Matthew 16:27, commentary and pictures

Christ will literally, personally and visibly return to earth in the glory of His Father with all the holy angels to give every person according to his works. He spoke this to close His plain call to come after Him by denying self, taking up the cross and following Him, showing that saving the present life by shunning reproach brings eternal loss, while losing life for His sake brings finding it with God. People are justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to works, for works reveal whether faith was living and show the heart and character as fruit shows a tree. Character at His appearing is decisive because probation is then over, with mercy ended and to the obedient eternal life and joy, and to the disobedient the uncompromising penalty of evil deeds. Because reward follows works, now is the time to search the heart, live by every word of God, let Christ shape the character, and watch for His soon coming.

Context and Discipleship Call

The words were spoken to the first disciples as special instruction after prayer to prepare them for the trial of faith they must endure in His rejection and crucifixion by the Jews. He was warning them of what to expect in following Him. The promise of His coming in His Father's glory with His angels to reward every person according to works belongs to that preparation.

The verse closes the plain requirement that to come after Him a person must deny self and take up the cross and follow Him on the journey heavenward. Self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway heavenward. He will gather every obedient child into His kingdom to receive the eternal inheritance. The crown follows the cross, made possible because His great infinite sacrifice in coming from heaven to earth opened the way of escape for salvation.

Saving temporal life by shunning the cross and avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss of life, while losing life for His sake in self-denial and sacrifice brings finding life and life with God. Those who strive to save their lives in this world will lose them eternally, while those who lose their lives for Christ will find them. The worth of the soul is above gain of the whole world. Gaining the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost and cannot compensate for losing one's soul, and nothing can be given in exchange for the soul.

Those who would be partakers of His glory must also be partakers of His reproach, with His suffering and experience completed in all who believe through all time. Looking beyond His suffering, He saw that by giving His life He would win the world back to loyalty to God. That prospect was a joy set before Him and helped Him endure the cross and its shame. The promise that some standing there would live and not taste death till seeing the Son of man coming in His kingdom encouraged the disciples, though they did not understand how that glory related to His near-term poverty, humiliation, suffering, and death.

Manner of Christ's Return

The Son of man will return to earth in a literal, personal, visible and majestic appearing, not as a merely spiritual or symbolic event, and not in the splendor of an earthly throne but in divine glory. That coming is still future, a real and glorious second advent in the clouds of heaven, not a spiritual reign before the end of the world. He comes in the glory of His Father, in His own glory, and in the glory of all the holy angels, accompanied by the hosts of heaven, with no lack of honor.

His second coming stands in contrast to His first advent as a babe in Bethlehem and to His humble ride into Jerusalem, and the holy who have followed His meek example will greet Him with joy. The waiting saints will see Him return, the sleeping saints will be raised at the last trumpet and clothed with immortality, and the living saints being changed will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. Dead believers rise in that first resurrection when He returns as King and Deliverer. His coming is the hope of the church and brings the kingdom to the just, when He receives the dominion over creation that Adam forfeited. Then creation is renewed, the animal kingdom is changed and subdued to Him, and universal peace and praise prevail.

At the great judgment He will sit on His throne with all nations gathered before Him to execute God's sacred statutes and bring final retribution. At His coming God's law will be revealed in its majesty as God's standard of character. His coming is marked by terrible, consuming light, surrounded by angels to execute judgment on those who disregard God's commandments, trample His blood underfoot, break God's law and reject the atonement. As Israel feared to approach Moses because his face shone after speaking with God, so transgressors will be unable to look upon Him in His glory and will seek to hide from Him.

Judgment According to Works

A coming day of reckoning will bring reward to every man, woman, and child according to works, when Christ comes in the glory of His Father with His angels and each person's case stands before the heavenly court where account is rendered day by day. Every act and motive will then be brought into judgment, and every person will receive according as works have been. That certainty calls for care in how one lives now, for making the life record such as to own without shame, and for examining preparedness by reading God's plain word and practicing its teachings. Controversies with brethren that put reproach on God's cause come under that future accounting, and sins left unconfessed will come up in the judgment with no part in the kingdom for the sinner.

Character at His appearing is decisive because probation is then over, not a further chance to prepare for heaven. Those found unready remain unready, no purification can then be done, and no atoning blood pleads to cleanse sin, so there is no safe time to neglect preparation. After the test over choice for or against God's law is finished, mercy and probation end and God gives each the due reward. Some receive the reward of doing good, while the disobedient receive the uncompromising penalty for evil deeds, which is the second death without hope of resurrection, where love and justice work together.

