When the Lord Jesus is Revealed from Heaven

Nuzul-i-Isa: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

« The Purpose of His First Coming to Earth

Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven whence he is to return. We have already seen that he came into the world to make himself like us in every way so that he might save us from our sins. What, then, is the supreme purpose of his second coming? It is just this - that he might make those who believe in him just like himself. The first time he was manifested in human flesh, the second time he will be revealed in all his heavenly glory and the whole earth will see him as he really is. Then those who have followed him will likewise be transformed into his image to be made just like himself. One of his disciples could confidently write to his Christian brethren:

"Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:2

He will return shining with all the brightness of his heavenly glory, and then those who are his will be transformed into the same image and share his glory. After declaring that all sinners and evildoers will be cast into the fire on the Day of Judgment Jesus said "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43). Those who have died in ordinary human bodies, who nevertheless followed him as their Lord and Saviour will, on that glorious Day, be raised from the dead and taken up to be with him in heavenly glory for all eternity. Their present bodies are perishable, but they will be raised imperishable. They are mortal now, but then they will be raised immortal. They share now the ordinary human body of flesh that Adam, their first father, shared, but on that Day they will inherit the same resplendent, heavenly body of spirit and life that Jesus Christ, their eternal Saviour and Lord, already shares.

As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:48-49.

The great Christian hope is to be raised from the dead to eternal life on that Day just as Jesus himself was raised from the dead. This was the supreme purpose of his coming into the world, not just to teach, preach and heal as if he were an ordinary prophet, but to give effect to the ultimate hope of all mankind - the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. No earthly prophet could bring such a thing about - only the Lord of Glory from heaven could do so.

When Jesus heard one day that his friend Lazarus was ill in Bethany, instead of going down to heal him, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was (about a hundred kilometres away) and deliberately let him die (John 11:6). As soon as he suggested to his disciples that they should go down to Judea again, where Lazarus had been buried, they were appalled at the suggestion, exclaiming "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" (John 11:8). Their immediate fear was that he was going there only to die. But when Jesus insisted, Thomas said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). The spectre of death hung over the whole scene. Even when Jesus got to Bethany and found that Lazarus had been dead four days already, the two sisters of the dead man both said to him "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21, 32), and some of the Jews, weeping in consolation with them, said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" (John 11 37). The pall of death hung like a cloud over the scene.

The attitude of all of them was the same - if only Jesus had been there, in the right place at the right time, he could have healed Lazarus while he was still alive. But now that he was dead, what could Jesus do? The seemingly irreversible shadow of death hung over the whole place and Jesus appeared to have arrived too late to do anything.

The recent Superman film which did the rounds showed an incident where a huge truck was leaning over a bridge. Superman was called for and he flew through the sky in his fancy costume to lift it up with his great power. Before he arrived, however, the truck toppled into the river below. When Superman finally got there he was told "It is too late now" and, despite his powers, there was nothing he could do.

Jesus wore no fancy costume. He did not come with power to fly through the skies, nor did he have superhuman powers to lift heavy objects. He was made just like us, but he had come for one supreme purpose and, as he arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, he did not stand by impotently as Superman was obliged to do. He challenge Martha, one of the dead man's sisters, saying, "Your brother will rise again" (John 11:23). When she replied that she knew her brother would be raised on the Last Day, that he would be raised by a God who was far off on a day that seemed extremely remote, Jesus made a declaration that sounded forth with all the authority of heaven and breathed newness of life into an apparently hopeless situation. He said to her:

"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26.

In the midst of the deathly atmosphere that prevailed over the scene came a glorious exclamation from one who in their very presence was not just a healing prophet but the very source of the resurrection and eternal life that will be given to all that believe in him and follow him. As a sign of the supreme purpose for which he had come to earth, he thereupon raised Lazarus from the dead and gave him back to his sisters. In that environment of death and despair - the destiny of all men sooner or later - Jesus Christ, there and then the Resurrection and the Life himself, demonstrated the real purpose of his first coming.

Shortly after this great miracle he himself rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Those who believe in him are now reaching out to one who has already conquered death, and who is even now alive in heaven for evermore. He alone is the world's hope of the resurrection and eternal life in the age to come.

The Qur'an often speaks of God as he who "bringeth the dead to life" (Quran 2.73). There are more than twenty passages which speak of God's power to raise the dead to life, to give haya to the mayyitun (e.g. Quran 10.31). Yet in one verse we read that Jesus said: "I give life to the dead by God's permission" (Quran 3.49) and in another verse God himself speaks of Jesus' power to raise the dead by his leave (Quran 5.113). Apart from these verses which attribute to Jesus the power to give life to the dead there is no other passage attributing to any other prophet or man the same power. In the Qur'an itself, therefore, we find that God's power to raise the dead has been given to Jesus alone. Here is a clear confirmation of the fact that Jesus did not come into the world purely as a prophet to preach and teach.

Jesus came the first time to conquer sin and rise from the dead in triumph, thus securing for his followers the assured hope of the resurrection at the Last Day. Jesus will return on that Day to raise all his own from the dead, to give them the fulness of eternal life and to make them just like himself in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the supreme meaning and purpose of the nuzul-i-Isa, the second coming of Jesus.

Instead of limiting him to the status of ordinary prophethood along with other mortal men, will you not put your faith in him as the appointed Lord of heaven and earth and be raised to eternal life on that Day "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven" (2 Thessalonians 1:7) to be glorified in all his saints? Or will you rather "shrink from him in shame at his coming" (John 2:28)? Will you not commit your life to the only man who has conquered death, who alone dwells in heavenly glory above billions of men on earth, both dead and living, and who alone will return to earth shining in all his heavenly majesty to award the crown of life to all who love him and remain faithful to him even unto death itself? Will you not bow to him as your Lord and Saviour and be saved by his grace?