28
THE CERTAINTY
meet the Lord in the air. Jesus Himself drew a plain contrast between the death of the be liever and His own coming again. Speaking to Peter about the future of John He said, "If I will that he (John) tarry till I come, what is that to theeT" It is plain from the context that ''If I will that he tarry'' means, "If I will that he remain alive." Now if we put Christ's coming at the believer's death, then we would get this nonsense, ''If I will that he remain alive until he die, what is that to theeT" Of course, it is not what our Lord meant. . What He meant, as is plainly indi ated by the words in their context, was "If I will that he remain alive until my own per sonal return.'' There are others who would have us inter pret the coming again spoken of in the verses above as referring to the coming of Christ at the coming of the Holy Spirit. . The coming of the Holy Spirit is doubtless in a very real and important sense a coming of Christ. This ap pears from John 14:15-18; 20-23, where Jesus says, '' If ye love me ye will keep my com mandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that be may be with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, for it
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker