“But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory,”

Significantly here the Son of Man is paralleled with the King (Mat 25:32). In Dan 7:13-14 the son of man came into the presence of the Ancient of Days and was given a kingdom and glory and dominion. In the case of Jesus this was fulfilled by His enthronement after the resurrection (Mat 28:18; Act 2:36; Act 7:55-56) when He received His eternal kingdom (Dan 7:14). And now that glory is to be openly revealed to the world. Compare Mat 16:27 where the Son of Man comes in the glory of His Father with His angels in order to render to every man according to his deeds, and Mat 24:30-31 where the Son of Man comes on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and sends out His angels to gather His elect. Both are being fulfilled here. The angels are attendants who carry out the duties required by the court. That the Son of Man is Jesus is demonstrated by the fact that it is the answer to the question about ‘Your coming’ (Mat 24:3), and this is confirmed by the use of the term Son of Man throughout the remainder of the Gospel. One significance of the title Son of Man was that Jesus was bringing out that His life was finally fulfilling Old Testament prophecy.

‘Then shall He sit on the throne of his glory.’ As He will have been given a kingdom, and glory and dominion (Dan 7:14), He will clearly have received His throne. This is thus that very throne where He received His glory. But regularly it is also His Father’s throne (Rev 5:6; Rev 6:16-17; Rev 14:14; Dan 7:13-14; Jer 14:21) where He sits at His right hand (Psa 110:1; Act 2:34; Act 7:55-56; Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; Heb 1:13; Heb 8:1; Heb 10:12; Heb 12:2; 1Pe 3:22), and from which the covenant is confirmed and made sure (Jer 14:21). Isaiah had seen it in vision (Isa 6:1). It was the place from which judgments were made. Here Jesus is making clear that He is, as the Son of Man, the Judge of all the earth (compare Joh 5:22; Joh 5:27; Gen 18:25).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Judgment of the Nations The passage in Mat 25:31-46 is popularly called the Judgment of the Nation. In this passage Jesus tells His disciples what will take place immediately following His Second Coming. We know that at His Second Coming He will set up His kingdom on earth and rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years, which we call the Millennial Reign of Christ. At this time He will judge the nations upon the earth as a part of establishing His reign upon the earth.

The Central Message of the Parable – Regarding the message in this parable of the Judgment of the Nations, we understand that our service in the Kingdom of Heaven can be summed up in Pro 14:31, which emphasizes the need to care for the weak and poor.

Pro 14:31, “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.”

Mat 25:32 “as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” Comments – I drove through a small flock of goats yesterday, about a dozen of them crossing the road near my home. But as I took a second glance, I noticed a few sheep among them. Here in Africa the domesticated goats and sheep frequently graze together so that they become adapted to one another in their daily routine of grazing and moving about. This must have been typical of shepherds in Jesus’ day as well in His description of separating the sheep and goats in Mat 25:32.

Mat 25:40 Comments – Note that the sheep were givers. They lived a life of giving to the needs of others. The goats were not so. They never saw the need to give.

Mat 25:46 Comments – Mat 25:46 teaches us that Hell is an everlasting punishment. It will have no end. The reason is because God has no beginning and no end. He is everlasting. He will always be a God of judgment.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Last Judgment.

v. 31. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory;

v. 32. and before Him shall be gathered all nations. And He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

v. 33. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

The reckoning as it will finally be made is here described; for the day of doom is inevitable. Another impressive passage, awesome in its very simplicity, in the absence of all seeking for effect. He who was within two days to celebrate His last Passover on earth and then to be crucified, here fitly sets forth the glory of His triumph, as Jerome remarks. In glory, the glory of heaven, the glory of His Father, the glory which was His before the world began, before He entered into the weakness and lowliness of our sinful flesh, He will come, accompanied by all the angels, as His messengers, ministers, and courtiers. Through their services He will cause all the nations of the world, both Jews and Gentiles, to be assembled before Him. He will then set each kind of people in a separate place, in the same way as the shepherd keeps the sheep separated from the goats, the one division being placed on the right side of the throne of glory, the other on the left. Note: There are only two divisions on the last day; no social distinctions, no preference by rank and wealth, no neutral people; in one or the other of the two assemblies every person in the world will find himself, inevitably, without escape, in the one case; with no desire to escape, in the other. That is the first act of the Judgment, the separating, the fixing of an impassable gulf. The sheep are those that followed the great Shepherd, Jesus, willingly, that heard His voice, the believers; the goats are those that refused obedience to His gentle rule, that were disobedient to the Gospel, the unbelievers, the hypocrites among the Christians, the entire godless world.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 25:31-33. When the Son of man shall come, &c. Our Saviour begins here his third parable, which is agreeable to the language of the Old Testament, in which good men are compared to sheep, on account of their harmlessness and usefulness, (See Psalms 23.) and the wicked men to goats, for the exorbitancy of their lusts. The allusion however is dropped almost at the entrance of the parable, the greatest part of this representation being expressed in terms perfectly simple; so that though the sense be profound, it is obvious: here the judgment of all nations, Gentiles as well as Christians, is described, and thepoints on which their trials are to proceed are known: they shall be acquitted or condemned, according as it shall then appear that they have performed or neglected works of love;the duties which in Christians necessarily spring from thegreat principles of faith and piety, and which the heathens themselves were invited, through the blood of the covenant, to perform by the smaller measures of the secret influences of the spirit of God offered to them in that inferior dispensation under which they lived. But then we are not to understand this, as if such works were meritorious in either; for all who are acquitted at that day, whether under the Christian or Heathen dispensation, shall be acquitted solely on account of that redemption which is in Christ, as the meritorious cause. If we observe the correspondence between these words and chap. Mat 24:30-31 it will seem probable, that Christ intended to teach his disciples to conceive of his first coming to the destruction of Jerusalem, as a kind of emblem of his final appearance to judgment; and consequently we may be authorized in using some of the texts in the former chapter, when discoursing of that great and important day. Every reader must remark with what majesty and grandeur our Lord speaks of himself in this portion of Scripture, which is a noble instance of the true sublime, and paints the solemnities of the great, and final audit in the strongest manner. Instead of divideth, we may read separateth.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 25:31 ff. It is unnecessary to suppose that this utterance about the judgment an utterance taken, like the preceding, from the collection of our Lord’s sayings ( ) should be immediately connected with Mat 24:30 f. (Fritzsche, de Wette) or with Mat 24:51 (Ewald). The coming of the Messiah and His judicial dealing with His servants had been portrayed immediately before, and now the prophetic glance extends and takes in the judgment of all nations , a judgment which is to be presided over by the Lord when He returns in His glory. This is the grand closing scene in which the eschatological predictions are all to be realized, and depicted too with a simplicity and beauty so original that there is but the less reason for imagining that this discourse about the judgment is the product of the apostolic period (Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Scholten, Wittichen, Keim).

