WHAT in thinking of the Fatherland above strikes us every time again, is the positive certainty, that also on the other side of the grave, and unto the end, yea, to all eternity, Jesus shall retain His altogether unique significance for those who shall have become sharers of salvation.
By itself it would have appeared more natural, if after Jesus had finished the work of reconciliation upon earth, and by His return had ushered in the Kingdom of Glory, from that hour on, the work of restoration being completed, He would have lost His central significance for our heart.
Even 1 Cor. 15, 24-28, read by itself, gives the impression as though this were the tendency of revelation.
When there we read, that when “the end is come, Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, in order then Himself to become subject unto God, that God may be all in all,” does it not seem, as though then the Christ as Mediator disappears, to leave none other than a direct relation with God Himself as the overflowing fountain of our salvation?
He as Mediator would then have brought to a finish a work of Redemption in two great parts.
First the work of Redemption upon earth, by His first coming at Bethlehem. After that the establishment of the Kingdom, by His second return upon the clouds. Then the Mediator’s task would have been finished, the separation between God and man have been brought to nought, and in this way the original condition as in Paradise (still heightened in holiness) would return. A condition in which the fellowship of man with his God was still undisturbed, and in which a coming in between of a Mediator, of a Redeemer, of a Savior were unthinkable.
And yet it appears that such it shall not be.
On Patmos John saw the new Jerusalem come down from heaven. That was the Realm of glory. And yet, also of that new Jerusalem in its consummation he says: “The Lord, the almighty God, is her temple, and the Lamb. And that new Jerusalem had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the candle thereof” (21, 22, 23).
Hereby is attributed to the Lamb a permanent, durable significance in the world to come.
Hence there is something in the Mediatorship, which does not disappear, which does not come to an end, which does not fall away. Another apostle even puts so full an emphasis upon it, that he writes to the saints at Thessalonica (4, 17): And so shall we ever be with the Lord. An expression whereby, as all exegetes agree, only of an ever being with Jesus can be thought.
The holy apostle makes distinction between those who are asleep in Jesus, who have preceded us, and between us who at some later time are called away from this life.
They who have now fallen asleep in Jesus, are, when the Realm of glory begins, “brought again with Him.”
Then shall the whole church, all the company of the elect be united. It will be one, interminable, all embracing assembly of the just made perfect. And therewith now including himself, declares the witness of Jesus: “And so shall we ever, i.e., in that eternal condition, in which never more change comes, be with the Lord.”
YET it shall no more be the condition of now.
At this moment the work of Redemption still goes on. The “Finished” of Golgotha by no means refers to the whole work of the Mediator, but exclusively to the making an offering of Himself on the part of “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”
But meantime the great work of Redemption goes on.
In threefold respect.
First by bringing in and sanctifying the elect who still stand afar off, or are just born. Secondly by bringing into subjection the powers of evil. And finally in “preparing a place,” or if you like, in general, in preparing the Realm of glory.
This threefold work only began after the Ascension. It is the second act in the holy drama. And it is in the return of Jesus upon the clouds, that this last act shall be ended.
For this second task, which now for eighteen centuries Jesus has been fulfilling, “all power is given Him in heaven and on earth,” He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and by Him mediately, and not directly by the Eternal Being, the high sovereignty, i.e., the kingship over all created things, is exercised.
Meanwhile, as is indeed self-evident, the supreme management and highest authority over heaven and earth is and remains in the hand of God. But, so long as sin is not destroyed, Satan not yet bound, and the last enemy (i.e., death) is not yet brought to nought, fellowship of the Thrice-Holy with His creation can not yet be direct and immediate, and dominion is exercised mediately by the Mediator.
And only when the work of Redemption, also in its second part, shall be consummated, and every haze of sin shall forever be withdrawn, never again to return, shall every hindrance between the Holy One and His then again sanctified Creation have fallen away. There shall be no more enemy who can stir himself. And when in this way God Himself, directly, shall again be all in all His saints, shall the Kingship of the Mediator take an end, and the Mediator shall put down this intermediary kingship, that the Kingdom again directly might be God’s.
Not as though the Second person of the Trinity should stand outside of this. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are indivisibly one in power and being. But this is the distinction that then no more Jesus Christ as the God-man, but the Son, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, as God, shall exercise that Kingly dominion over heaven and earth.
BUT also in that new condition, which then enters in, and which shall bring the history of the world to an end, the God-man, the Incarnated Word, the Head of the Body, Christ our Savior, remains for all God’s saints the point of union.
The Son shall not put off His human nature, but retain it. Glorified He shall be glorious among His glorified ones. And it shall eternally be the jubilation of all, that then they shall be ever with the Lord.
Those who fell asleep in Jesus, enjoy this salvation already now, only in another way. Paul himself says of his dying before Jesus’ return upon the clouds: “I have a desire to be unbound, and to be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1, 23). But also in that middle state Jesus still bears His redeemed by His power of Redemption. Were the Mediator to let go of them for one moment, they would sink. Also in them God has not yet become the all in all. They still stand under the kingship of their glorified Head, and are not yet in the immediate Kingdom of the Father. Their tie to the Eternal Being is still in the Mediator. They still bide the glory that is to come. They still know the homesickness after the consummation. In all probability they still take part, as the angels of God, in the conflict against Satan, in which case this is “the power that is given them over the Heathen.”
Thus for them also the great change only comes in that illustrious day, when the Mediator shall once again appear upon this earth, and the end shall be ushered in.
Then dawns for them also the resurrection of the flesh; their redemption also shall be perfected and consummated; God shall be all in all in every one of them; and for them also shall only then begin that new, that lasting condition which abides forever.
But whatever may change up yonder, their tie to Jesus shall not be loosened, for it shall eternally be their delight and their boast, that they shall ever be with the Lord.
AND yet this being with Jesus shall also for them become different from what it has thus far been.
He will no more pray for them, for when the eternal blessedness has been sealed by the Amen of the consummation, what will there be to pray for in behalf of these full blessed ones! He will no more protect them, for against whom or against what power would this protection turn itself, when the last enemy shall have been brought to nought! Also He will no more rule them as Mediator, for the Kingdom shall then be God’s.
The feeling of eternal thanks towards that Lamb of God, that by His blood redeemed them, shall surely not give way. Rather only then, when the blessedness is perfect, shall that thankfulness reach its highest point.
But yet, the ever being with the Lord then obtains a different significance.
This being with Jesus shall then altogether go up in being member of the sacred body, of which He is the blessed Head.
Not as a group of onelings, each by himself, shall the blessed elect eternally delight themselves in the majesty of their God. They shall form one generation, the generation of the reborn children of men. They shall be “the universal assembly and church.” As the renewed humanity, organically one, they shall stand before God. One body. And in that mystical, holy body, member bound to member, and all the members together bound by the unity under the eternal, the full-blessed Head. With that Head every member, according to God’s holy ordinance, united. Never more to separate from that Head. With that blessed Head, from eternity unto eternity, in full, in pulsating, in animating relation of life. Alone in that Head to feel oneself truly blessed. And so shall they be ever with the Lord.
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