Another Look At Matthew 16:27-28 (Part 1)

“For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:27-28).

Incorrect exegesis of the passage of Scripture above has caused many including some Christian leaders to doubt or question the second coming of Jesus Christ. Considering this passage, many think that Jesus Christ came in the first century or that He would never come again. Their argument is that all the people who Christ said would not taste death until they see Him coming died in the first century, yet He has not come.

They therefore urge people especially those who are hedonistically inclined to feel free and enjoy themselves. But this encouragement for self-indulgence is not only informed by mere ignorance or lack of revelation and illumination of biblical texts, but a pure act of evil. There is a need to carefully study the passage to know whether or not Christ really returned in the first century.

Many understand this portion of the text: “For the Son of Man is going to come…” to mean that Christ was talking about His ascension and second coming to judge the world. But this teaching is erroneous; we need to examine the passage contextually and be guided by the Holy Spirit to be able to understand it properly.

We need to answer some basic questions about the passage. First, where did Jesus say He was going to? Second, where would He come from? Third, was Jesus going to heaven and return for the second time bodily to judge the world? Before we can answer these questions satisfactorily, we need to do a careful Holy Spirit-assisted reading of the whole Chapter 16 of the book of Matthew.

Verse 21 tells us specifically where Christ said He was going to. He said He was going to Jerusalem to be killed and buried and on the third day be raised from the dead or come back to life. It should be understood that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was a form of coming. He was coming from the dead. He left the world and returned after three days. In other words, Christ went somewhere and came back.

And the Scripture says Christ would come with His angels. And clearly we know that when Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, He came with His angels in the glory of His Father as angels were seen at the tomb (John 20:12).

The passage also talks about Jesus Christ promising to repay each person according to what he has done. Now the question is: did Christ repay people for what they had done? The answer is a resounding, yes! The people who lived in that period received their rewards for their work. To be satisfied with the answer, we need to know and understand the work being talked about in this context. Remember the Bible does not say “works” but “work”.

The work Christ expected them to do was the work of God. And the work of God they were expected to do was to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ. In John 6: 28- 29, Jesus taught that BELIEVING in Him was the real work of God people were expected to do. That is, as He preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God, His hearers should believe in Him as the promised Messiah.

And so those who did that work of believing in Him were rewarded or repaid after Christ Jesus’s resurrection or coming from the dead. They were given the gift of the Holy Spirit as their reward for their act of believing in Him. But those who did not believe in Him were denied the Holy Spirit. That was their reward also. To me, the Holy Spirit is the greatest reward or gift one receives on earth for doing the work of believing in Jesus Christ.

A good student of the Bible knows that the first century disciples of Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit to dwell in them and be upon them only after the Lord had been raised from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” after His resurrection (John 20:22). And Christ fulfilled His promise of empowering the disciples by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them as recorded in Acts Chapter 2.

Then, in Matthew 16:28, Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” A misunderstanding or misinterpretation of this verse has led many to conclude erroneously that either Christ Jesus came in the first century or He would not return at all, considering the fact that all the people He made the promise to died hundreds of years ago.

But what Christ Jesus really meant was that there was a high probability of some of His hearers who were standing where He was speaking dying between that time and the time He would be raised from the dead or come in His kingdom. In this world, people die all the time.

In fact, the time span between the day He made those statements and the day He was raised could be several months in which some of the people could die while others could live to see Him coming in His kingdom. It is obvious some of the people died while others lived. Judas Iscariot, for instance, died before Christ Jesus was raised from the dead. However, the rest of His disciples and several other people lived to see His resurrection.

To be Continued…

By James Quansah