People are justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to works, not according to faith alone, profession, or church membership. Before that coming Christ serves as Mediator, but when He comes as Judge the judgment assesses the character developed in life and the faithful who have done well receive the Saviour's commendation. Obtaining everlasting life together with Jesus calls for obedience that puts all powers to use and surrenders life itself when required. Faith justifies while works show how people used what God entrusted to them, and the Lord watches each person to reward according to what is done rather than what is professed, as seen in duty to a poor suffering brother.

Works reveal whether faith was living, as good fruit shows the condition of a tree, and they show the condition of heart and character. The eternal reward is given in proportion to work done through Christ's grace, not as payment earned by human merit, for good works do not purchase salvation but show faith active in love and purifying the soul. That living faith includes using abilities and opportunities to serve God and others, showing kindness, helping the afflicted, doing missionary work, and supporting God's cause, and neglecting these responsibilities while pursuing temporal interests leaves a person wanting.

Every act, motive, word, deed, and business transaction is weighed in the balances of truth and of the sanctuary when the secrets of all hearts stand revealed. Angels record works in heaven, holy angels weigh motives and hear words, and God sees every transaction, so wrongdoing does not escape judgment and deeds bear on reward. The life record registered in God's book of records will appear for examination, with clear sharp remembrance from which not a word or deed escapes memory, including small dishonest acts, neglected duties, selfishness, deception, and fraud, bringing shame to those whose lives contain evil works. Wicked physicians who corrupt souls and bodies under cover of profession face that complete record, with a witness by the sickbed noting circumstances, treatment, and fidelity, for God looks upon the heart and understands the spirit actuating every deed, and only daily faith in Christ keeps pure amid temptation to dishonesty and grave sin. Because reward follows works, the present is for searching the heart as with a lighted candle and criticizing actions by the law of God as standard for present and eternal good, while every righteous act recorded in the book of life will be remembered and rewarded.

The reckoning is strictly personal, by an account each must render for personal salvation, and no one is saved by another's piety and obedience. No other's efforts are registered as one's own, the conduct of the majority excuses no one from choosing right, others cannot bear or avert the consequences, and unless each does the individual work it remains undone. To receive the crown of life one must comply with the conditions and receive it as a conqueror, building up God's kingdom and bringing souls to knowledge of the truth as first and highest duty, improving God-given capabilities and opportunities, meeting personal obligations to God that no one else can meet, and following Christ as the only true faultless Pattern instead of following others' delinquencies and sins as excuse.

The Son of God Himself makes the final giving of rewards and punishments as Judge of all the earth, giving to each what actions deserve. He is entrusted with this complete measurement because He lived in humanity, loved humanity, and gave His life for humanity, and only His unerring decision can settle each case. When the judgment sits and the books are opened to testify to the salvation or loss of all souls, He will appropriate reward to the loyal righteous and punishment to the disobedient, disloyal, and unrighteous, including responsibility for influence and for partaking in others' sins and acting against God's decision, which makes the scene most awfully solemn for the lost. That judgment means selfish propensities must be disciplined and selfish ways set aside for the Lord's way, with right action, honest dealing, and righteous plans as the sure fruit of true godliness, and with children and households commanded like Abraham to keep the way of the Lord, keeping names retained in the book of life.

Faithfulness That Gains Reward

The reward reflects how a person has lived and whether life has been spent to benefit others and help save souls. Each one is accountable for the work, gifts, talents, and abilities entrusted, and must give account of faithful labor together with God to carry gospel light and win men and women from sin to righteousness. People are justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to works, and works show how what God entrusted has been used in service to others. All who belong to the church are included in this responsibility to work, to serve Him, to glorify Him in all that is done, to overcome selfishness, and to remain faithful to His commandments. The present is a time of trust and solemn privilege, and the reckoning is near.

No one is responsible for talents never given, but only for the work and talents placed in the hands. Those who attempt little receive a reward proportionate to what has been done, and neglecting counsel and failing to labor faithfully brings loss while successful labor receives its proportionate reward. The reward given at His coming is proportionate to devotion in the work for which He gave His life. Self-denial endured for the Lord determines the place men and women will occupy in the heavenly courts. Faithfulness calls for using abilities faithfully rather than coveting higher positions, complaining about others, or hindering fellow workers.

