“Leave it all to Me.” “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” These suffering saints at Thessalonica are to draw consolation when they conjure up in their minds what these words mean. God is a vengeful God! He says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” Don’t you take vengeance that’s not your prerogative. These shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of His might, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at in them that believe.”Īt Christ’s Second Coming He says His own will marvel at Him and marvel at the changes that will be wrought in them, but they are to take comfort from the knowledge that at that coming-which is the manifestation for the glory of Christ, brings the sons of God into the full possession of the glory appointed for them-it will be in flaming fire to take vengeance. “You that are afflicted, rest with us.” When? “At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of His power, in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is there in His Second Coming that is going to bring rest? In this context it’s rest from affliction. Notice what he says in verse 7 of chapter 1, “And to you that are afflicted rest with us.” When? Where? With respect to what? “At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven.” You who are afflicted, a period of rest is coming, and it will come at the revelation of the Lord Jesus, at His Second Coming. Paul is writing this second letter to comfort and encourage them, to straighten out some skewed thinking about the return of Christ. From the very beginning of their profession of the Christian faith, the Thessalonians had suffered great opposition. Look with me now at just two or three specimen passages.Ģ Thessalonians chapter 1.
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