It is usual to understand those who are being judged as representing men generally , Christians and non-Christians alike (see, among modern expositors, Kuinoel, Fritzsche, de Wette, Lange, Weizel, as above, p. 603; Kaeuffer, de . not . p. 44; Hofmann, Schriftbew . p. 645), Bleek arbitrarily assuming that the evangelists have extended the application of what originally referred only to Christians. On the other hand, Keil (in the Opusc., ed. Goldh . p. 136 ff., and Anal . 1813, III. 177 ff.) and Olshausen, as well as Baumgarten-Crusius, Georgii in Zeller’s Jahrb . 1845, p. 18 f.; Hilgenfeld, Weizscker, Volkmar, Keim, Wittichen, Auberlen, Cremer, understand all who are not Christians to be referred to, some of them, however, expressly excluding the Jews. But non-Christians could not have been intended, because it would be improper to say that the Messianic kingdom has been prepared for such, to say nothing of the , Mat 25:34 , in which the idea of the is exclusively involved; further, because it would be no less improper to suppose, without more ado, that non-Christians are intended by the of Mat 25:37 , which latter we are not at liberty to understand in a generalized sense, but only as equivalent to the elect; again, because those things which Jesus represents (Mat 25:35-36 ; Mat 25:40 ) as manifestations of love toward Himself cannot possibly be conceived of as done by those who, nevertheless, continued to remain outside the Christian community; finally, because both sides of the assemblage use such language (Mat 25:37 ff., Mat 25:44 ) as compels us to acknowledge their belief in the Judge before whom they now stand. Their language is the expression of a consciousness of their faith in the Messiah, towards whom, however, they have had no opportunity of displaying their love. If the Messianic felicity were here adjudged to pure heathens according to the way in which they may have acted toward Christians (Hilgenfeld), this would be to suppose a “remarkable toleration” (Keim) altogether at variance with the whole tenor of the New Testament, and such as even Rev 21:24 (see Dsterdieck on that passage) does not countenance, a humanity which does not need faith, because it compensates for the want of it by its love (Volkmar, p. 546). If, after all this, we cannot suppose that a judgment of non-Christians is here meant, we may even go still further, and say that non-Christians are not included at all, and so we must also reject the view usually adopted , since Chrysostom and Augustine, that what is here exhibited is a judgment of all men, believers and unbelievers alike. For, so far from the mention of the divine , Mat 25:34 , or the idea of the , Mat 25:37 , or what Jesus says at Mat 25:35 , or the answer of those assembled before the Judge, Mat 25:37 ; Mat 25:44 , or the entire omission generally of any distinction between belief and unbelief, harmonizing with the notion of a mixed body consisting of Christians and non-Christians, they entirely exclude the latter. We should therefore return to the very old view (Lactantius, Instit . vii. 20; Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus), which, though it had been neglected in consequence of the prevalent eschatology, was preserved by Grotius, the view, namely, that what Jesus is here depicting is the judgment of Christians : , Euthymius Zigabenus, who proves this, above all, from Mat 25:35-36 . All the points previously adduced as arguments against the other explanations combine to favour this view. It is confirmed by the whole fundamental idea on which the Judge’s sentence turns (the determining principle being the love manifested toward Jesus), by the figure of the shepherd and his sheep, and finally, and at the same time somewhat more definitely, by the fact that those who are being judged are called . For the latter words are not intended to limit the reference expressly to the Gentiles, but they are to be taken as assuming the realization of the universality of Christianity . by the time of the advent when all the nations of the earth ( , as expressing the idea of nation , does not exclude the Jews; comp. Mat 28:19 , Mat 24:9 , and see on Joh 11:50 ) will have heard the gospel and (to a proportionable degree) received Christ (Mat 24:14 ; Rom 11:25 ). Jesus, then, is here describing the universal judgment of those who have believed in Him , in whom, as they will be gathered around His throne, His prophetic glance beholds all the nations of the world (Mat 28:19 ). Comp., for the judgment of Christians , 2Co 5:10 ; Rom 14:10 . The judgment of unbelievers (1Co 15:23 ; 1Co 6:2 ; comp. on Mat 19:28 ), who are not in question at present, forms a distinct scene in the universal assize; and hence in the preceding parable also the reference is to His servants, therefore to believers. Neither here nor in the passages from Paul do those different judgment scenes presuppose anything in the shape of chiliastic ideas. The Messianic judgment is one act consisting of two scenes , not two acts with a chiliastic interval coming in between. See, on the other hand, Mat 13:37 ff.

] “omnes angeli, omnes nationes; quanta celebritas!” Bengel.

] sheep and goats ( Sir 47:3 ; Gen 38:17 ) are here represented as having been pastured together (comp. Gen 30:33 ff.). The wicked are conceived of under the figure of the , not on account of the wantonness and stench of the latter (Grotius), or in consequence of their stubbornness (Lange), but generally because those animals were considered to be comparatively worthless (Luk 15:29 ); and hence, in Mat 25:33 , we have the diminutive for the purpose of expressing contempt.

For the significance attached to the right and left side (Ecc 10:2 ), see Schoettgen and Wetstein on our passage. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth . xxxviii. 9 f. Comp. Plat. Rep . p. 614 C; Virg. Aen . vi. 542 f.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

FIFTH SECTION
THE FINAL JUDGMENT IN ITS LAST AND MOST UNIVERSAL FORM UPON ALL NATIONS; AND AS SEPARATION

Mat 25:31-46

(The Gospel for the 26th Sunday after Trinity.)

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy46 angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all [the] nations [ ]: and he shall separate [divide, ] them one from another, as a [the, ] shepherd divideth [] his [the] sheep [ ] from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them [those] on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was a hungered [hungry, ], and ye gave me meat [to eat, ]:47 I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered 38[hungering, ], and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? [And, ] When 39saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,48 ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them [those] on the left hand, ,Depart49 from me. ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was a hungered [hungry], and ye gave me no meat [did not give me to eat, ]: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not:50 sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered [hungering], or athirst [thirsting], or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, an I did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment [eternal punishment, ]: but the righteous into life eternal [eternal life, or everlasting life, ]51

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The final Judgment. General Remarks.The new salient points of the last judgment are: 1. The Son of Man as Judge unfolds His perfect kingly and judicial glory. 2. He exercises judgment now upon all the nations of the earth, and upon all the generations of men. 3. He judges individuals according to their personal conduct, with as much strictness and reality as He judges the collective whole. 4. He finds in all the consummate character of their inner life and nature so expressly stamped upon them, that He can divide them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. 5. He judges, therefore, according to the perfected consummation of the spiritual life in the works, and according to the fundamental idea of all good workslove and mercy. 6. He judges according to the standard of the universal life of Christ among men of all times, as well as of the historical Christ. 7. His sentence introduces a separation which must bring the earth itself, in its ancient form, to an end; for, the good are received into the kingdom of the Father, and the wicked are cast into hell.Thus viewed in all its extension, it presupposes the general resurrection, and forms the conclusion of the Lords coming and parousia in this present state of things, of the one last day of a thousand years in a symbolical sense, that is, of a full and perfect judicial on. Thus, as the first parable (Mat 24:45) must be placed at the beginning of these thousand years, and the second and third exhibit the further development of the kingly, judicial administration of Christ, this last judgment forms the great conclusion, as it is exhibited in 1Co 15:24 and Rev 20:9.

