I am presently involved in an in-depth study of Matthew 16:27-28, where Jesus is quoted as saying in verse-27: “The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he will reward every man, according to his works.” What, then, does it mean to come in the glory of the Father? What would that look like, if we saw it today? What did Jesus mean when he said he would come in the glory of his Father? It couldn’t mean that Jesus would come in the glory he later prayed God would give him (John 17:5), because that was the glory Jesus possessed as his own, before he became man, unless, of course, the glory Jesus possessed as his own was the equal of and the very same glory as the Father’s glory.
The commentaries don’t seem to help with this question. What is the Father’s glory? We know that no man has ever actually seen God in his glory (John 1:18). Paul tells us that Jesus in his heavenly glory “dwells in the Light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting” (1Timothy 6:17; emphasis mine).
This seems to be saying that God is Light (1John 1:5), and in his heavenly glory, Jesus dwells in this Light “which no man can approach unto” or “whom no man has seen or can see.” If Jesus came in this glory, who would be able to see him? Unless we are willing to say Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, it must have been the Father who came to judge Egypt in Isaiah 19:1 and following. Did anyone actually see God ride upon a cloud, coming to judge Pharaoh? If not, and if this was the way God came in the Old Testament, why would we expect to actually see Jesus coming in the glory of his Father, with his angels etc.? No one is able to see God in his glory. If Jesus came “in the glory of his Father” why would we ever expect to **see** Jesus with our physical eyes? This simply isn’t logical. Now, Pharaoh was able to see his judgment coming in the person of the king of Assyria, and, no doubt, the Jews could have seen their judgment coming in the person of Titus with all his Roman armies when they broke through Jerusalem’s walls in 70 AD. Did anyone actually see Jesus coming in the clouds as he promised he would (Matthew 26:64)?
Practically every scholar admits that Jesus’ coming in Matthew 16:27 is his Second Coming as Judge of mankind. And, virtually every scholar would tell us that Jesus’ coming in 2Peter 3 is his Second Coming to bring in the new heavens and the new earth. Let’s look at how Isaiah put it:
Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence! When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence. (Isaiah 64:1-3)
This seems very similar to 2Peter 3:10, but Isaiah said that the Lord had torn the heavens in the past, and the earth melted at his presence in the past. Did anyone actually **see** that happen with his physical eyes, or is this simply apocalyptic language that describes the coming of the Lord in awesome splendor? If the writer uses exaggerated language in order to describe the indescribable God, why would we expect to see the heavens literally pass away or the elements literally melt with fervent heat?
To sum up, it is widely accepted as fact in Christian circles that Matthew 16:27 and 2Peter 3:10 refer to Jesus’ Second Coming. However, if Jesus coming in the glory of the Father or the heavens literally passing away is not something that could be seen with our physical eyes, is there even the slightest logical or good reason to put Jesus’ Second Coming beyond 70 AD? All the constituent elements of these prophecies were fulfilled at that time when Jesus came to judge Jerusalem and destroy the Temple (Matthew 26:64), thus ending the Old Covenant and establishing the New with Jesus’ disciples.
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