"Everlasting consolation." — 2 Thessalonians 2:16
By: Charles Spurgeon
"Consolation." There is music in the word: like David's harp, it charms
away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a distinguished honour to
Barnabas to be called "the son of consolation"; nay, it is one of the
illustrious names of a greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is "the
consolation of Israel." "Everlasting consolation"-here is the cream of
all, for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory
of it. What is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of
pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the witness of
the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a cloud, and his
transgressions like a thick cloud. If sin be pardoned, is not that an
everlasting consolation? Next, the Lord gives his people an abiding
sense of acceptance in Christ. The Christian knows that God looks upon
him as standing in union with Jesus. Union to the risen Lord is a
consolation of the most abiding order; it is, in fact, everlasting. Let
sickness prostrate us, have we not seen hundreds of believers as happy
in the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength of
hale and blooming health? Let death's arrows pierce us to the heart, our
comfort dies not, for have not our ears full often heard the songs of
saints as they have rejoiced because the living love of God was shed
abroad in their hearts in dying moments? Yes, a sense of acceptance in
the Beloved is an everlasting consolation. Moreover, the Christian has a
conviction of his security. God has promised to save those who trust in
Christ: the Christian does trust in Christ, and he believes that God
will be as good as his word, and will save him. He feels that he is safe
by virtue of his being bound up with the person and work of Jesus.
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