For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father.
The coming of the Son of Man
1. The judgment of the world has been committed to the Son as Mediator, as an appropriate honour to One who had humbled Himself for the redemption of the world.
2. Christ is qualified to be Judge, as the Son of God, of the same essence as the Father; the perfections of the Godhead will appear glorious in Him.
3. The saints in judgment will be manifested as the doers of the will of God upon earth.
4. The work of the Judge will be, not to justify, or to make righteous, but to prove the saints by their works, that they are righteous already.
5. Men will be judged by their works, to show that God in the work of man’s salvation supports the cause of infinite holiness.
6. Judgment will not be according to the works visible to men, but to all done in secret.
7. Judgment according to works will condemn the ungodly, and make them dumb before God. (D. Charles.)
I. The son of man As the promised, manifested, ascended One.
II. His reappearance on earth Predicted, possible, necessary.
III. His superhuman glory. His herald, person, retinue is glorious.
IV. His important work. To raise the dead, change the living, judge all, reward each, resign the reins of government into His Father’s hand. (A. Macfarlane.)
I. That the Lord Jesus Christ shall return to this earth as a man in the glory of God with His angels.
II. That all Christ’s believing people shall appear with Him.
III. The Lord at His coming in His glory shall reward every man according to his works. (H. McNeile.)
An awful premonition
Compared with the doom which will be inflicted upon the ungodly at the coming of Christ, the death of nature is nothing.
I. The sinner’s death is but a faint presage of the sinner’s doom at the coming of the Son of Man in his glory.
1. We can make but little comparison between the two in the point of time. Physical dying is but the work of a moment; the doom of the wicked when Christ comes will never die.
2. In point of loss there is no comparison.
3. Neither does death hear any comparison with the last judgment in point of terror.
4. The pains of death are not comparable to the pains of the judgment at the second advent.
II. In the state of separate spirits they have not fully tasted of death, nor will they do so until Christ comes. Till after the second advent their bodies do not suffer; they know that this present state will end, after judgment no end; they have not been put to the shame of a public sentence. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Waiting for Christ’s coming
I saw a picture the other day in a shop window, with which I was greatly pleased; it represented a room in which was a window looking out upon the sea; a lady with a grave, anxious face sat by the window, and two little children were playing on the carpet. On the table lay a letter, which seemed just to have been opened, and against the wall was hanging the portrait of a gentleman. There was very little writing underneath the picture, and very little was wanted; for I could understand the story which the picture was intended to tell, as plainly as if the painter had told me himself. The father of these little children was evidently absent from them beyond the sea. There was his portrait, but he was far away. But he had sent them s letter containing the joyful news that he was coming home again! And so there was the mother sitting at that window, day after day, and looking across the wide waters, in the hope of at last seeing the white sails of the ship which should bring the long-expected one home. Now this picture, I think, may remind us of what the Lord Jesus used to tell His disciples about His “coming again.” (Ready for work.)