He Will Come in Glory—The Nicene Creed for Noncreedal Christians, Post #13

 

He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

                As I continue with my reflections on the Nicene Creed for Noncreedal Christians, we come to the final clause in the Christological statement. This declaration is eschatological in nature. That is, it points to Christ’s second coming, his role on the day of judgment, and the enduring nature of Christ’s realm. I included the phrase “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father,” a phrase I used in the previous reflection, because it serves as a bridge to this final statement about Christ’s role as the second person of the Trinity.  

                After the resurrection, according to the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, the risen Christ ascended into heaven, from whence he will return (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:6-11). In the Pauline letters, we also hear of Christ’s impending return in glory. This is stated in 1 Thessalonians 4, where we hear this word: “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). The expectation then is that at some point, not yet revealed, Christ will return and gather up his people, both living and dead. On the question of what all this might look like, and the various options available to interpret the word about Christ’s return, I will point the reader to the book Ron Allen, and I wrote: Second Thoughts about the Second Coming: Understanding the End Times, Our Future, and Christian Hope, (WJK Books, 2023).

                When it comes to the day of judgment, perhaps the best-known word is found in Matthew 25, where Jesus reveals the basis on which the nations will be judged. In verse 31, we read that “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of glory.” The Son of Man will divide the nations, like sheep from goats, on the basis of how they served him when he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, sick, and in prison. The sheep are judged righteous because they served the Son of Man by serving the “least of these.” The goats are cast off because they failed to serve the “least of these.” They might be religious, but they are not judged righteous. This part of the creed raises important questions as to how this word about eternal punishment is to be taken. For some of us, eternal punishment does not fit with the idea that God’s nature is defined first and foremost by love.  This is not a question I can resolve here, but the creed’s statement about Christ’s role in the course of divine judgment has scriptural roots and needs to be wrestled with. In this regard, I will point the reader to my forthcoming book, again written with Ron Allen, Second Thoughts about Hell: Understanding What We Believe (WJK Books, 2025).

                The final word has to do with Christ’s kingdom or realm. The creed states that the kingdom will have no end. As stated in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Christ’s realm seems to begin with the final judgment. This is an eschatological statement, such that Christ’s realm will break into history, such that everything will become new. Jesus spoke regularly of the kingdom or realm of God, proclaiming “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 4:17). Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus describes the “Kingdom of Heaven,” even as he teaches his disciples to pray that God’s kingdom will come (Matt 6:10).  While Jesus proclaimed the coming of God’s reign, often through parables, the question that has bedeviled us concerns when it begins. Has it already arrived, or is it still to come? There is no final answer to this question. It’s also possible that the answer is a “both/and” one. Surely Christ reigns now, even if we do not see the full extent. If we consider the word we find in 2 Corinthians 5, the day of new beginnings has already begun, such that “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).  

                This phrase from the creed, as it pertains to Christ, invites us to recognize that there still things left to accomplish. As we read in 1 Corinthians 13, we still “see in a mirror dimly” since we have not yet seen him face to face. We may only know in part, but at some point, Paul reminds us, we will know fully, but that moment has not yet come (1 Cor. 13:11-12). With this, the brief statement about Christ concludes. The Creed does not cover everything there is to know about Jesus. It says nothing about his life and ministry. We are left wanting more. As we ponder what it says and what it omits, we are reminded that this is not a final statement. It simply speaks to the concerns of that moment. More is needed. It is worth considering this reminder from the Gospel of John:  

²⁴ This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵ But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (Jn. 21:24-25).

Yes, if everything were written down, the world itself could not contain the books, which means we can never know everything there is to know, at least in this life. That does not mean we stop digging, only that we must recognize that this is a lifelong journey. How and when all this takes place remains a mystery.