In the true tabernacle, Christ is ministering as the High Priest (8:1-2). What is Christ doing as the High Priest? He is interceding for us that everything which He has accomplished might be wrought into our being. In some of the previous messages we have seen this matter of Christ’s heavenly intercession. We may recall how Melchisedec came to minister the bread and wine to Abraham after he had interceded for him behind the scene. Likewise, Christ, our Melchisedec, is secretly interceding for all who love Him and seek Him. As He is interceding for us in the heavens, He is also the all-inclusive and all-pervading Spirit. The all-inclusive Spirit works in us according to Christ’s heavenly intercession, motivating the law of life within us to function and causing the standard model, the Firstborn Son of God, to be wrought into our being. This is transpiring on earth today. To say this is not guesswork; it is the revelation of God’s Holy Word which is shining over us as a heavenly vision. In these days, many of us have been under the shining of this vision. This vision will become a governing vision. Praise the Lord that Christ is ministering in the true tabernacle today!
During the interval between His first and second manifestations, Christ is executing the new testament (8:6; 9:15; 12:24). To execute the new testament simply means to motivate the law of life within us and to make every bequest of the new will real in our being. Once we see what Christ is doing in us today, we shall never be the same. What Christ is doing in us is worthy of eternal remembrance. When we get into eternity, we may recall the day we saw the glorious vision of Christ’s heavenly ministry. When this ministry has been completed, Christ will be manifested the second time.
Verse 28 says that Christ “shall appear to those who wait for Him a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation.” The second manifestation of Christ has nothing to do with sin, because sin has already become a history. As man must die once and be judged after having died (v. 27), so Christ died once to bear man’s sins (v. 28; 1 Pet. 2:24) and suffered the judgment for man on the cross (Isa. 53:5, 11). This book very much stresses the fact that sin has been put away by Christ’s sacrifice in His first manifestation. Since Christ has put away sin in His first appearing (9:26; 1 John 3:5), His second appearing will be apart from sin, having nothing whatever to do with it.
Verse 28 says that Christ will appear a second time “unto salvation.” “Salvation” here does not refer to the salvation from hell to heaven. It has a wider and higher meaning, covering the following aspects:
First of all, the very salvation which Christ will bring to us in His second manifestation is for the redemption, the transfiguration, of our body. When we were saved, we were regenerated in our spirit (John 3:5-6). Now we are in the process of being transformed in our soul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Then at Christ’s second coming for the completion of the salvation of our entire being, He will transfigure our vile body into a glorious one (Phil. 3:21). That will be the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), the first aspect of Christ’s appearing “unto salvation” in His second manifestation.
The second aspect of the salvation by Christ’s second coming is the deliverance from the vanity and slavery of corruption of the old creation into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:18-23). The entire old creation has been subjected to vanity and is under the slavery of corruption. Even we who have been saved and who have the enjoyment of the Spirit are also under the vanity and the slavery of corruption of the old creation. At His second coming, Christ will free us from this vanity and slavery and deliver us into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
At His second coming, Christ will glorify us (Rom. 8:17), that is, He will bring us into His glory to fulfill the word in Hebrews 2:10. Our glorification is the final goal of God’s salvation in Christ (Rom. 8:29-30). We have been chosen, predestinated, called, and justified. Now we are being sanctified through the process of transformation in life. Then in His second manifestation, we shall be glorified and reach the final goal of God’s salvation in Christ. This is the third aspect of Christ’s coming salvation.
In regeneration we were born of God and became the sons of God (John 1:12-13). In this new birth we received the divine sonship in our spirit (Rom. 8:15). After this, we began to enjoy this sonship through the transformation of our soul. The more we are transformed in our soul, the more we enjoy the sonship which has been given to us in our spirit. This sonship will become full when our body of the old creation is transfigured into a body of the new creation. This means that the redemption of our body is the full sonship of our new birth. This will be the fourth aspect of Christ’s salvation in His second manifestation.
God’s salvation in Christ is to work Himself into us as our enjoyment. He has given to us His Spirit in our spirit as the firstfruit for our enjoyment (Rom. 8:23). This firstfruit of the Spirit is the foretaste for our enjoyment of God. The full taste will be brought in for our enjoyment by Christ’s second manifestation. When our body is transfigured and our entire being, spirit, soul, and body, is fully saturated with the divine element of the Triune God, we shall enjoy God in full. That will be our full taste of God, the last aspect of Christ’s coming salvation.
The very salvation which Christ will bring us in His second coming will be such a wider and higher one and will fulfill the final and ultimate goal of God’s all-inclusive salvation in Christ. Before His second manifestation, Christ is ministering to us with this goal in view. His more excellent ministry in the heavens today, the ministry of His kingly and divine priesthood with His heavenly intercession, is building up such a salvation. When He sees that the building up of this wonderful salvation has been accomplished, He will appear the second time. That will be His second manifestation in God’s economy.