one verse which opens the second chapter: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.” To get even a glimpse of this truth, we must first know what is included in this second advent of the Son of God, as it is set forth in these two letters to Thessalonica. We present the following as a partial analysis of their contents, but sufficient to hint at the wealth of suggestion herein to be discovered: 1. THE REWARD OF SERVICE. 1 Thess. 2:19. 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? 2. THE FINAL PERFECTION IN HOLINESS. 1 Thess. 3 :13. Unblamable in holiness at the coming, etc. 3. THE REUNION of departed and surviving saints. 1 Thess. 4:13-18. 4. THE TRIUMPH OVER DEATH in the resurrection of the dead and the translation and transformation of the living, Ibid. 16, 17. 5. THE FINAL CONSUMMATION of salvation. Living together with Him, forevermore. Ibid. 17. 6. THE AVENGING OF SAINTS upon all adversaries. 1 Thess. 5:9; 2 Thess. 1:7-10. 7. THE ULTIMATE GATHERING together unto Him. 2 Thess. 2:1. 8. THE DESTRUCTION of the man of sin. 1 Thess. 1:8. 9. THE OBTAINING OF THE GLORY of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess.-2:14. 10. THE FINAL, ETERNAL GLORIFICATION of saints in Him. Ibid. 16. When Christ comes again to com plete our salvation, there will be at least a fourfold tri umph : 1. OVER SIN, in unblamable holiness.
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