Every act of self-denial and sacrifice made in duty to God for Jesus is faithfully recorded and will receive its reward. That reward is not measured by how much visible good is accomplished now. Faithful, unselfish service for God also brings a reward in this life, even when workers cannot see the fruit of their labor. Self-denial, sacrifice, suffering, and reproach endured for Christ are connected with the final joy and immortal life of His kingdom. Each sacrifice enriches the one who makes it, though earthly treasures may be given up to follow Him.

God remembers and rewards self-denial done for His cause, and giving up unnecessary comforts and spending to relieve temporal and spiritual need, advance the truth, and support His work will be remembered when each is rewarded according to works. Those who give up unnecessary spending to help people in need receive the Lord's blessing. Works reveal how highly sacred things are valued, and God rewards those who give willingly in keeping with that value. Acts of liberality, gifts, and efforts made for Christ and for saving souls are remembered by God and rewarded, and using entrusted means for His glory brings blessing to the giver. Sacrificing personal comforts and giving to support God's work, even in a small amount, will be remembered, including the Lord's tenth and charity gifts rather than spending all on self.

Obtaining everlasting life together with Jesus calls for obedience that puts all powers to use and, if necessary, surrenders life itself. The reward is not according to faith alone, profession, or hearing only, but according to actions and obedience put into practice. Practicing the Word will be righteousness and redemption in the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ when grace is brought to believers and each is repaid in line with what has been done. This calls for obedience to every precept of God's law, obeying the commandments, following the true Shepherd, and standing fast in the faith. There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.

He will gather every obedient child into His kingdom to receive the eternal inheritance. When He comes from heaven in the clouds He will give eternal life to those who have been faithful to their trust, and those found worthy will rejoice. The day when each receives according to works will bring great joy and rejoicing to the saved. Following Christ in self-denial and sacrifice leads to life with God, while saving temporal life by avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss. That reward includes the final joy and immortal life of His kingdom.

Then those who have suffered for Him on this earth will see Him as He is, will be made like Him, and will reign with Him in glory. Those who have served Him will share in the brightness of His glory and receive the first light of His appearing while the world is in darkness. That exaltation is still future, and none are to be exalted now. The future home realized by those who follow the true Shepherd and obey the commandments of God holds no disappointment, no sin, no enemy, and no outburst of passion.

Unfaithfulness That Brings Retribution

Neglect of entrusted responsibility leaves a person wanting with no reward laid up, for the reward reflects how one has lived and whether one has worked to benefit others and help save souls. Failing to labor faithfully and failing to give strength to professed truth brings loss proportionate to the neglect, while successful labor receives proportionate reward, and uncorrected errors and shortcomings endanger eternal interests. A Christian profession without a life that passes God's test of character, without the changed life bearing the fruit of righteousness, will bring sorrow when Christ comes in the glory of the Father to judge each according to works.

The judgment reveals sins of omission as well as sins of commission, including neglecting to share Bible truth and warn those nearby who need instruction. It charges against those who could have helped but did not their neglecting of the fatherless, the widow, and other suffering people, and it holds each accountable for money and influence and for whether entrusted wealth is hoarded or used to relieve temporal and spiritual need. Jesus sees when people pass the needy by and will not overlook it, so faithful stewardship decides the soul's destiny.

A life focused on self instead of bearing burdens does not receive the reward of well-doing, which corresponds to self-denial and sacrifice shown for others. Selfish, discourteous, and unkind actions will not be overlooked, especially when they lead another to dishonor God's name and break His law, for God takes account of how each treats others. Selfish propensities must be disciplined and selfish ways set aside for the Lord's way, with right action, honest dealing, and righteous plans as the sure fruit of true godliness in sanitariums and in every enterprise advancing the third angel's message, and with children and households commanded like Abraham to keep the way of the Lord, which keeps names retained in the book of life.

God reads the purposes of the heart and understands the spirit actuating every deed, so outward displays of piety cannot hide selfishness or dishonesty. Hypocritical religious leaders will receive the judgment their deeds deserve. Those through the history of the third angel's message who harm His cause will receive what their deeds deserve, as spots in feasts of charity, tares among the wheat, and wolves among the sheep ready to tear and devour by tearing down reputations, creating lies and bearing false witness against neighbors because they delight in it. On God's appointed day of judging the world in righteousness the separation between wheat and tares will be made, the destroyers revealed as hypocrites who knew they were dealing unjustly and cruelly injuring fellow men, and by their own lips they will speak testimony clearing those they falsely accused, while those who falsely injure God's servants are exposed and separated from the faithful.