This decides the question as to whether it is merely a judgment upon Christians, or upon other than Christians, or upon all, both Christians and not Christians. The first was maintained by Lactantius, Euthymius, Grotius, and others; the second, by such as Keil, Olshausen, Crusius;52 the third, by Kuinoel, Paulus, Fritzsche. In favor of the first viewthat Christians alone are here judgedit is alleged that the doctrine of the divine election comes in, Mat 25:34, of the righteous, Mat 25:37, etc. But, on the other hand, such also are spoken of as never had the consciousness of being in personal relation with Christ. It is supposed to decide in favor of the second hypothesisthose not Christians being the objects of the judgmentthat the judgment proceeds not according to the law of faith, but according to the law of works and of love to man. But that Christians also will be judged at last by works, the fruits of faith, as being faith developed, is proved by Mat 7:21; Rom 2:6; 2Co 5:10; Gal 6:8, and the whole tenor and spirit of Christianity; and that, on the other hand, all the works of men will be judged, not according to their outward appearance, but according to their spirit and motive, or according to their real, though unconscious, faith in Christ, and love or drawing toward Him, is proved by an equal number of passages; e.g., Mat 10:40; Act 10:35; Rom 5:18, and the universally valid word: The Lord seeth the heart. De Wette urges, in favor of the third supposition, that in Mat 13:37-43; Mat 13:49, we find the plain idea of a final judgment upon Christians and those who are not Christians. De Wette here confounds good and bad with Christians and not Christians.

Our section certainly presupposes the universal nominal Christianization of the world, which must take place before the end of the world: the Christianization of mankind in this world (Mat 24:14; Rom 11:32), and of the whole of mankind in the other (Php 2:10; 1Pe 4:6). Such a Christianization would necessarily follow from the advent of Christ in itself; so far as it must constrain the nations to submission, and continue throughout an entire period of judgment, Revelation 20. The common notion, which terms every supposition of a more extended final period Chiliasm or Millennarianism, does not merit notice. It is beyond all things necessary that we should distinguish between a concrete and a fantastic doctrine about the last things. The differences are: 1. The former regards the thousand years as a symbolical number, as the mark of an on, or the period of transition for the earth and mankind from the earthly to the heavenly condition (Irenus; see Dorners History of Christology, I. p. 245). But millennarianism interprets the thousand years chronologically, and seeks to define their beginning. 2. Concrete eschatology regards the last period as the manifestation of a judgment, already internally ripe, on the ground of the perfect redemption accomplished through Christ. But millennarianism is not satisfied with the first redeeming appearance of Christ; i looks forward to the second as of greater importance 3. Concrete eschatology expects with the advent the beginning of a spiritual transformation of the present state of things; millennarianism expects a perfect glorification of things here as they are. 4. The former sees in the first resurrection only a revelation of the full life of the elect, destined to be helpers of Christ in the glorification of all humanity; but millennarianism regards that period as the time of the realization of Jewish, Jewish-Christian, pietistic, sectarian prerogatives and spiritual pretensions. 53

[We add here the remarks of Dr. Nast on the different views as to the subjects of the final judgment: According to the premillennarian view, advocated by Olshausen, Stier, and Alford, the judgment here described does not include those that constitute the Church triumphant; that is, those who, at Christs personal coming to introduce the millennium, are either raised from the dead, or, if still living, are glorified and caught up together into the air, to meet the Lord (1Th 4:16-17; 1Co 15:25; 1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:51-52)to reign with Christ, and with him to judge the world (1Co 6:2). The term all nations, ( ,) it is said, is used in the same sense as the Hebrew the nations, or Gentiles, as distinguished from Gods chosen people, and stands here in antithesis to the brethren of Mat 25:40, who had already received their reward as wise virgins and faithful servants. In support of this view the following arguments are advanced: 1. Those only are said to be judged who have done it or not done it to my brethren; but of the brethren themselves being judged there is no mention. In this argument we can see no point. The love of the brethren is the mark by which, our Saviour says, all men shall know that ye are my disciples. 2. The verdict turns upon works, and not upon faith. Surely this will be the case with every believer or Christian, when he is brought before the judgment-seat of Christ, whether at the beginning or close of the millennium, in so far as works are the fruit of faith, or true saving faith is only that which worketh by love (Mat 7:21; Rom 2:6; 2Co 5:10; Gal 6:8), and in so far as our good works spring from sincerity of heart, to which the Lord looketh (Act 10:35). Moreover, unless the plan of salvation is entirely changed in the millennial statewhich, if we mistake not, the premillennarians denythe nations living during the millennium will be judged according to their works, no more and no less than those that lived before the millennium. 3. Another objection to the common view is stated by Alford thus: The answer of the righteous appears to me to show plainly that they are not to be understood as being the covenanted servants of Christ. Such an answer it would be impossible for them to make, who had done all distinctly with reference to Christ, and for His sake, and with His declaration of Mat 10:39-42, before them. Such a supposition would remove all reality, as, indeed, it has generally done, from our Lords description. See the remarkable difference in the answer of the faithful servant (Mat 20:22). The reply that the language in question is that of humility is said not to be satisfactory; but we know not why. Besides, the difficulty appears to us to be the same with regard to the people that have lived during the millennium. If they are to be saved, they also must have done their works for Christs sake, and, if so, they must have been conscious of it. We have given the grounds on which the premillennarian interpretation is based. In objection to it, it may further be urged that it is against common Scripture language to call any other than believers, the members of Christs mystical body, sheep, or righteous, or the blessed of the Father, for whom the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world. With regard to the difficult question of our Lords second advent, Alford makes, at the close of his comments on the twenty-fifth chapter, a declaration breathing the docile spirit of the true Christian and of the thorough scholar. He says, (p. Matt 238:) I think it proper to state, in this third edition, that having now entered upon the deeper study of the prophetic portions of the New Testament, I do not feel by any means that full confidence which I once did in the exegesis, quoad prophetical interpretation here given of the three portions of this chapter 25. But I have no other system to substitute, and some of the points here dwelt on seem to me as weighty as ever. I very much question whether the thorough study of Scripture prophecy will not make me more and more distrustful of all human systematizing, and less willing to hazard strong assertion on any portion of the subject. July, 1855.In the fourth edition Alford adds: Endorsed, Oct. 1858.P. S.]

The representation of this judgment is not a parable or simile, as Olshausen thinks. It contains some of the elements of a parable; but really sets the judgment before us in its concrete form.

