Matthew 16:27 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

OLBGrk;

This verse makes it plain, that our Saviour by quch in the former verse understood the soul of man, or eternal life, that blessed state which is prepared for the saints of God; for he here minds them that there shall be a last judgment, and gives them a little description of it.

1. As to the Judge, the Son of man, him whom you now see in the shape of a man, and whom men vilify and contemn under that notion. He is to be the Judge of quick and dead, Acts 10:42 2 Timothy 4:1.

2. As to the splendour of it. He shall come in the glory of his Father. It is also his glory, 1 Thessalonians 17:5; he calls it the glory of his Father, because by his eternal generation he received it together with the Divine nature from his Father, and it was common to him with his Father; or because his commission for judgment was from his Father: For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, 1 Thessalonians 5:22. With his angels; his holy angels, 1 Thessalonians 1:7. And then he shall reward every man according to his works: not for his works. Our Saviour is not here speaking of the cause of the reward, but the rule and measure of it: According to his deeds, Romans 2:6. According to his labour, 1 Corinthians 3:8. According to that he hath done, 2 Corinthians 5:10. Not according to his faith, but works, for faith without works is dead; but these works must spring out of a root of faith, without which it is impossible to please God. He shall reward him, by a reward of grace, not of debt, Romans 4:4. Works shall be rewarded, but not as with a penny for a pennyworth, but of grace.

Matthew 16:27

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.