(Rev. 22:20)
"Surely I come quickly." "He that testifieth these things," the Author of Revelation, made this positive statement nearly nineteen centuries ago! And still He tarries! In defense of the verity of Scripture, 2 Peter 3:8 has been adduced-"That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." And so, in God's mind, scarcely two days have elapsed since our Lord's promise was given!
Still, God not spoken to mankind in the language of eternity, but in words commensurate with human understanding. We do not comprehend the expression, "quickly," to be anything like a millennium! Among some old "advent" hymns we find these words:
"His Church has waited long
Her absent Lord to see."
And it has been a long, long time that saints have waited for their Lord.
Centuries of trial and persecution have come and gone; the night has been long and dark, with hardly a streak of the coming dawn-and growing darker as the years advance. And yet our blessed Lord had no thought to inspire His people with a hope far beyond their apprehension! We must interpret His word, "quickly," to mean just that, not something else. It is a direct statement; it is not figurative.
It will not do to quote 1 Cor. 15:52 (true as that is) as an explanation-that when He does finally come it will then be "in the twinkling of an eye." Nor to say that our Lord has been coming quickly into the hearts of believing sinners to give them life eternal. Neither that He comes quickly to saints who fall asleep in Jesus. The promise evidently refers to His personal, bodily, literal descent into the air to receive His own unto Himself, both the dead and the living. It means "the first resurrection" and rapture of all saints in bodies like unto His body of glory.
Doubtless the experience of Jacob working and waiting for his promised wife Rachel might throw a ray of light upon this apparent difficulty. "Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her" (Gen. 29:20). May we not think of Christ's love for His Church in the same way?- yea, far exceeding Jacob's love to Rachel! Are not the centuries of our Lord's patience but as "a few days" to Him as He works and waits in joyous expectation for His promised Bride?
Who can measure, who can estimate, the love of Christ? -waiting, even before the foundation of the world, for His chosen ones (Eph. 1:4-6). Brief, then, is this night of our Lord's absence when compared with such infinite love. But if this be the love of Christ to His Church, fervent and unmeasured in the computation of years, what can be said of our love to Him? Shall we mark the fleeting years as tedious, and be led to say, "Where is the promise of His coming?" Let us return to our "first love," and none will say, "The Lord delayeth His coming." Is He not our "Treasure?" Then our hearts will be there with Him, our loins girded about, our lights burning; and we ourselves like men that wait for our Lord (Luke 12:34-36).
One might say that the Lord's coming has been imminent from apostolic days, and thus the word "quickly" is quite appropriate in any period of the Church's history. The early Christians walked in the light of His speedy return; they did not count time by years; they lived in constant expectation of that promise being fulfilled:"I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." And may this be the expression of our love to Him-
"I'm waiting for Thee, Lord,
Thy beauty to see, Lord;
I'm waiting for Thee-
For Thy coming again.
"Thou'rt gone over there, Lord,
A place to prepare, Lord;
Thy home I shall share
At Thy coming again.
"E'en now let my way, Lord,
Be bright with Thy praise, Lord,
For brief are the days
Ere Thy coming again."
Herbert Cowell