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race and the prize led on to the thought of the seated Christ as the One Who saves to the
uttermost those who, being redeemed, are pressing toward the mark.
This brings us back to Col. 3: for the consideration of one more point, namely, the
association of this "seeking" and "setting" with the hope that is before us.
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 3, 4).
We would here draw attention to one interpretation of this passage which places "the
appearing with Him in glory" after the millennial reign of Christ. There are many valid
and scriptural objections to such an interpretation, the first being the use of the word
"life" in the passage. While it is true that the believer's life is "hid with Christ in God",
so that it cannot be enjoyed until the day of manifestation, for Christ Himself is here said
to be "our life", the interpretation would shut us up to the impossible position that, while
saints of other, and lower, callings had been raised and blessed, the Church of the One
Body awaited resurrection life and glory throughout the thousand year reign of Christ!
To resort, in order to cover this difficulty, to some undefined intermediate state will not
do, for "life" would be needed even if glory were future. The refutation of such an
interpretation lies in this passage which places the entry into life and glory at one and the
same time: "When . . . . . then."
The word "appear" is the word phaneroo and, together with the variants epiphaneia
and epiphaino, is specially used in the epistles of the present dispensation to define the
hope of the Church at the peculiar phase of the second advent of Christ that will usher in
the consummation of the blessed hope of the Church.
Let us see how the word is used in connection with the hope in other epistles of the
same dispensation.
"That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing
(epiphaneia) of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in His times he shall show, Who is . . . . .
King of kings and Lord of lords" (I Tim. 6: 14, 15).
That Christ appears as King of kings before the Millennium, is stated in Rev. 17:
and 19:, the Millennium not commencing until chapter 20: is reached.
"We should live . . . . . looking for that blessed hope, and the appearing (epiphaneia)
of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2: 12, 13).
This is a reasonable exhortation if at the close of the present dispensation or age this
hope is to be realized, but how anyone can "live . . . . . looking" for an event which he
knows cannot take place for more than 1000 years is not easy to understand, and such an
expectancy certainly does not fit the context in Titus 2:
"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the
quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word" (II Tim. 4: 1,2).