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While in the first instance this prophecy looks to Christ Himself at
Calvary, it also looks forward to the Second Coming when all the 'seed' shall
have entered by 'adoption' into their glorious portion. Romans 8 and 16 deal
with phases of the hope that transcend all limitations and dispensational
boundaries, and make no difference to the most exclusive presentations of
truth as given in the epistles written either before or since Acts 28.
Deliverer and Judge
Romans 11:26 is part of a large section, occupying chapters 9 to 11,
which deals with the dispensational positions of Israel and the Gentiles.
Romans 14:9 -12 is part of a section, occupying the whole of chapter
14 and part of 15, which deals with the particular inter -relationship of
Israel and the Gentile, the latter being now received and saved by the same
Christ. In Romans 11:26 Gentiles are warned that a limit is set to the
period of Israel's blindness: 'And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is
written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob'. The hope of Israel can only be deferred to God's
good time: it can never fail.
A salutary word is given in Romans 14, possibly to the Gentile believer
in his new -found liberty, wherein he was liable to despise the weaker
scruples of his Hebrew brother:
'But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought
thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ'
(Rom. 14:10).
That judgment seat will be set up at the coming of the Lord, and is in
view in 1 John 2:28 and other similar passages. It remains therefore to heed
Romans 13:11 -14:
'It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. The night is far spent, The Day Is At Hand: let
us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the
armour of light'.
Whether it be Peter (2 Pet. 3:11), James (Jas. 5:7), John (1 John 3:1 -
3), or Paul (Rom. 13:11 -14), all agree in the moral issue, the practical
outcome of the doctrine of the Lord's Coming, viz., 'Be ye also ready'.
We now briefly consider the teaching of the Epistles of the Mystery
written after Acts 28, when Israel's hope was suspended, and they became lo -
ammi 'not My people'.
One thing at least has been established by this study, that the
doctrine of the Second Coming is not by any means peculiar to the New
Testament. Indeed it has been forced upon us by the sheer weight of the
available evidence that there is not one New Testament reference to the
Second Coming yet noticed, that is not either a quotation from the Old
Testament or an expansion of its teaching. The reader may find profitable
study in traversing the ground already covered to discover the Old Testament
links. They are manifestly on the surface in Matthew 24 and in the
Apocalypse. 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 is not a new revelation; the mystery
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:51 relates, not to the Coming of the Lord, but
to the 'change' of the living believer at His Coming; and the mystery of