Matthew 16:27

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) For the Son of man shall come.—The fact stands in a logical relation to the preceding verse. The fact that the Son of Man is about to come to execute judgment, clothes its abstract statement with an awful certainty. No bribe can be offered to the Eternal Judge to change the sentence of forfeiture if that forfeiture has been rightfully incurred. From first to last in our Lord’s teaching (e.g., for its earlier stages, Matthew 7:23-24; John 5:26-27) this claim to be the future Judge of all men is never absent. It is asserted in every great discourse, implied in almost every parable.

With his angels.—We are justified by Matthew 25:31 in referring the possessive pronoun to Christ rather than the Father. “All things that the Father hath are Mine” (John 16:15), and among these the angels that do His pleasure.

His works.—The better MSS. give a word in the singular, his doing or conduct. The sentence is made to depend on the collective character of what has been done rather than on the multitude of individual acts.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:24-28 A true disciple of Christ is one that does follow him in duty, and shall follow him to glory. He is one that walks in the same way Christ walked in, is led by his Spirit, and treads in his steps, whithersoever he goes. Let him deny himself. If self-denial be a hard lesson, it is no more than what our Master learned and practised, to redeem us, and to teach us. Let him take up his cross. The cross is here put for every trouble that befalls us. We are apt to think we could bear another's cross better than our own; but that is best which is appointed us, and we ought to make the best of it. We must not by our rashness and folly pull crosses down upon our own heads, but must take them up when they are in our way. If any man will have the name and credit of a disciple, let him follow Christ in the work and duty of a disciple. If all worldly things are worthless when compared with the life of the body, how forcible the same argument with respect to the soul and its state of never-ending happiness or misery! Thousands lose their souls for the most trifling gain, or the most worthless indulgence, nay, often from mere sloth and negligence. Whatever is the object for which men forsake Christ, that is the price at which Satan buys their souls. Yet one soul is worth more than all the world. This is Christ's judgment upon the matter; he knew the price of souls, for he redeemed them; nor would he underrate the world, for he made it. The dying transgressor cannot purchase one hour's respite to seek mercy for his perishing soul. Let us then learn rightly to value our souls, and Christ as the only Saviour of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the Son of man ... - That is, he will return to judge the world.

He will come in glory the glory of his Father the majesty with which God is accustomed to appear, and which befits God. He will be attended by angels. He will judge all people.

Reward - The word "reward" means recompense. He will deal with them according to their character. The righteous he will reward in heaven with glory and happiness. The wicked he will send to hell, as a reward or recompense for their evil works. This fact, that he will come to judgment, he gives as a reason why we should be willing to deny ourselves and follow him. Even though it should be now attended with contempt and suffering, yet then he will reward his followers for all their shame and sorrow, and receive them to his kingdom. He adds Mark 8:38, that if we are ashamed of him here, he will be ashamed of us there. That is, if we reject and disown him here, he will reject and disown us there.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels—in the splendor of His Father's authority and with all His angelic ministers, ready to execute His pleasure.

and then he shall reward, &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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, John 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, John 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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father,.... This is a reason, proving the truth of what is before asserted, that men's lives may be lost by saving them, and be found by losing them, whatever paradoxes they may seem to be; and that the loss of a soul is irrecoverable, and no compensation can be made for it; and points out the time, when all this will appear: for nothing is more certain, and to be depended upon, than that Christ, who, though he was then a mean and contemptible man, and attended with the sinless infirmities of human nature, wherefore he calls himself, "the son of man", should come; either a second time to judgment at the last day, in the same glory as his Father, as his Son, equal with him, and clothed, with power and authority from him, and as mediator, to execute judgment: with his angels; the Holy Ones, so the Syriac and Persic versions read, and so some copies; who will add to the glory of his appearance; and will be employed in gathering all nations before him, and in executing his will: or, in his power, to take vengeance on the Jewish nation; on those that crucified him, or did not believe in him, or deserted and apostatised from him. And then he shall reward every man according to his works, or work; either that particular action of putting him to death, or their unbelief in him, or desertion of him; or any, or all of their evil works, they had been guilty of: for though good works are not the cause of salvation, nor for which men will be rewarded; though they may be brought into judgment, as proofs and evidences of true faith, in the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ, by which good men will be acquitted and discharged; yet evil works will be the cause of condemnation, and the rule of judgment; and the reason of adjudging to temporal punishment here, and eternal destruction hereafter.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(u) Like a King, as Mt 6:29.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 16:27. Γάρ] justifies and confirms what Jesus has just stated with respect to the loss of the ψυχή. I say that not without reason; for assuredly the time of the second coming and of a righteous retribution is drawing near (μέλλει being put first for sake of emphasis).

ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρ. αὐτ.] in the same glory as belongs to God. For in this state of glory (John 17:5) the ascended Christ occupies the place of σύνθρονος of God.

τὴν πρᾶξιν] the conduct, the sum of one’s doings, including, in particular, that self-denying adherence to their faith and their confession on which, above all, so much depended, in the case of the apostles, in the midst of those persecutions which they were called upon to endure.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 16:27. μέλλει points to something near and certain; note the emphatic position.—ἔρχεσθαι ἐν τ. δ., the counterpart experience to the passion; stated objectively in reference to the Song of Solomon of Man, the passion spoken of in the second person (Matthew 16:21). In Mk. both are objectively put; but the disciples took the reference as personal (Mark 8:32).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. For] The reason given why the higher life—the soul—is of priceless value: (1) The Judge is at hand who will condemn self-indulgence and all the works of the lower life, and will reward those who have denied themselves. (2) Further (Matthew 16:28) this judgment shall not be delayed—it is very near. The same motive for the Christian life is adduced by St Paul, Php 4:5, “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” Cp. 1 Corinthians 16:22.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 16:27. Μέλλει ἔρχεσθαι, is about to come) A stronger expression than ἐλεύσεται will come. As the teaching concerning the person of Christ is immediately followed by that concerning His Cross, so is the latter by that concerning His glory.—τότε, then) All things are put off till then.—ἀποδώσει ἑκάστῳ, He will render to each individual) This is the attribute of Divine Majesty; see Romans 2:6.[770]—πρᾶξιν, action, conduct, doing) The word is put in the singular, for the whole life of man is one doing.[771]

[770] There is most frequent recurrence of this expression in Scripture.—V. g.

[771] From which, according as it is subject to Christ or to the belly, many works continually, and as a natural consequence, either good or else bad, come forth (result).—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - For the Son of man shall come. The final judgment would put things in their true light - would show the value of self-sacrifice, would reveal the punishment of self-pleasing. Our Lord seems to refer to Daniel 7:13, as it were, in testimony to the truth of what he had just said. Shall come; μέλλει ἔρχεσθαι: venturus est (Vulgate), is more than the bare announcement, and implies that it is in accordance with the eternal counsels of God that he should appear this second time. In the glory of his Father. As one with the Father, and his Representative. So he speaks of "the glory which thou hast given me" (John 17:22). Reward; ἀποδώσει: render, reddet (Vulgate). The term includes punishment as well as recompense. Works (πρᾶξιν); doing, work. The word does not signify isolated acts, but general course of conduct, practice as a whole. Matthew 16:27