The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 433

The expression is akin to many more in the New Testament. ·"To-day thou shait be with me;" ".Absent from the body, at home with the Lord." Thus much, and tbid is all that is said. Oh I the refreshing invigoration which we get when we drink pur., water from this crydta.l spring I "With Christ I" Enough! 1 .And this blessedneSB is th'!lirs during a thousand years. Probably, though not necessarily, the same thousand years as those during which Satan was bound. 4. In what •tale are they MmP 1!1'3o.. • • • ~h ,f,v,cch---" the soul$." Not in their bodily forms, as if on earth, but in the dis- embodied state. In this state they are with Christ, realizing more fully than. they could do here their priesthood and kingship with God. For they are seated on thrones, sharing with their Lord the government of the world. Here they resisted even unto blood (when needed), striving against sin; they would neither·:worship the beast nor his image. and now, far from this world, they are living with Christ. Thu i, the.first •re,,.wm:tion.1 Having attempted to clear the way by offering these preliminary remarks,~ we may now pass on to expound more fully the dQ:Ctrine thus taught, in Us bearing on 4 and harmony with the rest of the Word of God. · I. HERE JS A VISION OF HEN FROM EARTH-not of men on it. "The souls.~ Su in eh. vi. 11. That the expression refers here to men in what is called the disem- bodied state, scarcely admits of question. Not that we are taught in Scripture that the blessed dead are alt.ogether "unclothed." For the .Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor. v., seems to teach that immediately foUowiug on death the soul puts on another vestiture, await- ing the resurrection, when it will put on over that the houStl which is from heaven. Whatever may be, however, their" clothing," it is enough for us here to note that they are•• wi#I Ohrist." '!'his is just what we are taught in repeated Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus.. " died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." Thus we are taught that during that long interval which must elapse ere" the sea shall give up its dead," those who are" absent from the body" are "at home, with the Lord." , As one hae well put it, "Here is no reference whatever to a visible manifestation of' Christ, nor to a new kingdom on earth ; nor is there any separation between one class of Christians and another, nor of the rising of the saints from their graves, nor of. tb.ei, living upon earth." Letting the words of the text speak for themselves, we find them far removed from the amazing obscurity with which the incubllS of interpreters has in.vested them. They are clear and distinct words, fitting in with other statements of God's Word, teaching us that the souls of the blessed dead have already passed into a higher life: that there is no lapse in their blessed relationship to Jesus. IL 'lJIE BLESSED llAINTB A.RE SEEN IN A MORE ELEVATED SPHERE OF HOLY SBBVICB, They are "living and reigning with Christ." They share with him the government of the. world. Here they were "kings and priests " unto God. But in the higher state of being the meaning of these names, and the glorious dignity they include, become tar more manifest than when here below. They were priests even here, in leading men io God and in pleading with God for men. They were kings too, ruling men for Jesus; 1 Cf. an article by Dr. Owen, New York, in the Bibliot11eca Sacra, April, 1861, "Exposi- tion of Zech. xiv." Dr. Warren, of America, annotating this passage, and comparing it with Matt. xix. 28, BBYS, '! '!'hat is, while Christ shall reign in his Chmch over his,enemies on earth, his faithful martyrs and confessors shall reign with him in glory on thrones above. )t. shall be a special reward for special fidelity" (' The Book of the Revelation,' p. 249). 1 1 In order not to interrupt the direct line of statement, and in order to meet a que~ :which at once arises, we put the following in a foot-note:- . , It may be asked-What does the expression in ver. .'i mean: " The rest of the dead,''. .etc. 7 "The rest of the dead" seems to mean tbe ungodly dead. "Lived not again" cannot mean that they wero out of exlstenee. The word is not l(vo-"v, but ~vl,110-a.v; not "lived not until,'' etc., but liced not aMtD, i.,e. the life to whioh they were destined. What fhat is appears from what. follows. During the thousand years believers lived and reigned with Christ, and at the end go into perfect bliss. But during that time there was no ro-living for the ungodly; they were in llli11s and in torment, and at the end of their provisional state thev pass into the final one. And it should never be forgotten that the main poh:it in the resurrection is not the local rising out of the gr-Jve, but the transition to another atage of being; and in the case of the ble88ed dead, this first transition is to a state of bleBBed- nese and honour with Christ. Thj,s.· is the first resurrection: not one in which Christ 001111!9 down to reign with the sai~ut one in which they rise to reign with him; and allllh blellded Z0111UTection is not !Wfd cannot be enjoyed by " the rest of the dead." . .  fflO THE RBVBLA.TION OP BT. JOO 'l'.HB DIVIX'& (m. t t l-15.