Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
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- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
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Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 45)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 7 – How the Bible Describes Truth
The Language of Sight and Sound (continued)
When asked if He is the Messiah, Jesus responds,
“You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64
Since the verb “see” applies to both His sitting at the right hand of God and His coming on the clouds, we know that whatever sense applies to the one also applies to the other. Now, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, when the disciples went about preaching that Jesus was seated at the right hand of God, they did not do so on the basis of physical senses. These witnesses could
testify of Christ’s resurrection by their physical senses and it was crucial that they do so. However, as to the right hand of God, all they physically saw was Jesus ascending from the earth and then disappearing behind a cloud (Acts 1). They knew He was at the right hand of God because Psalm 110 declared that to be His specific heavenly location “until His enemies be made
a footstool for His feet.” Therefore, the apostles saw Jesus at the right hand of God by faith; that is, by the eyes of the heart (as it says in 2 Corinthians 5, “we walk by faith and not by sight”). Likewise, these apostles encouraged their hearers to see Him there, too (that is, to believe and relate to Him as if He were there – because He was). The apostles certainly didn’t enter a town,
point to the sky and say, “Look: see for yourself; there He is.” But they did tell people to join with them in “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” who “has sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 12). I myself have heard many preachers exhort me and others by this verse and never once did they mean to train my physical eyes on Jesus. If we do not
object to seeing Jesus at the right hand of God spiritually, why should we object to seeing Him come on the clouds spiritually? Especially since He spoke of seeing the two in precisely the same way in this statement from His trial?
Given the way regular people use words of sight and sound in two distinct senses, and given the fact that the Bible does the same, it seems reasonable to approach Scripture passages about the Second Coming with this in mind. Strangely enough, some people will insist that a word like “see” or “appear” in these contexts can only be taken in a physical sense. It appears (in which sense am I using this word?) that they are unwilling to let the Bible speak as it wishes. To make it more personal, they appear unwilling to let the Lord speak as He wishes – and as any human being has the freedom to speak in either sense. Thus, such people experience what a writer of old called “the inevitably-cramping influence of a pre-conceived opinion.” Once you close your eyes, you can’t see a thing – even if it’s right in front of you. I am not saying, however, that people like this cannot become more open-minded. I did. For I once held strongly to the view that the Second Coming of Christ was “future and physical.” Studying the Bible more thoroughly while attempting to practice what it taught opened my eyes. (Do I mean my
physical eyes?)
(This concludes this section of this chapter; last section tomorrow)
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