“I urge you in the sight of God…that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless, until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time.” 1 Timothy 6:14,15
In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, in the last chapter of the book, we find where three times the Lord Jesus declares the same thing: “I am coming quickly.” Why did the Lord give to John this message for His church, and churches (individual bodies of believers), extending to and beyond the church age? It is because of the significance of His coming, and the certainty of its realization.
The Apostle Paul, in particular in his letters, wrote consistently concerning the Lord’s appearing and coming. He would write to the Philippian believers, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.” (3:20) To the believers in Colosse, he would write: “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (3:4) To the Corinthian he wrote: “…even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 1:7) Specifically in the Gospels, particularly with regard to our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, the believer is admonished to, “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (24:42,44) So, what is meant by the Lord’s coming, His appearing, and the believer’s hope and expectation being fully realized in Christ?
First of all, it is necessary to understand that when the Lord speaks of his coming being “quickly,” or suddenly, we must grasp that He is in no wise limited to time and space, so that, when the Father chooses the moment, it will occur, regardless of circumstances on this earth. It is a sudden coming, but it is also a certain one. The knowledge of His coming for the believer is constantly brought before him so that he will be encouraged, and admonished, to be ready to meet Him, whether at the moment of one’s death, when to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, or at that glorious moment when he will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord and be forever with Him. What occurs the moment of Christ’s coming in the life of the believer?
The Apostle Paul declares that “we shall be changed,” for the believer will “put off” forever, all that is of corruption, all that has been tainted with sin and death, to put on immediately Christ by His Spirit, changed forever into His image, for His glory. But there is more, and it has to do with reward. The Lord, again in the book of Revelation declares: “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his works.” (Rev. 22:13) Christ’s appearing will not only result in a total transformation of the believer into His image, and this forever, but there will be the reward to the saints for all that God has accomplished through them on earth, the result of faithful obedience. That “reward” is actually the sharing of Christ’s reward by the Father, the child of God participating in it. It is manifested by the “proximity to Christ,” and the throne of God, where there is experienced the blessedness of the fullness of God’s holiness, perfection, and love.
Paul Gerhardt, in one of his hymns wrote the following: “Where no shade nor stain can enter, nor the gold be dim; In that holiness unsullied I shall walk with Him. Meet companion, then, for Jesus, From Him, for Him, made; Glory of God’s grace forever there in me displayed.” The reward of Christ IS Christ Himself.
Dear Father, Make us presently ready. In Jesus’ name, Amen.