Introduction
I mentioned last week how the Lord’s incarnate life can be divided into two phases: there the state of humiliation; and then there’s the state of exaltation. So, he came down from heaven and become one of us and he suffered and died on the cross and was buried and remained under the power of death for a time. That’s his state of humiliation. And then, after his burial, he was raised from the dead on the third day and he was exalted to heaven to sit at God’s right hand, where he rules over all things for our sake; and one day he will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. That’s his state of exaltation. So, as one of us, he went down, down, down to the grave. And then, as one of us, he went up, up, up to heaven above.
And the Nicene Creed bears witness to these two states. We’re already covered the lines of the Creed which deal with his humiliation. So: for us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary; and was made man; and he was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; and he suffered and was buried.
Then, last week, we began to think about the lines of the Creed which deal with his exaltation. So: he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; and he ascended into heaven; and he now sits at the right hand of the Father.
Today we’re thinking about what else the Creed says about his exaltation. So, when we say the Creed together, we’re confessing and proclaiming that the Lord Jesus shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Biblical witness
In Matthew 16:27, the Lord Jesus speaks about how he, the Son of Man, is going to come in the Father’s glory with the angels to reward each person according to what he has done. And in Matthew 24:30, he refers to the time when he, the Son of Man, will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will mourn because they did not believe in him. They will see him coming on the clouds, with power and great glory. And he’ll send his angels with a loud trumpet call to gather his elect people from one end of the heavens to the other. Then in Matthew 25, we have three parables about his coming: the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the parable of the talents; and the parable of the sheep and the goats. And in verse 31 of Matthew 25, he says that he, the Son of Man, will come in his glory with the angels and he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory to judge the world.
In John 5:22, the Lord says that the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son. A few verses later, he says that the time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out for the judgment. And in John 14:3 he says that after he goes to prepare a place for his people in his Father’s house, he will come back and take his people to be with him.
In Acts 1, after the Lord’s ascension to heaven, angels explained to the disciples that he has been taken from them into heaven and will come back in the same way. And in Acts 10:42, Peter told the people in the home of Cornelius that he has been commanded to preach to the people and to testify that the Lord Jesus is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.
In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 2:19, Paul refers to the coming of the Lord. He also refers to the Lord’s coming at the end of 1 Thessalonians 3 and in 4:15, where he says the Lord will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God to raise the dead. And at the beginning of chapter 5 he says that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. That is to say, he will come when we’re not expecting him. Paul says more about the Lord’s coming in 2 Thessalonians. And he says in 2 Timothy 4:1 that the Lord Jesus will judge the living and the dead and that Paul himself will receive a crown of righteousness from the Lord on that day. That is, on the day of the Lord’s coming to judge the world.
In Hebrews 9:27 it says that we are destined to die once and then to face the judgment. And the Lord Jesus will appear a second time, not to bear sin as he did at his first coming, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
In 1 Peter 4:5, Peter says that the pagans will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. And 2 Peter 3 is all about the day of the Lord, which will come like a thief. And the heavens will disappear with a roar and the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare when Christ comes again.
In Revelation 3:3 the Lord warns that he will come like a thief, because we will not know the time of his coming. And in Revelation, the Lord declares three times: ‘Behold, I am coming soon!’
No doubt there are others places in the New Testament where it speaks about the coming of the Lord to judge the world. And the Old Testament refers to it as well. In Psalm 9, for instance, it says that the Lord will judge the world in righteousness. In Psalm 96, it says the Lord comes to judge the earth: he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Isaiah 11 is that chapter about the shoot that will come up from the stump of Jesse. That is to say, it’s about the coming king. The Spirit of the Lord will be upon him and he will judge with righteousness and justice.
