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3. The dead in Christ having been raised and the bodies of living believers having been transformed, THEY SHALL DOTH BE CA UOHT UP TOGETHER TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR, AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD (1 Thess. 4 :17). It is especially to receive us unto Himself that Jesus Christ comes again at all. This He declared to His disciples on the night before He left them. He said, ''If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also" (John 14:3). It is primarily love to His own that draws our Lord Jesus back to this earth again. He so loves us that he cannot get on without us. He sends no mere messenger for us, He comes Himself: "I come again" are His thrilling words. And it is to receive us "unto Him self" that He comes, not merely into heaven, but UNTO HIMSELF. The words indicate His intense longing for us, how He longs to press us to His very soul, His very self. We long for Him during His absence from us, but not as He longs for us. Even heaven itself is a lonely place to Him without us. Earth ought to be a lonely place to us without Him. Godet's comment on these words is worth re peating. Speaking of the believer and Christ's
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