HOPE OF CHRIST’S COMING

But you may ask, Is not the coming of Christ called the hope? Yes. Paul says, “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and [kat, even] the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:11-13. The coming of Christ is also a branch of the one hope. It is at the coming of Christ that the resurrection is to take place. “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23.HPGO 17.1

If there were no second coming of Christ, there would be no resurrection. The resurrection is spoken of as an event to transpire at the coming of Christ, hence, if there should be no coming of Christ, the saints would not be raised. If the saints are not raised, immortality will not be given. If immortality be not given, the hope of the future kingdom must all prove a failure; for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom.” Thus it is evident that the coming of Christ is the grand event which must take place to usher in the consummation of the hope of God’s people. With this view of the subject, there is no wonder that importance is attached in the Scriptures to the great theme of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.HPGO 17.2

Receiving the idea that our hope centers in his coming to raise the dead and bestow immortality upon his people, that they may possess the immortal kingdom, there is a glory clustering around the event of Christ’s coming like the glorious dawning of the morning. Thus we see that the coming of Christ is the grand door that must be opened to usher us into the kingdom of God.HPGO 18.1