So, throughout the Scriptures we’re taught that the Lord Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
And the Bible is also clear that the Lord’s kingdom will never end. So, in Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision of the Lord’s ascension to heaven, when the Lord Jesus — one like a son of man — comes before the Ancient of Days in heaven to receive an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away. His kingdom, we’re told, will never be destroyed. And when the angel appeared to Mary to announce that she’ll give birth to the Saviour, the angel said that her son will reign for ever and his kingdom will never end. At the end of Matthew’s gospel, the Lord declared that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him and he will be with his people always to the very end of the age. That is to say, he will be with them as king for ever. In Hebrews 1:8 the writer applies Psalm 45 to the Lord Jesus, where it says that his throne will last for ever and ever. And 2 Peter 1:11 refers to the Lord’s eternal kingdom.
Explanation
Earlier in the Creed, it says that the Lord Jesus came down from heaven. That is to say, he descended from heaven. But about his second coming, it says that he will come again in glory. So, his second coming is not a descent. He is not coming down to us in humility and weakness, as he came the first time. No, he’s coming with glory and power. He will come with all the glory that belongs to him as God’s only begotten Son, who is also our triumphant king, who, as one of us, has triumphed over sin and satan and death.
And he will come with power to overthrow his enemies once and for all and to judge the living and the dead. That is to say, he will come to judge everyone who has ever lived, including those who died before the Lord’s coming. He will be able to judge the dead, because the dead will be raised from their graves to join the living for the judgment. And so, all people who have ever lived will be judged for what they have done and to give an account to him of their thoughts, words and deeds.
In the gospels, the Lord talks about his coming. And he makes clear that it will be obvious. No one will have to tell us about it or point it out to us. We won’t be able to miss it. However, the Lord is also clear that no-one can tell when he will come again. He will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night. No one knows when the thief will come. And no one knows when the Lord Jesus will come again.
And so, we must be ready for his coming. And we get ready for his coming by believing in him, because those who believe in him as the only Saviour of the world do not need to fear the day of judgment. We do not need to fear it, because for those who are in Christ, there is now no condemnation. He has already paid for all our sins with his life and no further payment will be demanded from us ever. In fact, instead of fearing his coming, we can look forward to it. We can look forward to it, because the one who will judge us is our Saviour, who has already suffered in our place the wrath of God and who has already fully satisfied the justice of God which was against us. And so, because of his self-sacrifice on the cross, we have peace with God. And so, Christ our Saviour will not condemn his believing people when he comes to judge the world.
And we can look forward to his coming, because he is coming to raise the dead and to bring his believing people into the new heavens and earth where we’ll be renewed completely in body and soul and made perfectly holy and happy for ever in the presence of our God. And God will wipe the tears from our eyes and there will be for his believing people no more sorrow or suffering or disease or death, but only perfect peace and rest when we gaze upon the glory of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so, we can look forward to his coming, because his coming will bring an end to our present suffering and we’ll be with the Lord for ever. ‘Encourage one another with these words’, we’re told in 2 Thessalonians.
The line of the Nicene Creed that says that ‘of whose kingdom there will be no end’ isn’t in the original Creed of Nicea written in 325, but was added in 381. And it was added to oppose the teaching of a bishop called Marcellus, who had an unorthodox view of God. He taught that the Son and the Holy Spirit were not eternal persons like the Father, but that the Father appears as the Son and as the Spirit as necessary. And then, at some point in the future, the Son and the Spirit will be no more. And that means the Son’s kingdom will one day belong to the Father and not to the Son. So, the Son’s kingdom is not eternal, but only temporary, because the Son is only temporary.
To be charitable to Marcellus, we can say that he was trying to make sense of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, where he anticipates a time when the end will come and the Son will hand over his kingdom to God the Father. But the bishops who added this particular line to the Creed in 381 believed that, when the Son hands over his kingdom to the Father, the Son will not give up the kingdom. He will not cease to reign. He will hand his kingdom over to the Father to show the Father that he has finished the work the Father gave him to do. But he will not give up his throne, because he will rule over his everlasting kingdom with the Father and with the Holy Spirit as one God.
Remember that the works of God are inseparable, because the three persons of the Trinity are inseparable. Since the persons are inseparable, then all three will reign inseparably for ever and for ever. And we will live with God and reign with him for ever and for ever.
Sermons and Stuff 