[Mat 25:31. Jerome remarks on the time of this discourse: He who was within two days to celebrate the passover and to be crucified, fitly now sets forth the glory of His triumph. This contrast deepens our view of the divine foresight and majesty of our Lord, and the sublimity of this description.And all the [holy] angels with Him.As witnesses and executive agents who take the deepest interest in mans destiny and final salvation, comp. Heb 1:14; Mat 13:40; Mat 24:31; Luk 12:8. Bengel: Omnes angeli: omnes nationes: quanta celebritas! The first-born of God, the morning stars of creationbeings that excel in strength, whose intelligence is immense, whose love for God and His universe glows with a quenchless ardor, and whose speed is as the lightning. Who can count their numbers? They are the bright stars that crowd in innumerable constellations every firmament that spans every globe and system throughout immensity.P. S.]

Then shall he sit.Expression of finished victory.

Mat 25:32. And before Him shall be gathered.Intimating a perfect voluntary or involuntary acknowledgment and submission; comp. Php 2:10.

And He shall divide them.This is not merely the beginning, but the fundamental outline of all that follows.As the shepherd divideth.He was Himself the Shepherd, also, of the goats,the Shepherd of all mankind. Hence He knows how to distinguish them perfectly, as they are perfected in good or evil.The sheep from the goats.Properly: the lambs from the he-goats, . Goats and sheep are represented as pasturing together (comp. Gen 30:33). They were classed together under the name of small cattle. The wicked are here exhibited under the figure of goats. Why? Grotius: on account of their wantonness and stench. De Wette says (referring to Eze 34:17, where, however, it is otherwise): The goats (he-goats) are of less value to the shepherd; they are wilder, and less easily led. Meyer: Because the value of these animals was held to be less (Luk 15:29); hence also, in Mat 25:33, the disparaging diminutive .54 But the main point of distinction is the gentleness and tractableness of the sheep, which points to a nobler nature; and the wild stubbornness of the goats, exhibiting an inferior, egotistical nature.55

Mat 25:33. On his right hand.The side of preference and success.On the left.The opposite. On the omens of the right and left, see Schttgen and Wetstein; comp. Virg. n. vi:542 sqq.

Mat 25:34. The King.Not parabolical, as Olshausen thinks; but Christ in His advent comes forward with all His real kingly dignity.

Ye blessed of My Father.They are the really blessed, as the regenerate, penetrated and renewed with the Spirit, life, and blessing of the Father, Eph 1:3.

Inherit the kingdom.See Romans 8.Prepared from the foundation of the world.De Wette finds here the idea of predestination, Rom 8:28. But what is here spoken of is the eternal foundation of the kingdom for the subjects of the King. There is no contradiction to Joh 14:2. For here the calling and foundation is referred to; there, the actual building up of the heavenly community.56

Mat 25:35. Ye took Me in, .Meyer: As members of My household. Deu 22:2 : . Oriental hospitality was an essential form of love to our neighbor. See, in Wetstein and Schttgen, the rabbinical sayings concerning the promise of paradise to the hospitable.

[Mat 25:35-36. Heubner: The acts of love here named are not such as require merely an outlay of money, but such as involve also the sacrifice of time, strength, rest, comfort, etc. On the other hand, Webster and Wilkinson justly observe on Mat 25:36, that the assistance to the sick and prisoners here is not healing and release, which only few could render, but visitation, sympathy, attention, which all can bestow. But whatever good they did, was done in faith and in humility, and consequently the product of divine grace. For charity is the daughter of faith, and faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ.P. S.]

Mat 25:37. Lord, when saw we Thee?De Wette: The language of modesty. Olshausen: The language of unconscious humility. Meyer: Actual declining of what was imputed, since they had never done to Christ Himself these services of love. The explanation is given in Mat 25:40. Certainly, they have not yet any clear notion of the ideal Christ of the whole world. But this is connected with their humility; and it must not be lost sight of, since the opposite characteristic among the reprobate is exhibited as self-righteousness. [Origen: It is from humility that they declare themselves unworthy of any praise for their good deeds, not that they are forgetful of what they have done.]

Mat 25:40. To one of the least of these My brethren.Not the apostles alone, but Christians generally, and pre-eminently the least of them. They are the least, the poorest, the last, in whom the divine life, which the Lord here recognises as brotherly love, is awakened.

[Stier, confining this judgment to the heathen, infers from this description that a dogmatically developed faith in the Lord is not required of all men, and condemns all narrow dogmatism that would set limits to Gods infinite love. Alford, taking a similar view of this section, remarks: The sublimity of this description surpasses all imaginationChrist, as the Son of Man, the Shepherd, the King, the Judgeas the centre and end of all human love, bringing out and rewarding His latent grace in those who have lived in loveeverlastingly punishing those who have quenched it in an unloving and selfish lifeand in the accomplishment of His mediatorial office, causing even from out of the iniquities of a rebellious world His sovereign mercy to rejoice against judgment. But we must not weaken the fundamental principle: out of Christ there is no pardon and no salvation. Every consideration of Gods justice and mercy, and every impulse of Christian charity leads us to the hope that those will be ultimately saved, who without knowing Christ in this life have unconsciously longed after Him as the desire of all nations and of every human soul, but it can only be through an act of faith in Christ, whenever He shall be revealed to them, though it be only on the judgment day. We cannot admit different terms of salvation.P. S.]

Mat 25:41. Ye cursed.Through their own fault penetrated by the curse of God. The appended of My Father is not now found here as in Mat 25:34. And so also, from the beginning of the world is not added to prepared here. Nor is it said, prepared for you, but, for the devil.57 The great judgment of fire is prepared for the devil, as a punishment for devilish guilt. Thus, these are here represented as having plunged themselves into the abyss of demoniac reprobation. The Rabbins disputed whether Gehenna was prepared before or after the first day of creation. According to the gospel, it will not be finished and made effective till the final judgment of the world (see Rev 20:10). The scholastic theology of the middle ages,58 instead of making it a final period, as in the gospel, gradually dated it back to the beginning, as the Rabbins.

[Mat 25:42-43. Only sins of omission are mentioned here; showing that the absence of good works, the destitution of love, or the dominion of selfishness, disqualifies man for blessedness, and is sufficient, even without positive crimes, to exclude him from heaven.P. S.]

Mat 25:44. And did not minister unto Thee?As if they would always have been ready to serve Him. But there is nothing of the spirit of love in their assumed readiness; only in the spirit of servitude they would have waited on Him had they seen Him. The ignorance of the blessed was connected with), their humility, as a holy impossibility of knowing; the ignorance of the cursed was of another kind, and closely connected with self-righteousness.59

Mat 25:46. Into everlasting punishment.Comp. Dan 12:2 ( … ). Meyer finds the absolute idea of eternity in endlessness, and thinks even that describes an endless Messianic life. But in this last idea the intensive boundlessness of life is expressed (an abstract endless life might be also merely an endless existence in torment); and, therefore, the predominant notion of the opposite is an intensive one, too. We say only, the predominant one. For here also, as in the doctrine of the parousia of Christ, we must distinguish between religious and chronological notions and calculations.60

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The section is a parabolical discourse61 concerning the general judgment of the human race. Hence the essential ideas and the symbolical features are to be distinguished.

