"Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him and led them up a high mountain where they were alone; and in their presence He was transfigured; his clothes became dazzling white, with a whiteness no bleacher on earth could equal" (Mark 9:2,3, NEB).
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 our great God and 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 at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him" (1 Peter 3:22).
"I will come again" (John 14:3) means "another time, once more." Not thousands of times, as they would have us believe who claim that He comes whenever a saint dies, but only once more will He come again to consummate the great plan of salvation.
The apostle bears emphatic testimony in these words: "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation" (Heb. 9:27, 28).
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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:3). 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. In vain would be all His sufferings for us; in vain would be the faith which we have placed in Him, if He should not return to complete that which He has begun. [1]
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