​No sooner are the saints lifted up and set before the Judge, but these things follow:

1. They look, gaze, dart their beams, and reflect their glories on each other. Oh, the communications! Oh, the dartings of beams between Christ and His saints! When two admirable persons, two lovers meet together, their eyes sparkle! They look on as if they would look through one another. So Christ and His saints at first meeting: they look on as if they would look through one another. Such is the effect of these looks that they give a luster to each other. Did not Moses’ face shine when he had been with God? And shall not the faces of the elect glitter and shine when Christ also looks on them? As they shine by Christ, so shall their shine reflect on Christ and give all glory to Christ! This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle Paul, “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints” (2 Thess. 1:10). Not only in Himself, but in His saints also, whose glory, as it comes from Him, redounds also to Him.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.Rom. 11:36

2. They admire the infinite glory, beauty, dignity, and excellence that is in Christ. The glory they reflect on Him is nothing to the glory that is in Him. When these stars – the saints – shall but look upon Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, they exceedingly admire Him. So the Apostle writes: “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe” (2 Thess. 1:10). All that believe shall break out into admiration of Jesus Christ. At the first sight, they shall observe such excellence in Jesus Christ that they shall be infinitely taken with it. Here on earth we speak of Christ, and in speaking, we admire. But how they will admire Him when they shall not only speak or hear, but also see and behold Him, who is the express image of God, and the brightness of His Father’s glory (Heb. 1:3)! Oh, the luster that He casts forth each way! Is not His very body more sparkling than the diamond before the sun? Yes, more than the sun itself now shining at noonday? How should the saints but wonder at this sight? There is more beauty and glory in Jesus Christ than ever their thoughts or imaginations could possibly reach! There is more weight of sweet­ness, joy, and delight in Jesus Christ than either the seeing eye, hearing ear, or the vast understanding heart (which can multi­ply and add still to any former thoughts) can possibly conceive (1 Cor. 2:9)! Every soul will cry out then, “I believed I would see much glory in Jesus Christ when I saw Him. I had some twi­light or moonlight glances of Christ on earth: but – how blind and narrow am I! – I could never have faith, opinion, thought, or imagination to fathom the thousand thousandth part of the worth and incomparable excellence that I now see in Him!”

Why, when we see more than ever we could expect, this causes admiration. The saints shall then cry out and say, “I see more, ten thousand times more than ever I expected! I see all the beauty of God put forth in Christ, I see the substan­tial reflection of the Father’s light and glory in Jesus Christ, I see thousands of excellencies in Jesus Christ that never were revealed to me before!” The glory of Christ will then exceed all former apprehension. Oh, they admire to see the King in such a beauty. They admire to see the Judge in such a glittering and glorious robe of majesty! They admire, and they cannot but admire.

3. They adore and magnify the grace and glory of Jesus Christ. It is said of the twenty-four elders that they fell down,

before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.Rev. 4:10-11

So all the saints who have now advanced to come up to Christ and to stand before the throne, fall down before Christ. They worship Him that lives forever, shouting and singing about Jesus Christ, setting out His glory, grace, and goodness!

Saints and angels will both give glory to Jesus Christ that day. Every elect man will then acknowledge, “Here is Christ that shed His blood for me! Here is the Savior that laid down His life for me! Here is the sacrifice that gave Himself as a propitiation for me! Here is the Person that mediated, interceded, and made peace for me! Here is the Redeemer that delivered and redeemed me from the wrath to come!” Then they begin those hallelujahs that shall never, never end:

'Hallelujah!' And again, 'Hal­lelujah! Amen, Hallelujah!' – 'for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.'Rev. 19:7

