The Transfiguration
There shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew
24:24.
The transfiguration was a
miniature representation of the coming of the Lord in glory, to raise the
righteous dead, and to translate the living. Ever after that memorable day,
the coming of the Lord must have been a more vivid reality to Peter, James,
and John, than it had been before. The "glorious appearing of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), is the "blessed
hope" that is set before the church of Christ. It has been the hope of
the church in all ages.
That Christ will come again,
is as sure as that he was once here upon earth, and that he is now
"gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto him." 1 Peter 3:22.
"I will come
again," means "another time; once more." Not thousands of
times, as they would have us believe, who claim that in fulfillment of His
promise He comes whenever a saint dies, but only once more will He come
again, to consummate the great plan of salvation.
To this the apostle bears
emphatic testimony, in these words: "And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the Judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second
time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:27, 28.
It is appointed unto men once
to die. In order that men might have life, Christ was once offered for sin,
bearing "our sins in his own body on the tree;" and so, when His
work for sinners shall have been finished, He will come once
more—"the second time"—not bearing the sins of the world, as
at His first advent, but for the salvation of those who, by means of His
sacrifice and mediation, have "put away sin."
Why will he come? Because if
He should not come the second time, His first coming would have been in
vain. Said He, "And 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." He comes to take to Himself the purchase of His own blood.
He has gone to prepare a
place for those who become His friends indeed, and when He has the place
prepared for them, He will come and take them to it. His coming will be the
grand consummation of the plan of salvation. In vain would be all His
sufferings for men; in vain would be the faith which men have placed in Him,
if He should not return to complete that which He has begun.
E.J. Waggoner, Prophetic
Lights, pp. 31, 106-109 |
