The marriage takes place previous to his second coming; for we are commanded to be in readiness for our Lord when he shall return from the wedding. “Let your loins be girded about, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the wedding.” Luke 12:35, 36. The next verse is likewise so much in point that we must transcribe that also: “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them;” the evangelist might have added, at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We will refer to one more text which shows no less distinctly that the marriage of the Lamb, or his reception of his kingdom takes place previous to his second coming. To correct certain misapprehensions of the Jews, about the setting up of the kingdom of God, Christ, likening himself to a nobleman, said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. Luke 19:12. “And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom,” etc. Verse 15. Who can doubt that by the nobleman’s going into a far country, is here meant the ascension of Christ from this earth into heaven, and that the returning, is his second coming? But he does not return till after he has received the kingdom.
To be still more definite on this point, he not only receives the kingdom previous to his coming, but almost immediately preceding it. He does not of course leave his present position on the throne of his Father, till the time comes for him to take his own throne; but so long as he occupies his present position, he performs the office of priest, and mediator for the human race. When therefore he takes his own throne probation ends. But between the ending of probation, and the second coming of Christ, but a short space of time can elapse; not more than a year, according to Isaiah 63:4. Furthermore, the saints are to be guests at the marriage supper; but they are not gathered till the Son of man shall appear and send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, to gather them from the four winds; from one end of heaven to the other.
The marriage of the Lamb takes place after the close of probation; and the last work of Christ before this event, his last service as mediator is the finishing up of the ministration of the heavenly Sanctuary, in which he now ministers at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. Hebrews 8. Looking back to the type we find that the last service of the sanctuary, called its cleansing, was the putting away, in figure, of the sins of the people. Leviticus 16. Ezekiel 45:18.
The law of types bids us look for such a work, in fact, as the closing act of the ministration of the sanctuary in heaven. But this work involves an examination of character. In the book of God’s remembrance, is found a record of all lives; and men are to be judged at last, by those things which are written in the books. Revelation 20:12. The Scriptures many times speak of sins’ being blotted out. They speak of it, too, not as figurative, but literal. Peter was not dealing in figures, when he said, “Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,” etc. Acts 3:19. These sins must therefore have been recorded in the book of God’s remembrance, or in that book out of which men are to be judged according to their deeds. Repentance on our part will cause them to be blotted out at a certain time, namely, the time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. But the putting away or blotting out of sins, is the very work that constitutes the cleansing of the sanctuary. And this is the last work that is accomplished before Christ lays off his priestly robe for his kingly vesture. It will be further seen, on a moment’s consideration, that a certain decision must be passed upon mankind, before the coming of Christ; for when he appears, of all the living multitudes, those only who are his are to be changed and translated; and of all the dead, those only who have died in him are to have part in the resurrection. How is it to be determined who these are? Omniscience, to be sure, would have no difficulty in knowing; but he has seen fit to reveal to us the fact that a book of records is kept, and that it is by that record that men are to be judged, and by that record their characters determined. An investigation of these records must therefore take place previous to the coming of Christ. The sins of those who have repented will be blotted out, and their names retained in the Lamb’s book of life; while the sins of those who have not sought forgiveness and pardon, will stand against them, and their names will be blotted out of the book of life. This investigation of character, this blotting out of sins, is, as we have seen, the last work performed in the heavenly sanctuary previous to the close of probation, and the marriage of the Lamb. This is the coming in of the King to see the guests - to determine, as characters pass in review before the great tribunal of heaven, who they are, who are worthy of translation, and a part in the first resurrection when the angels are sent forth to bring those who are prepared, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.