Shall we be chargeable with crowding too much meaning into his words, if
we fix on his remarkable expression, 'be found in Him,' as containing a
clear reference to that great day of final judgment? We recall other
instances of the use of the same expression in connections which
unmistakably point to that time. Such as 'being clothed we shall not be
found naked,' or 'the proof of your faith . . . might be found unto praise
and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ,' or 'found of
Him in peace without spot, blameless.' In the light of these and similar
passages, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that this 'being
found' does include a reference to the Apostle's place after death,
though it is not confined to that. He thinks of the searching eye of the
Judge taking keen account, piercing through all disguises, and wistfully
as well as penetratingly scrutinising characters, till it finds that for
which it seeks. They who are 'found in Him' in that day, are there and
thus for ever. There is no further fear of falling out of union with
Him, or of being, by either gradual and unconscious stages, or by sudden
and overmastering assaults, carried out of the sacred enclosure of the
City of Refuge in which they dwell henceforth for ever. A dangerous
presumptuousness has sometimes led to the over-confident assertion,
'Once in Christ always in Christ.' But Paul teaches us that that
security of permanent dwelling in Him is to be for ever in this life the
aim of our efforts, rather than an accomplished fact. So long as we are
here, the possibility of falling away cannot be shut out, and there must
always rise before us the question, Am I in Christ? Hence there is need
for continual watchfulness, self-control, and self-distrust, and the
life's aim has to be perpetual, not only because it is capable of
indefinite expansion, but because our weakness is capable of deserting
it. It is only when at the last we are found by Him, in Him, that we are
there for ever, with all dangers of departure from Him at an end. In
that City of Refuge, and there only, 'the gates shall not be shut at
all,' not solely because no enemies shall attempt to come in, but also
because no citizens shall desire to go out.
We should ever have before us that hour, and our life's aim should ever
definitely include the final scrutiny in which many a hidden thing will
come to light, many a long-lost thing be found, and each man's ultimate
place in relation to Jesus Christ will be freed from uncertainties,
ambiguities, hypocrisies, and disguises, and made plain to all
beholders. In that great day of 'finding,' some of us will have to ask
with sinking hearts, 'Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' and others will
break forth into the glad acclaim, 'I have found Him,' or rather 'been
found of Him.'
So we have before us the one reasonable aim for a man to have Christ, to
be found in Him, to have His righteousness. It is reasonable, it is
great enough to absorb all our energies, and to reward them. It will
last a lifetime, and run on undisturbed beyond life. Following it, all
other aims will fall into their places. Is this my aim?