"God raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might,
and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his
feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church which
is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
To accomplish the various ends of this glorious government, He is
_King of nature_; all the elements of nature which can in any way
affect the history or destiny of the human race being directed and
controlled by Him. "The winds and the seas obey Him;" pestilence and
famine, the volcano and the hurricane, are ministers of His, that
do His pleasure. _He is the King of providence_; armies and fleets,
conquests and invasions, discoveries and inventions, migrations and
settlements,--all are under the government of His wise and omnipotent
sceptre. _He is the King of grace_; the gifts and graces of the Holy
Spirit are dispensed to the persons and in the measure which seem best
to Him. _Finally_, He is the _King of angels and devils_; so that
their power and agency, in relation to the human family, are either
controlled or guided by Him.
Now, this kingdom of Jesus Christ, which began with the history of the
world at least, will one day be resigned into the hands of God. "Then
cometh the end," says the apostle, "when he shall have delivered up
the kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all." But ere
that end comes, the Mediator himself will, as we suppose; disclose the
history of His kingdom to the assembled universe. He will make known
"His ways and acts" towards the children of men. He will meet friend
and foe, and disclose the real history of each person who ever lived,
from the first moment of his birth to the moment of his trial; and of
each family, and city, and kingdom, from their rise till their final
extinction in the dust; and thus the universe shall know how His
government over human affairs, in all ages and climes, has been
conducted; and in what manner His authority and power over all things
for His Church has been exercised; that it may be known on evidence,
whether He is indeed worthy to have received such honour and power in
the great and universal kingdom of Jehovah!
3. But there seems also a fitness in Jesus being the Judge, from _His
peculiar relationship to the Church._ "He created all things, that
unto principalities and powers might be known by the Church the
manifold wisdom of God." And He is now, in virtue of what He has
done as a Priest, the Head over all things for the Church as a King.
"Because he humbled himself, God hath highly exalted him." The grand
end of His whole mediatorial reign is, "that unto God might be glory
in the Church by Christ Jesus." But the work of Jesus Christ as
Mediator will not have terminated, nor will He have received His full
joy and reward, until He raises His people from their graves, and
gathers His elect from the four winds of heaven; and opens the Book
of Life, and from this biographical record adduces evidence of the
reality of their loyalty, and of their love to the King; and reveals
the glory of all His dealings towards them in every age:--until, in
one word, the living Church, of which He is the Head, which "He loved"
and "purchased with His own blood," and "sanctified and cleansed with
the washing of the water of His word," shall be presented to Himself,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without
blemish. His judgment of the Church will be the consummation of His
mediatorial glory, and the fulness of His reward.
As to the time _when_ Jesus Christ shall judge the world, we are
ignorant. "Of that day knoweth no man, not even the angels." We know
only that it will come suddenly--"as a thief in the night"--upon the
whole world; and that "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
No words of man can venture upon any description of the appearance of
the Judge, or the accompaniments of that great and terrible day of
the Lord. But here are a few Scripture statements descriptive of this
solemn scene:--
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works,"
(Matt. xvi. 27.)
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he
shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven
to the other," (Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.)
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them
which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord," (1 Thess.
iv. 15-17.)
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ," (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.)
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up," (2 Pet. iii. 10.)
"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and
the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book
of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up
the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their
works," (Rev. xx. 11-13.)