If the real object of our Lord’s return could be clearly understood by all of his true people, unquestionably every sincere Christian would be longing and waiting for that event, as the glorious realization of their best hopes and desires, the one without which all others would be valueless, meaningless. The second coming of our Lord is closely related to the first advent as respects the divine plan of salvation. The entrance of sin into our world six thousand years ago (commonly called “original sin“) brought to us as a race mental, moral and physical degeneracy (commonly called “the fall“), the culmination of which is death. According to the Scriptures this death would have been an interminable one, an everlasting one, had God not, in his mercy, provided for our succor – provided a ransom-price in the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice. This redemption provision was accomplished by our Lord at his first advent. We were “redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.”

But there is a difference between our redemption and our deliverance, as there is a difference between the purchase of any article and the delivery of it. The world has been purchased (redeemed) with the precious blood; but the world has not yet been delivered; it is still laboring and heavy laden, under the curse, under original sin, under its weights and difficulties and disadvantages of every kind.

What is necessary now?

We answer, with the Apostle, that “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God” – through whom the deliverance is yet to be accomplished. (Rom 8:19-22).

And when will these sons of God be manifested?

The answer is that these sons of God are the elect Church of this Gospel age, who in the present time are being tried and tested; not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, according to their will, their desires of heart. These sons of God are such as, after the Lord’s disciplines and chastening’s are passed, will be found in heart “copies of God’s dear Son,” however imperfect they may still be respecting their flesh.

These are to be the first who will experience deliverance at the second coming of the Lord. They are variously designated in the Scriptures as “the royal priesthood,” under the great high priest; as the members of the body of Christ, under Jesus, as their Head; as the “Bride, the Lamb’s Wife.” These are the “Jewels,” whose number the Lord is to make up in the first resurrection, who shall be his, and joint-heirs with him in the Kingdom.

It is for the manifestation of these that the world is waiting, as the Apostle declares, – “waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God,” and they will not be manifested until the second advent of their Master. “When he shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory.” We see, then, that so far as the Church is concerned, she is waiting for the completion of the elect number which constitutes her membership – in all, “a little flock,” to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32.)

We see also that the world of mankind, although redeemed, must wait still longer – a little longer; for it will not be long after the elect Church shall have been glorified with their Lord, and become his joint-heirs in his Kingdom, until they, with him, as the Sun of Righteousness, shall shine forth with healing in his beams, to bless the world, to scatter its night, to dispel its fogs of superstition and its miasmas (oppressive atmosphere) of error.

From this standpoint it will be seen that the second coming of Christ means, not only the blessing of the Lord’s faithful in the First Resurrection, but the blessing of all the families of the earth, even as the Lord promised to father Abraham, saying, “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” The great mass of mankind has gone down into the prison-house of death unblessed – ignorant of God and of the only name given under heaven or amongst men whereby they must be saved. Even of those who are now living, only a small fraction has ever heard of the great Redeemer and of the great redemption which he has already accomplished in the sacrifice of himself, and of the great deliverance which he is about to effect, through the establishment of his Kingdom of righteousness, and the subjugation of evil and sin, and the binding of Satan.

Not only the living nations, to earth’s remotest bound, must all know, that the Year of Jubilee has come, returning ransomed sinners’ home, but all those who have gone down into death, the great prison-house which now contains billions of our race – all these also must hear the good tidings, for it is to be, according to the angel’s promise, “Good tidings of great joy which shall be to ALL people.” It is to be, according to the promise made to Abraham, a blessing “to ALL the families of the earth.” Thank God for the redemptive feature of his plan; and thanks also to him for the deliverance feature, shortly to be effected, even though the introduction of that deliverance be accompanied by a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation – a time of fiery indignation which shall eventually devour all the adversaries of righteousness, and bring in that blessed condition respecting which we are assured that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, to the glory of God – the disobedient and unwilling being destroyed in the Second Death, from which there will be no recovery. –Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10; Acts 3:19-23; 2 Thess 1:10. (R2972)