(C.H.Spurgeon)

– 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, 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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