The following are the prominent dogmatic points:(1) Christ is the Judge of the world; compare Act 10:42; Act 17:31; the Symb. Apost. (2) The judgment shall be exercised by Him upon all mankind: all nations shall appear before the thronenot merely those existing at the end of the world, but all generations. Therefore the general resurrection is included, so that all nations may be assembled. (3) The standard of judgment will be the question, how they reputed and dealt with Christ in the world; how they regulated their conduct toward Him in His own person, and in His unseen life in humanity as the Logos; how, therefore, they honored or dishonored the Divine in themselves and in their fellow-men; how they showed christological piety in christological humanity; or how, in short, they behaved toward Christ in the widest sense of the word. (4) The demand of the judgment will be the fruit of faith in Christians love of men, or human love of Christ. Thus not merely, (a) doctrinal faith; or (b) external works without a root of faithof actual trust in Christ, or love for the divine in humanity (done it unto Me, done it not unto Me); (c) nor merely individual evidences of good; but decided goodness in its maturity and consistency, as it acknowledged Christ or felt after Him, in all His concealments, with longing anticipations. (5) The specific form of the requirement will be the requirement of the fruit of mercy and compassion; for the foundation of redemption is grace, and faith in redeeming grace must ripen into the fruits of compassion: see this in the Lords Prayer. Sanctified mercy, however, is only a concrete expression for perfected holiness generally, or the sanctification of Christ in the life; see Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15; Rev 22:6. (6) The finished fruit of faith and disposition is identical with the man himself, ripe for judgment. (7) The judgment appears to be already internally decided by the relation which men have assumed toward Christ, or the character which they have borne; but it is published openly by the separation of those who are unlike, and the gathering together of all who are like; it is continued in the sentence which illustrates the judgment by words, and confirms it by the extorted confession of conscience; it is consummated by the fact of the one company inheriting the kingdom, and the other departing to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (8) This perfected separation implies also the total change of the earth: on the one side, the view opens upon the finished kingdom of God; on the other, the view opens upon hell, now unsealed for the lost. (9) The time of the judgment is the final and critical period in which all preparatory judgments are consummated: (a) the judgments of human history in this world; (b) the judgments in Hades in the other world (see Luk 16:19); (c) the great judgments which will begin at the manifestation of Christ (see chs. 24 and 25; Rev 20:1 sqq.). The more precise description of the form of this crisis is found in Rev 20:7-15.

As symbolical features of the scene, we may notice prominently:(1) The enthronization of the Son of Man upon the judgment-seat: a figure of His perfected victorious glory (1Co 15:25). (2) The administration of Christ in the form of the separating shepherd: for He is still a shepherd; and one great reason of the judgment is the perfecting of the redemption of the good, the revelation of the kingdom (Revelation 21). (3) The sheep and the goats, with their separation, expressing the nature of their respective characters, as now perfectly stamped upon them in the resurrection. (4) The placing on the right hand and on the left; all the ideal characteristics of the judged being exhibited as personal relationship to Christ, and the whole sequel of the judgment being thus presented in one anticipatory act of decisive division. (5) The colloquy of the Judge and the judged: a disclosure of humility, on which the piety of the pious rests; and of pride, on which the reprobation of the wicked rests; and, at the same time, a clear exhibition of the oft-repeated truth, that men will judge themselves by their own words.

2. The historical judgment of Christ will be the simple, though solemn revelation62 of that spiritual judgment which, as to its beginning, is already decided in difference of character. It is the last quiet perfecting of a state already ripe and over-ripe. The blessed of the Father are already filled with blessing; and the kingdom, the foundation of which was laid before the foundation of the world, is already in full glory, finding now in the glorification of the world, of the heaven and the earth, its new form. The accursed are also, on their part, penetrated by the curse; and the hell to which they go is the kingdom of darkness in its consummation, separated from the kingdom of light and consigned to its proper place. From the fall of Satan downward the eternal fire began to work on him and his; and, in connection with this development, there is going on in humanity also a great spiritual torment, a great fellowship in his destruction.

3. The coming of Christ would not be historically that which it was to be, if it were not at the same time spiritual; it would not be spiritually that which it was to be, if it were not historical also.

4. Concerning the succession of the ons or epochs of which Rev 14:11; Mat 19:3; Matthew 21; Matthew 22; and 1Co 15:26-28, speak, nothing more is here said. But in the unlimited intensity is the first point, unlimited extension the second (for an endless existence is also imaginable as endlessly tormentel), and hence the opposite conception also must be understood in the religious and dynamic sense.

5. Otto von Gerlach: The circumstance that the righteous also stand before the Judge, while the contrary seems to be stated in Joh 5:24; 1Co 6:2, is no serious difficulty. For, every one must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ (2Co 5:10; comp. Joh 3:15); although the Christian knows full well that he will be no more hurt by the last judgment than he was by those earlier judgments which fell upon him in common with the wicked. We must carefully distinguish therefore between judgment to condemnation and judgment generally. The manifestation of the good will be the concrete judgment of the ungodly.

6. Prepared for you.Gerlach: From the foundation of the world: this shows that the reward in the future life will be a reward of grace. The for which follows states the ground of vocation to blessedness only so far as the works which the Lord mentions bear witness to the existence of faith. It should be said rather, bear witness to His life in believers; for the final judgment will be not merely the confirmation of justification, but its perfected development in life.

7. Christ manifestly assumes the personal existence of the devil, when he says that wicked men will suffer the same doom with him. Heubner.
[8. The great facts of the divine retribution, says Morison, the eternal bliss of the righteous, the eternal woe of the wicked, are indisputable, and the images of uplifting or appalling grandeur in which they are enveloped cannot act too powerfully on the heart of man. But the particulars, the blissful or terrible details, are wisely withheld from our mind, which in its present state of knowledge could not comprehend them, and would only be confounded or misled by any description of them in human language.P. S.]

