"He Will Come Again in Glory"

We confess in the Nicene Creed that the eternally begotten Son of God, who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven and became man, was crucified, suffered, died, and was buried, and who was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven, “will come again in glory.”

We confess the second coming of Christ in glory. The word “glory” signifies the manifestation of God’s presence. When the Son of God first came down from heaven, he came in humility, born of a peasant virgin, laid to rest in a manger. The incarnation veiled his glory, which is why the prophet declares, “he had no form of majesty that we should look at him” (Is 53:2). And yet, the incarnation manifested his glory, which is why the apostle declares, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory” – who’s glory? – “glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Right now, the glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ is veiled in heaven. But Peter writes, “though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Pet 1:8). And Paul writes that when, in response to the word of the Gospel, we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, a veil is lifted: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). Even so, we behold him now by faith, but we long to see him face to face.

He will come again in glory. On that day, the veil between heaven and earth will be lifted and we will see him face to face, not by faith, but with our own (resurrected) eyes.

Paul describes the second coming of Christ in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: 

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The shout, the angelic voice, the sound of the trumpet, and the clouds are manifestations of God’s glory (see Ex 19:16-17). What is only heard in heaven, the voice of the angel and the sound of the trumpet, is now heard on earth, because the veil between heaven and earth is lifted when Christ comes in glory.

He comes in the clouds because clouds signify both the veil between heaven and earth and the glorious presence of God. When Moses went into the cloud on Mount Sinai (Ex 24:18), he went through the veil into the very presence of God. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with a censor full of burning coals and he put incense on the fire, so that when he ministered before the Ark of the Covenant, a cloud of incense would cover the mercy seat (Lev 16:2, 13). When Jesus’s glory was unveiled before Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, a cloud descended and overshadowed them and they entered the cloud (Matt 17:5, Mark 9:7; Luke 9:17).

To enter the cloud is to enter the glorious presence of God. On the last day, Christ will come in the clouds, that is, he will come again in glory. And we will see him face to face “and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).