The doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming is not a teaching apart from the
atonement, but is _necessary to the atonement_. That is, God’s plan of
redemption for us cannot be completed apart from the coming of Christ
and the events connected with that coming. His coming therefore is
essential to salvation. Not that the understanding of the doctrine is
essential to individual salvation. A sinner needs to know very little
Scripture in order to be saved; when the Spirit has convicted him of
sin a single sentence of Glad Tidings will suffice. But it requires
the whole redemptive purposes of God to make that salvation possible.
And those redemptive purposes include the appearing a second time
of the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. The importance of our Lord’s
Second Coming, then, is exactly parallel with the importance of his
first coming and of his present ministry for the believer.
The Word of God presents salvation in a threefold aspect. There is the
past, the present, and the future of salvation. “We were saved; we are
being saved; we shall be saved.”
The Three “Appearings”
On every side these three aspects of salvation are emphasized in the
Word. Attention has frequently been called to the three appearings
mentioned in the ninth chapter of Hebrews: “_now to appear_ in the
presence of God for us ... now once in the end of the world _hath he
appeared_ to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ... and unto them
that look for him _shall he appear_ the second time without sin unto
salvation” (Heb. 9:24, 26, 28).
In the three Shepherd Psalms the same truth is shadowed forth. The
twenty-second Psalm points to the redemption accomplished on Calvary,
and is the Psalm of crucifixion and resurrection; the twenty-third
Psalm is a picture of the present resurrection life in Christ; and in
the twenty-fourth Psalm we have the picture of the coming King. He is
seen in these three Psalms as the Good Shepherd who laid down his life
for the sheep; as the Great Shepherd who rose again from the dead,
who makes us perfect “in every good thing to do his will, working in
us that which is well-pleasing in his sight” (Heb. 13:20, 21); and as
the Chief Shepherd who will appear to give the crown of glory to his
faithful servants (1 Peter 5:4).
This threefold salvation is sometimes spoken of as justification,
sanctification, and glorification: first, salvation from the penalty of
sin; second, salvation from the power of sin; and third, salvation from
the possibility of sin.
There are three fundamental errors by which Satan seeks to rob of its
power this threefold Gospel, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
past, present, and future work.