[9. There is an eternal election to life, but no eternal foreordination to perdition (except as a secondary or conditional and prospective decree); there is a book of life, but no book of death. But they who will serve the devil must share with him in the end.P. S.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The great judgment in its comprehensive importance: 1. A judgment upon the whole world; 2. a whole world of judgment (all judgments summed up in one). Or: 1. The Judge of the world (the Son of Man, whom the world judged, now in His glory); 2. the judged; 3. the separation, and the twofold sentence; 4. the end and issue of all.The judgment of the world as the last great revelation 1. Of the great Judges 2. of the great judgment; 3. of the great redemption.The last judgment, the great epiphany, Tit 2:13; and the end of the world.Christ at that day will seal and finish His Pastoral office.The Son of Man one with the Judge of the world: 1. The Son of Man is Judge of all; or, the divinity of the destiny of man.63 2. The Judge of all is the Son of Man; or, the humanity of the divine judgment.Christ is all in all in the judgment: 1. He is the Judges 2. He is the Law, according to which judgment is pronounced (whether He was or was not regarded in His brethren); 3. He is Himself the Retribution:(a) the recompense of the good; (b) the loss of the wicked.Individuality reigns throughout the judgment: 1. All the fundamental laws of holy life appear in the person of Christ; 2. the spirit and work of men are manifest in personal characteristics; 3. blessedness and perdition are seen in the fellowship of persons.Christ, once crucified, will speak as the King in the judgment.The distinctions in the divine decrees of salvation and perdition: 1. Blessedness was prepared for men from the foundation of the world; 2. condemnation (the portion of the wicked with the devil and his angels) not till the end of the world.Christ will at that day judge the divinity of our faith by its Christlike humanity, its sacred mercyaccording to its fruits.Mens good or evil treatment of the suffering Christ in suffering humanity: 1. As the Christ in need: (a) hungry, and fed or not fed; (b) thirsty, and given to drink or not; (c) a stranger, and taken in or not. 2. As the Christ in suffering: (a) naked (poor), and clothed or not; (b) sick64 (wretched), and visited or not; (c) in prison (banished, persecuted, condemned), and receiving fellowship or not.Have ye taken in Christ, though in strange garments? In the strange garments: 1. Of nationality; 2. of religion; 3. of confession (or denomination); 4. of scholastic terminology.65The marks of good works which Christ will recognise: 1. The works of faith, which have, consciously or unconsciously, regarded Him in the brethren; 2. true works of faith, which have beheld Christ in men, and treated them accordingly, in actions (and not in dogmas only); 3. works resting on the ground of a true humility, which, wrought by the Spirit, knows not what good it has wrought.Christ, as the Judge, will bring to light the most hidden roots of life, and principles of judgment: the humility of the godly, and the self-righteousness of the ungodly.The great redemption and the great judgment are the consummation and complement of each other.The great contrast in the issue of mens ways and purposes: the kingdom of the Father, and the fire of SatanAnd these shall go away: let us never forget the terrible end.

Starke:Mark, ye scoffers, Christ will surely come to judgment; 2Pe 3:4.Quesnel: The sinner may do his best now to fly from the presence of God; but he must finally make his appearance before His judgment-seat, Rom 14:10.Canstein: That the faithful will themselves stand before the tribunal, is by no means a contradiction to their high prerogative of judging the world as spiritual kings, and of being as it were assessors of the Judge, 1Co 6:2.Greg. Nazianz.: Nulla re inter omnes ita colitur Deus ut misericordi.Hedinger: Good works shall be compensated, as if they had been done to Christ.Canstein: Believers remain humble, even in their glorification.The best good works are those which are done in hearty simphcity, and almost unthought of.The blessed lose none of their honor through their humility; God glories in them all the more.How great the love of Jesus, thus to call the faithful His own brethren!If he must go into eternal fire to whom Christ says, I was naked, etc., what place shall receive him to whom He will have to say, I was clothed, and ye stripped Me? Augustine.Neglect of doing good is a grievous sin, Jam 4:17.Luther: That the ungodly will not confess to their neglect of doing good, only reveals the darkness and wretchedness of their minds, which made them refuse to know, in the time of grace, either Christ or His members; the thought they had concerning Christ in their lifetime will be most strongly declared in the judgment.No excuse will stand in the day of judgment.Canstein: The eternal rebellion of the lost against Gods holy will, will be great part of their eternal woe.Wretched prince of darkness! who cannot defend himself and his servants from the pains of hell.

Gerlach:Two things must be specially marked in the proceedings of the judgment: the division of all men into two parts or fellowships, and that for eternity; and then the tokens which will be found on those whom the Lord will acceptself-forgetting, humble, brotherly love.Faith alone justifies and saves (Rom 3:22; Rom 3:24; Rom 3:28; Eph 2:8-9); but that only is true faith which works by love (Gal 5:6; Jam 2:14; 1 Corinthians 13). Yet we must avoid the old confusion which identifies righteousness and salvation.The Christian, in his course, looks not back upon the past (what he has done), but forward to the goal, Php 3:13-14.Ye cursed, who wilfully remained under the curse of the law from which I redeemed you, Deu 27:26; Gal 3:13. [The curse, however, at the end of the world, does not merely signify condemnableness, but consummate ripeness for condemnation.]Not Ye cursed of My Father: their own acts, and not the Father, brought their curse upon them.The everlasting fire which was prepared (not for you, but) for the devil.Chrysostom: I prepared for you the kingdom, the fire for the devil and his angels; ye have plunged into this fire, and it is now yours.Indeed, the fire was not from eternity prepared for the devil; but the difference is, that men were redeemed.The second death.

Lisco:The inseparable connection between love to Christ and love to the brethren.Departure from Jesus, the doom of the unloving.Their mind was like the devils; hence they share his doom.

Heubner:Remember always the hymn: Dies ir, dies illa.66Ask often of thy soul, where will the Lord finally place thee.The kingdom is the kingdom of glory, into which the kingdom of grace has changed.Prepared: the blessedness of the good, the end of creation.Leo Magn.: The passion of Christ if continued to the end of the world.Luther: It is a lie to say that thou wouldst have done much good to Christ, if thou art not doing it to these, the wretched.Unchristian, evil tendencies invariably end in communion with Satan.

Theremin:Of blessedness and condemnation.Niemann:The glory of Christ in the judgment: He will be glorious: 1. In His power; 2. in His omniscience; 3. in His righteousness; 4. in His grace.Kniewel:67 How firm faith in the coming of Christ to judgment sanctifies and glorifies earthly life. It produces in us: 1. A holy fear of God; 2. genuine love; 3. sound hope.Drseke:The great day of the kingdom a glorious day, an all-decisive day, an inevitable day, and a day profoundly mysterious.The same:The threefold judgmentin the heart, in the history of the world, in the great day.Reinhard:That we may not fear the day of judgment, we must have our hearts filled with the spirit of true Christian love to man.Bachmann:The last judgment in its glory.Natorp:God will reward every one according to his works.

[W. Burkitt (condensed): The general judgment: 1. The Person judging, the Son of Man; 2. the persons judged, good and bad; the one called sheep, for their innocency and meekness; the other goats, for their unruliness and uncleanness; 3. the manner of His coming to judgment most august and glorious in His person and attendance; 4. the work of the Judge: (a) He will gather all nations, persons of all nations, sects, classes, and conditions of man; (b) He will divide them, as a shepherd his sheep,a final separation of the godly and the wicked; (c) He will pronounce the sentence, of absolution of the righteous, and condemnation of the wicked; 5. the final issue.Christ personal is not the object of our pity and charity, but Christ mystical is exposed to want and necessity.Christ keeps a faithful record of all our acts of pious charity, when we have forgotten them.Christ calls His poorest members: My brethren.God is the author and procurer of mans happiness (ye blessed of My Fatherthe kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, Mat 25:34); but man only is the author of his own misery (ye cursed,for the devil, etc., Mat 25:41).Sins of omission are damning as well as sins of commission (Mat 25:42-45).The one sin of unmercifulness is enough to damn a person, because it deprives him of the grace of the gospel.If the uncharitable shall be damned, where shall the cruel appear?Matthew Henry (condensed):The general judgment: 1. The appearance of the Judge in the bright cloud of glory and with the myriads of angels as His attendants and ministers; 2. the appearing of all the children of men before Him; 3. the separation; 4. the process of judgment: (a) the glory conferred upon the righteous: they are called blessed and admitted into the kingdom, on account of their works of charity done in faith and humility, the grace of God enabling them thereto; (b) the condemnation of the wicked: Depart from Me, ye cursed, etc.every word has terror in it, like that of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, waxing louder and louder, every accent more and more doleful. The reason of this sentence: omission of works of charity. 5. Execution of the sentence. Thus life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse, are set before us, that we may choose our way.(Dr. Thomas Scott in loc. makes excellent practical remarks, but not in the form of hints or short heads.)D. Brown: Heaven and hell are suspended upon the treatment of Christ and of those mysterious ministrations to the Lord of glory as disguised in the person of His followers.True love of Christ goes in search of Him, hastening to embrace and to cherish Him, as He wanders through this bleak and cheerless world in His persecuted cause and needy people.To do nothing for Christ is a sufficient cause for condemnation.(I have examined also the Fathers on this section and read through the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, but find them far less rich than I expected, and considerably inferior to the practical comments of Protestant expounders above quoted. Some of their views are inserted in the Exeg. Notes. Augustine dwells at length on Mat 25:46 to refute Origens view of a final salvation of all, even the devil and his angels, and tries to solve the difficulty that the wicked can be capable of suffering bodily and spiritual pain, and yet be incapable of death. Comp. De civit. Dei, Mat 21:3.)P. S.]

Footnotes:

[46]Mat 25:31.The adjective of the text. rec. is wanting in Codd. B., D., L., [also in Cod Sinait.], many versions [including the Vulg., which reads simply: omnes angeli], and fathers, and seems to be a later interpolation.

[47]Mat 25:35[Comp. the translation of the English Version in Mat 14:16, where the same [phrase is rendered: give ye them to eat.P. S.]

[48]Mat 25:40. , although omitted by Cod. B, is well established by the majority of witnesses.

[49]Mat 25:41.[Cod. Sinait. reads for .P. S.]

[50]Mat 25:43.[Cod. Sinait. omits the words: . But they are well supported by the best authorities and retained in all the critical editions.P. S.]

[51]Mat 25:46.[As the Greek uses before as well as , it should be rendered by the same word (either eternal or ererlasting) in both clauses. Comp the Lat Vulg.: in supplicium ternumin vitam ternam; all the German Versions (ewig); Wiclif: everlastynge turmenteeverlastynge liif; the Rheims Version: punishment everlasting, life everlasting. Tyndale introduced the change: everlastinge paynelyfe etern all, which was retained in the subsequent Protestant Versions except the word pain, which King James revisers gave up for punishment I would prefer, however, in both cases eternal to everlasting, and translate: into eternal punishmentinto eternal life. For everlasting refers to extensire infinitude or endless durat o; eternal expresses the intensive infinitude, and this dynamic conception, which implies much more than mere duration or existence in time, is the prevaili g idea here, without, however, excluding the other. But in any case the passage is one of the very strongest against Universalism, and the . Comp. also Dr. Langes Exeg. Notes.P. S.]

[52][So also Stier and Alford, who understand to mean all the nations of the world as distinguished from the , who were already gathered to Christ at the first resurrection and beginning of His mill nnial kingdom, and who will take part in the final judgment (1Co 6:2).P. S.]

[53][In German: geistliche Anmassungen. The Edinb. trsl has dignities!P. S.]

[54][So also Hilary and Chrysostom: Sheep are profitable by their woo, their milk, their offspring. Not so goats: they represent unfruitfulness of life. Wordsworth adopts this view and adds with Euthymius and Grotius the , in opposition to the sweet and fragrant sacrifice of holy and charitable deeds.P. S.]

[55][Similarly Origen, Theophylact, and Maldonatus, who explains: Boni oves appellantur quia mites sunt, mali autem hirci quia asperi et per prrupta ascendentes, idest, non acta et plana incidentes via. Nast combines un-cleanness and stubbornness as the two points of comparison of the bad with the goats, but mentions only meekness on the part of the sheep.P. S.]

[56][Bengel derives from the word , prepared for you, an argument against the scholastic notion that men were created or elected to fill up the number of fallen angels: Ergo homines electi non sunt suffecti in locum angelorum, qui peccarunt.P. S.]

[57][Similar observations are made by Alford and Wordsworth: In Mat 25:34, says the latter, Christ describes the joys of heaven as a prepared for men by God even from the beginning. But the pains of hell are not described as prepared for men, but for the devil and his angels. God designs eternal happiness for men; they incur eternal misery by their own acts.The significance of the omissions and change in the two cases was early observed even by Origen and Chrysostom, and is urged also by Maldonatus, Olshausen, Stier, Nast, and other.Origen: He says not now: Ye cursed of My Father, because of all blessing the Father is the author, but each man is the origin of his own curse when he does the things that deserve the curse.Maldonatus: Non dixit: Maledicti Patris mei, sicut justis dixerat: Venite, benedicti Patrismei, quia Deus non maledictionis, sed benedictionis, non pn, sed prmii auctor fuit; non quod non etiam pna auctor fuerit, sed quod prmia libenter et ex animi propensione, pnam invitus quodammodo, ut justit su satisfaceret, prparaverit.P. S.]

[58][So also Dante in the famous inscription on the gate of hell; see Inferno, Canto iii. Stier observes, that even for the devil, who was created an angel, hell was no more fore-ordained than his sin, although it was prepared for him as soon as he became a devil.P. S.]

[59][The Edinb. trsl. renders Selbstgerechtigkeit (= , or , or , , . ) here and above ad Mat 25:37 by self-justification, confounding the word with Selbstrechtfertigung (=).P. S.]

[60][Alford: Observe, the same epithet is used for and which are here contrariesfor the here spoken of is not bare existence, which would have annihilation for its opposite; but blessedness and reward, to which punishment and misery are antagonist terms.Wordsworth in loc.: The word corresponds to the Hebrew , which appears to be derived from the unused root , to conceal; so that the radical idea in , as used in Holy Scripture, is indefinite time; and thus the word comes to be fitly applied to this world, of which we do not know the duration; and also to the world to come, of which no end is visible, because that world is eternal. This consideration may perhaps check speculations concerning the duration of future punishments. (?) But this etymology of is somewhat doubtful, and has nothing to do with hiding and concealing, but comes probably from , , to breathe, to blow; hence life, generation, age (like the Latin vum); then indefinitely for endless duration, eternity.P. S.]