God will deal with the deceiver in His own time and reward every person according to work, with the outcome of the conflict in God's hands, not ours. He keeps strict account of every lie and hidden scheme and will deal with transgressors according to what they have done, including a child's hatred and unkindness toward a parent recorded in heaven's books and revealed at the day of judgment, and including diverters of means designed for the Southern field in the Gospel Primer affair, sowers of doubt causing unbelief, and injurers of God's servants. Heaven records each glass by which liquor sellers foster destructive appetite, and they will face that record when each is rewarded according to work. Wicked physicians who take advantage of position and corrupt souls and bodies under cover of profession will receive due reward from the complete record, for the Judge opens the great book showing a witness present by the sickbed who recorded every case with its circumstances and treatment and the fidelity or unfaithfulness of every practitioner, and only daily faith in Christ keeps the physician pure amid temptation to dishonesty and grave sin.

In that day transgressors will for a few moments be allowed to see the record of life as they chose to make it without regard to the law that will govern the universe through eternal ages, and will appear guilty in their own sight. They will then see what God desired them to do and realize they should have used blood-bought privileges for truth and righteousness and devoted talents, influence, and powers to being and doing good instead of placing them on the side of rebellion and strengthening the enemy. Those hearing the message of truth now but not believing will fall amid moral infidelity like those who listened to Noah and worked with him then turned to scoffing and failed to stand till the end of probation, and when reward is given they will understand that God is truth and His message would have been life and salvation had they accepted the evidence and practiced the condition, seeing they might have been saved had they not rejected the only means of salvation. Rich men are tested as stewards of getting and spending under God as great Owner of all, and those who disregard and rob Him in acquiring and using means, fail to relieve the suffering and oppressed, cast justice and mercy aside for avarice and strife, refuse to worship God and make self an idol, are unfaithful stewards storing up punishment for the day of punishment when each is repaid in line with what he has done.

Present Preparation and Watchfulness

Readiness for the coming in glory with angels to repay each according to works means living by every word of God and standing on Scripture while Christ's beauty and grace shape the character to fit for His companionship in heaven. At that coming every secret thing will be brought into judgment and every man's work weighed in the balances of truth with the secrets of all hearts revealed. The record of life can now be made such as to be owned without shame at that time, with every righteous act recorded in the book of life to be remembered and rewarded.

Because the living Saviour will repay every man and woman in line with what has been done, each needs to be careful what the work is. In the great day each will receive according as the works have been, according to the life record of transactions registered in God's book, which will appear for examination with clear, sharp remembrance from which not a word or deed escapes memory. Therefore the present time is for searching the heart as with a lighted candle to see what manner of spirit one is of, and for criticizing actions to see how they stand in the light of God's law as the standard for present and eternal good.

The exaltation of seeing Him as He is, being made like Him, and reigning with Him in glory for those who have suffered for Him is still future, and no human being is to be exalted now. Now is the time for self to be guarded and to die, to deny self, take up the cross and follow Him, to be hid with Him in God with Him reigning in the soul, because the church militant is not yet the church triumphant. The reward given in the coming day of reward will match what a person makes of this present life, so heaven must be made here below in daily character and conduct in order to enjoy heaven above. Humility that bears fruit in trusting God, accepting correction, and continually growing in Him belongs to the course that will be rewarded in the day of judgment according to works, while human ability and talent are gifts entrusted by God and not grounds for boasting.

Expecting the Saviour soon to come in the clouds of heaven to give every person according as the works have been calls every soul to be humbled now, to break away from the powers of darkness, to clear away what hinders God's work, and to confess sin lest sins come up unconfessed in the judgment and the sinner have no part in the kingdom. That same expectation means pleasing God, offering the whole being to the Master's service, continuing efforts for the salvation of precious souls, praying and confessing Him at every opportunity, and living as a little child to the Father by asking what He would have done and then doing that known duty with joyful happiness. Each must examine preparedness for the coming day of reckoning when every act and motive is brought into judgment, including controversies with brethren that put reproach on God's cause, by reading God's clear and plain word and practicing its teachings. Selfish propensities must be disciplined and selfish ways set aside for the Lord's way, with right action, honest dealing, and righteous plans as the sure fruit of true godliness, and with children and households commanded as Abraham commanded to keep the way of the Lord, and maintaining that discipline keeps names retained in the book of life. His soon return demands watchfulness, for faith in His coming was waning and spiritual dullness in the waiting time kept people from recognizing the signs of the times.