NO SECOND COMING OF CHRIST?

Friday 2 May

In Christendom today, there are so many different thoughts and ideas on this often talked about subject. Some say that it will be soon. Some say it will be many years from now. Most believers tend to have a fixed position on their beliefs on the topic. There seems to be much confusion on all sides.

But what if I told you that Christ has already come and there is no second coming of Christ in the scriptures. Would you even be open minded enough to entertain the concept? As always, let’s allow the Bible to interpret itself on the matter.

Are you ready for another adventure into the word of His grace?

In John 14:3 Jesus makes a striking statement ‘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.’

The context in this verse is preparing a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the spirit of man.

We can see here Jesus clearly promises to come again but the question then becomes, when was He saying this would take place? Many believers think He is talking about heaven because of the ‘where I am you may be also’. Is this accurate? Let’s dig a little deeper.

‘And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I WILL COME TO YOU.’ John 14:15-18 (NKJV)

The context in this passage is the sending of the Holy Spirit to live in the dwelling place of the believer’s heart. Christ in us the hope of glory! With that knowledge now read it with fresh eyes ‘I WILL COME TO YOU’.

Has Jesus come to the believer in Christ? Yes. When did He do this exactly? The moment you received salvation. The same moment you received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ.

Who then is Christ? The Father and the Son. The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. This is the doctrine of Christ that we will discuss at another time in more detail.

So we have established that Jesus HAS come again already in Christ. If you’re saved, the second coming has already happened for you!

Where most people confuse the issue is found in two particular phrases. The ‘second coming of Christ’ and the ‘appearance of Christ.’ We just addressed the first, but what about the second?

Colossians 3:4 gives us some insight. ‘When Christ who is our life APPEARS, then you also will appear with Him in glory.’

Also in 1 John 3:2. ‘Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that WHEN HE APPEARS, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.’

‘Phaneroo’ from ‘Phaneros’ in Greek means to render apparent, manifestly declare or to manifest. This can be literal or figurative in the case of what will happen at the end of the world it is literal. This tells us something profound. The man Christ Jesus who has ‘passed into the heavens’ will simply show Himself or APPEAR to all the peoples of the earth in the future.

So Jesus will APPEAR from the immaterial realm of the heavenlies to be seen again in the material realm. He is not coming down from some place somewhere, He didn’t go anywhere after His resurrection. He never left, He was just obscured from our sight.

This is why the Bible says we are ‘surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses’. To surround means they are among us in the unseen realm of the Spirit. All the Old Testament saints that have received their glorified bodies and those who have gone to glory after Christ are cheering us on.

Here’s my encouragement to you. Don’t wait for Christ. Christ has come! Be conscious that you have the Father and the Son now by the Spirit. Whenever the time for His APPEARING comes one thing is certain. We will all see Jesus Christ and those who belong to Him will realise in that moment, we are just like Him!

APPLICATION

Do your own study on John chapter 14 to get the full import of what Jesus was saying in regard to the Spirit of Christ living in us forever. This is Christianity.