The old hymn What a Day That Will Be starts out:

‘There is coming a day,
When no heartaches shall come,
No more clouds in the sky,
No more tears to dim the eye,
All is peace forever more,
On that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.’

In Isaiah 35, we see this same hopeful longing for Christ’s second coming. Whether you are premil or postmil, or whether you don’t even know what eschatology is— if you are a believer, you hope for this day! This life is hard. It’s full of ups and downs. Full of sorrow and disappointments. And yet, how glorious it will be when we are finally glorified and walking with Christ through the celestial halls of Heaven.

Yet, I love where Charles Spurgeon takes this passage in his sermon entitled The Dumb Singing. The Prince of Preachers isn’t putting the emphasis on when Christ returns. Instead, he enlightens us about the glory of Christ’s grace here and now. He says “We find here the blind spoken of, but they are not blind when grace has touched their eyes. We read also of the deaf, but they are not deaf after grace has operated upon them.” As Spurgeon does so eloquently, he goes on to show us how grace makes an immediate impact. “Grace makes a great difference in a man when it enters into him. How vain, then, are the boasts and professions of some persons, who assert themselves to be the children of God, and yet live in sin. Let such know that their pretensions are lies, and that falsehood is the only groundwork they have for their hopes; for wherever the grace of God is, it makes men to differ.”

Bottom line: Men who have seen Grace face to face are changed forever. By their fruits they will be known. You cannot encounter the Son of Man and not be changed. Sure, we’re all flawed, sinful human beings, and we won’t be fully sanctified until the day described above. Yet, there is grace even here and now for those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation!