Archive of Grace

... Everlasting consolation ... (2 Thessalonians 2:16)

"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, the "spikenard very precious," for the eternity of comfort is the crown and glory of it. This makes an estate worth the having when a man may hold its fee simple in perpetuity forever. A man works to make money, and after toiling hard he finds himself the owner of it, and it is a consolation to him, but it is not an "everlasting consolation," for he may spend or he may lose all his treasure; or he may be compelled by death to leave it — it cannot be, at the best, more than a temporary consolation. A man toils hard for knowledge, he acquires it, he becomes an eminent scholar; his name is famous; this is a consolation to him for all his toil, but it cannot last long; for when he feels the headache, or the heartache, his degrees and his diplomas cannot cheer him; or should his soul become a prey to despondency, he may turn over many a learned tome before he will find a balm for a broken heart. All earth-born consolations are in their essence fleeting, and in their existence short-lived; they are as brilliant and as evanescent as the rainbow hues of a soap-bubble; but as for the consolations which God gives to His people, they fade not, neither do they lose their freshness. They can stand all tests — the shock of trial, the flame of persecution, the lapse of years; nay, they can even endure death itself. 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. Now, it is a sweet thing to know that God accepts us, and to be able to sing with Hart, —

"With my Saviour's vesture on,
Holy as the Holy One."

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, therefore, that whatever may occur in providence, whatever onslaughts there may be of inward corruption, or of outward temptation, he is safe by virtue of his being bound up with the person and work of Jesus. Is not this a source of consolation overflowing and delightful? Why, the richest and greatest of men might freely give their eyes to know that they are saved, and their loss would be their gain. It were a cheap bargain for men to enter into life halt or maimed, if they did but enter into life at all. That we have this life, and cannot be robbed of it, is our everlasting consolation.

How now, reader, are you pining and refusing to be comforted? Is this honorable to God? Will it make others long to know Jesus? Cheer up, man! When Jesus gives eternal consolation, it is a sin to murmur.