Welcome
to the City of God
His
lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into
the joy of thy lord. Matt. 25:23.
With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their
Lord. The Savior’s joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, the souls
that have been saved by His agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be
sharers in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have been
won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice.
As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill
their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see
that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven
of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through the
endless cycles of eternity.
As the
ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air
an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of
God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the
being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the
marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Savior’s form. As Adam discerns
the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord,
but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Savior lifts him up and bids
him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.
After his
expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth was filled with sorrow. Every dying
leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every blight upon the fair face of nature,
every stain upon man's purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin. . . . With
patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression.
Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of the promised
Savior, and he died in the hope of a resurrection. The Son of God redeemed
man's failure and fall; and now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is
reinstated in his first dominion.
