Thank the Lord, we have studied fifty-nine topics, and now we have come to the last topic: the second coming of Christ. This is a great matter in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. There are many prophecies in the Bible that speak of the second coming of Christ. This is an important topic because it closely relates to our destiny, our future. The second coming of Christ serves as a consolation and hope as well as a reminder and warning to us.
1. “The Son of Man is to come” (Matt. 16:27; see also 24:30, 44, 46; Luke 18:8; 21:27).
When the Lord was on the earth, He promised His disciples that He would return. Therefore, the Lord’s second coming is a matter of His personal promise.
2. “This Jesus...will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
The angels promised the disciples that the Lord would come in the same way that they beheld Him going into heaven. This promise has not yet been fulfilled. May the Lord not delay, and may we even compel Him to come quickly (Heb. 10:37; see also 2 Pet. 3:3-4, 9).
The second coming of Christ fulfills the needs of the believers, the Jews, and the Gentiles.
1. “Christ...will appear a second time to those who eagerly await Him...unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28).
The believers, who have been redeemed by the Lord, still need His full salvation. Our bodies have weakness and sickness. With sufferings in the world and troubles surrounding us, we still need the Lord’s salvation. The Lord’s second coming will accomplish this full salvation.
2. “The heavens, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21; see also 1 John 3:2; Col. 3:4; 2 Thes. 1:10).
Although believers are regenerated in spirit and have become a new creation in Christ (John 3:6; 2 Cor. 5:17), our body is still in the old creation and in need of being conformed to the body of His glory. Being in the old creation, our body has many weaknesses and problems. Some people have sicknesses and diseases related to the lungs, the stomach, the kidneys, and the heart. Some are blind, and some are deaf. All these conditions show that the condition of our body needs to be changed. This change will occur when the Lord returns. When the Lord returns, He will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the operation by which He is able to subject all things to Himself. Thus, we will be like Him in every part of our being from our spirit to our body, and we will be manifested with Him in glory.
3. “Unto the coming of the Lord...the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are living, who are left remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will be always with the Lord” (1 Thes. 4:15-17; see also 1 Cor. 15:51-52).
The dead believers will be transfigured through resurrection, and the living believers will be transfigured through rapture. Both the resurrection of the dead believers and the rapture of the living believers will occur at the time of the Lord’s second coming. At this time the Lord will cause the dead believers to rise and change, making them incorruptible, and He will change and catch the living believers up together with them in the clouds to meet Him and be with Him always.
4. “You have need of endurance...‘For in yet a very little while the Coming One will come and will not delay’” (Heb. 10:36-37).
Many of the hardships that believers face in the world will be resolved only when the Lord comes again. We need endurance to wait for the Lord’s second coming, but when He comes, all our problems will be solved.
5. “He will carry out their avenging...When the Son of Man comes” (Luke 18:8; see also Rev. 6:10; 2 Thes. 1:6-9).
The persecution and wrongs that the believers suffer on earth will be avenged only when the Lord returns. At that time the Lord will exercise vengeance according to His righteousness on all who persecuted His believers. Although He knows that we suffer from man’s persecution and requires us to turn the other cheek to those who strike us, He will judge each of these matters to avenge His believers through His ruling authority in the universe.
6. “The Son of Man is to come...and then He will repay each man according to his doings” (Matt. 16:27; see also Rev. 22:12).
The believers’ actions on earth need to be judged and will be judged by the Lord at His second coming. At that time the Lord will repay each of us according to our doings.
7. “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7).
As believers, we are betrothed to the Lord (2 Cor. 11:2); we belong to Him. Our marriage, that is, our complete union with Him, is related to His second coming. His wife refers to the church (Eph. 5:24-25, 31-32), the bride of Christ (John 3:29). According to Revelation 19:8-9, the wife in verse 7, the bride of Christ, consists only of the overcoming believers during the millennium. In contrast, the bride, the wife, in Revelation 21:2 is composed of all the saved saints after the millennium for eternity. The readiness of the bride depends on the maturity in life of the overcomers. The marriage of the Lamb to His overcoming believers will take place when the Lord returns. Then the Lord will be joined with those who love Him, and He and they will become one.
8. “They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4, see also v. 6; 2 Tim. 2:12).
In order for the overcoming believers to reign with the Lord, He must return. When He returns, the overcoming believers will reign with Him for a thousand years.
The preceding points speak of the need for the Lord’s second coming with respect to the believers in general and to the overcoming believers in particular. At the time of the Lord’s second coming He will save, change, avenge, and fully repay the believers, and He will be joined with the overcoming believers to reign with them for a thousand years. The Lord’s return meets these needs of the believers.