Hebrews ix:28: "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." This passage has been made to prove that only
those who wait for Him will be taken up. The whole passage shows the
three appearings of the Christ. He appeared on the earth to put away
sin by sacrificing Himself. He appears now in the presence of God for
us. He will appear the second time. This is unquestionably the
glorious appearing spoken of in Titus ii:13, "The glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." _He_ who appeared and
_He_ who appears in the presence of God will be the _same_ who comes
back to the earth. Of course when He actually returns from heaven into
the habitable earth, as the firstborn, bringing many sons to glory (all
His saints with Him) there will be such who wait and look for Him and
to them He comes for salvation, and these are the believing Jews. Of
this we read in Isaiah xxv:9: "And it shall be said in that day, Lo
this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us. This is
the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His
salvation." The passage does not teach that only such will be caught
up who believe in His coming and look for Him.
And now, as so many believers seem to be troubled about the words of
the Apostle Paul in the third chapter of Philippians we give a short
word on that. The position of the epistle to the Philippians is
significant. Ephesians speaks of the glories of the church, what every
believer and the company of believers, the one body, is _in_ Christ.
Colossians acquaints us with the glory of Him who is the Head of the
body, Christ. Philippians stands between the two and shows the
believer in Christ with the life of Christ in him, living Christ and
pressing towards the glory. It is the epistle of experience. In the
third chapter the energy of this life in the believer is seen. Paul,
of course, knew that he belonged to that glory. He had absolute
certainty about the first resurrection. But this divine energy in him
presses forward. It is in full harmony with what God's grace has made
him. All in him wants to get there, where the grace of God in Christ
had placed him once and for all. The life of Christ in him reaches out
for that place and when he says, "By any means," he gives us to
understand nothing shall hinder him, may the cost be what it will, he
wants to lay hold of all for which Christ has laid hold of him. He
reaches out after that goal, Christ in glory, because he knew he
belonged there.
Sir Robert Anderson gives a very helpful comment on Philippians iii:11
which we quote in connection with the above:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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