4. Christ welcomes them into His glorious presence. If the father could receive his prodigal but repenting son with hugs and kisses, how will Christ now receive His saints, when they come as a bride to the solemnization of the marriage? His very heart springs (as I may say) at the sight of His Bride! No sooner does He see her and salute her, but He welcomes her with such words as these: “O my love, my dove, my fair one – come now and enjoy thy Husband! Many a thought I have had of thee: before I made the world, I spent My infinite eternal thoughts on thy salvation. When the world began, I gave thee a promise that I would betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, in mercy, and in faithfulness” (Hos. 2:19-20). “For thy sake I was incarnate, lived, died, rose again, and ascended. And since My ascension, I have been interceding for thee and making ready the bride-chamber, where thou and I must live forever and ever. Now I come into the clouds to meet thee more than half the way. My meaning is to take thee for My own – oh my spouse, thou art as dear to Me as My own dear heart! Come, see here love written in the golden letters of free grace. Come near, for I must have thee with Me... Sometimes thy sins have made a wall of partition between Me and thee. Sometimes I withdrew and was gone; I hid Myself beyond the curtains. And for a time, thou hast lain hid in the closet of the grave. But now we will never part more: I will bring thee to My Father, and I will say to Him, ‘Father, behold! Here is My spouse that I have carried unto Myself.’ In the meantime, welcome to thy Jesus. I have purchased thee with My blood, I have paid dear for thee, and now I will wear thee as a crown and ornament forever.”

5. Christ sets them on His right hand. This is the sign of Christ’s love and respect to His saints: when He Himself ascended up into heaven, then said the Father to Him, “Son, sit Thou down at My right hand.” No sooner are the saints ascended up to Christ, but He speaks the same to them, “Sit thou down at My right hand.” Christ entertains them, as God the Father entertained Him – He at the right hand of God, and they at the right hand of Christ. And herein is set forth the great exaltation of the saints: Christ being set at God’s right hand, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name. So now are the saints highly exalted by Jesus Christ, now are they filled with unmatchable perfection, now is the fullness of perfection, the fullness of honor and glory conferred upon them. “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir” (Ps. 45:9), i.e., in the best, richest, finest gold. The Lord now puts upon His saints heaven’s glory. He adorns them with all His ornaments fit for the marriage day. All the glory of this day is for nothing else but to set out the solemnity of the marriage. As the bridegroom on the day of nuptials comes forth in his glory; as the bride on the marriage day comes forth in her best array; and as the servants, parents, friends, and all appear on the marriage day in as much glory as they can, so Christ on this day comes forth in His glory with all His angels in their glory and the saints, the Lamb’s wife!

6. Hereupon Christ fully and actually joys in them and they in Him. He joys in them because now He sees of the travail of His soul (Isa. 53:11). He sees the issue of all His doings and sufferings here on earth. He sees now the great work He has brought about – the glory of His saints. He cannot but rejoice therein, like a man that makes a work that is very glorious, He takes abundance of delight to look upon it. When God made the world and looked upon what He had made, He saw it was good, and He delighted in it. So Christ looks on His saints, and when He sees what He has done in raising so poor a worm to so high an excellence, He takes infinite delight therein. Now He sees that He hath attained His end in the great design and deepest counsels that He had before the world! He was then resolved to save a number of sinners and to bring them at last to Himself that they might behold Him in His glory and manifest the riches of His grace. To that purpose, He has been carrying on the great work of souls’ salvation and now that He sees it accomplished and fulfilled in them, He must needs delight:

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.Zeph. 3:16-17

And as He joys in them, so they cannot but rejoice in Him; as He delights in their glory, so they cannot but delight in His glory. Are they not at Christ’s right hand? Is not that the place of pleasure, the Paradise of God? “In thy presence is full­ness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11). The very setting of them on Christ’s right hand is the beginning of heaven’s joy. The presence of Christ makes joy, “exceeding joy” (Jude 24). But what joy? What fullness of joy? What exceeding joy will it be to be set at Christ’s right hand? Now begins that joy that never, never shall have an end! Oh, the complacency that the blessed feel in their seeing, knowing, loving, and being loved of Jesus Christ! “Oh, my Christ! Let me have tribulation here, let me here spend my days in sorrow, and my breath in sighings; punish me here, cut me in pieces here, burn me here, so that I might there be placed at Thy right hand.” For then will joy come and sorrow will vanish; sorrow is but for a night, this night of life. But joy will come in this morning of the resurrection, and it never shall be night again.