[61][Not a parable proper. Comp. M. Henry: We have here a description of the process of the last judgment in the great day. There are some passages in it that are parabolical , as the separating between the sheep and the goats, and the dialogues between the judge and the persons judged; but there is no thread of similitude carried through the discourse, and, therefore, it is rather to be called a draught or delineation of the final judgment than a parable; it is, as it were, the explanation of the former parables.P. S.]

[62][Not: the grand and awful revelation (Edinb. trsl.). In German: die einfache, wenn auch feierliche Enthllung.]

[63][Not: of His (Christs) human decrees, as the Edinb. trsl. renders die Gttlichkeit der (not: Seiner) menschlichen Bestimmung (i.e., destiny, end).P. S.]

[64][For which the Edinb. trsl. reads rich,evidently a typographical error.]

[65][Der religisen Schulsprache, the language of different theological schools, but not denominational language (as the Edinb. trsl. has it): for this would be identical with the preceding confession, which the Germans use it the same sense in which we use denomination. Dr Lange refers to theoretical theological differences as distinct from practical religious differences. Many disputes in the Christian Church are mere logomachies, and disappear, if they are divested of their learning, and the parties are brought face to face and heart to heart in prayer or good works as Christian brethrenP. S.]

[66][This awfully sublime hymn of an humble medival monk, Thomas a Crlano (about 1250), is the most perfect specimen of Latin church poetry, and sounds like the trumpet of the final judgment which will rouse the dead from their sleep of centuries. Each word contains a distinct sound and sentiment; the ear and the heart are carried on step by step with irresistible force, and skeptical reason itself must bow before the general judgment as an awful, impending reality which will confront at last every individual. The Dies [illegible] is introduced with great effect in Goethes Foust. There are over 70 German, and many English translations (by Walter Scott, Trench, Davidson, Coles, who alone furnished 18. etc) of this giant hymn, as it is called, but none comes up fully to the majestic force and overpowering music of the original. It has given rise also to some of the best judgment hymns in modern languages, and to famous musical compositions of Palestrina, Pergolese, Haydn, Cherubini. Weber, and MozartP. S.]

[67][A preacher in Danzig, not to be confounded (as it done in the Edinb. trsl.) with Kuinoel, the commentator.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: (32) And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: (33) And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. (34) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (35) For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: (36) Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. (37) Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? (38) When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? (39) Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? (40) And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (41) Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (42) For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: (43) I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. (44) Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? (45) Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. (46) And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Here we enter on that part of our Lord’s sublime discourse, on the events of the last day, and in which the Son of God hath been pleased to deliver himself on the momentous subject without a parable. And most magnificent and solemn is the description. And when to this be added the consideration, that every son and daughter of Adam must be present, to receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad, the subject becomes infinitely interesting indeed. There can need no comment however. Every verse is plain. everything described impossible to be misunderstood. And when God the Holy Ghost accompanieth the reading, or the hearing of it, with his grace, it cannot fail of its impression in the heart.

I would only beg to observe, upon it, that what is here represented concerning the proceedings of the last day, refer chiefly, if not altogether, to the Church of the Lord Jesus, and not to the world at large. All nations, indeed, are to be gathered before Christ, but then what is described relates to the Church of Christ, as a Church professing Christ under the double character of the sheep and goats; that is, the elect of God, and the non-elect. So that what Jesus saith to each, is wholly spoken under these different views of character. And in confirmation of this grand and momentous truth, it should be observed, that the sheep on the King’s right hand, are called upon, as the blessed of the Father, to come and inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. And although, in infinite condescension and mercy, the King goes on to speak of the exercise of those graces he had given them, in acts of mercy shewn by them to his poor people, which are his representatives; yet these things were all subsequent to what was determined upon before the foundation of the world. A kingdom prepared from all eternity; and the persons for whom it was prepared, being known and appointed, their possession of it could not depend upon any of their after-actions in time. This would have been to have put the effect for the cause, and to invert the very order of things in the divine counsel. It is, indeed, very blessed to see, that the Lord, who is himself the sole cause, appointed also the effect. But plainly, the whole is the result of free sovereign grace, and not an atom of merit in man, contributing, in the least degree, to the accomplishment.

Reader! pause over the subject, and ponder well the blessed contents! For what can be so truly blessed, as the contemplation of the provision the Lord made for his people, not only before they were born, but before the foundations of the earth were laid. I know that some dear children of God, yea, perhaps I might have said, by far the greater part of his children, on whom a work of grace is wrought, are looking more to the effect wrought in them, than the Almighty work wrought for them. But this should not be the case.

Time will come, yea many a time circumstances do come, when redeemed souls lose sight of what is called their evidences; and where is their comfort then? Whereas, if we were always looking to the Lord Jesus, and Jehovah’s covenant promises in him, and considered the security of this kingdom, which cannot be moved, and which hath been prepared for the Church and every member of Christ’s body, from the foundation of the world; these are the Lord’s evidences, in which we should find an everlasting source for joy. For so the promise runs. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, (or as the margin of the Bible very properly renders it, peace, peace; that is, peace forever, peace upon peace, uninterrupted, and without end,) whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Isa 26:3 .

Lord! I would say for myself; and every regenerated child of God! grant to us such blessed stayings upon thee, and arising wholly of what thou hast done, as the sole cause; and not in anything which thy grace enables thy redeemed to perform, for all these can be but the effect. Oh! the unspeakable felicity of a kingdom not founded in time, but in eternity: not the result of man’s merit, but God’s gift; not depending upon creature attainments, but Creator faithfulness; and founded in the everlasting love of God the Father, the infinite merits, bloodshedings, and righteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Almighty grace and efficient ministry of God the Holy Ghost. And oh! how sweet are the words of the Lord Jesus, both here and elsewhere, while expressing the rich mercies thus prepared for his redeemed, before the foundation of the world, when he saith: Fear not little flock, for it is your heavenly Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke

I hope the Reader will not be liable to any mistake, from the statement I have ventured to give, in pointing out the cause from the effect. Neither will he, I trust, be led to conceive, that I place no stress upon the effects of vital godliness, because I place so much upon the grand cause of all. This would be to pervert what I have intended. The Lord Jesus himself, is pleased to notice in his people the smallest exercise of those graces he hath given them; and he tells us, that he regards the cup of cold water, when we have nothing warmer to give, if given in the name of a disciple. Well therefore may we regard them also. And as Christ personal is no more upon earth to be ministered unto, as he was in the days of his flesh, Luk 8:3 . it is blessed when we feel a love to Jesus, to minister to any of his poor people, who are members of his mystical body. But still I must contend for the Lord’s glory, as the sole cause of all. The foundation of a kingdom, and prepared from everlasting, is wholly in himself: and both the persons for whom this kingdom is prepared, and the graces wrought in them, as testimonies to the same, all originate from the electing, redeeming, regenerating grace of God, in Christ Jesus.

I detain the Reader a moment longer to remark, that from the answer, and given with such seeming astonishment by the redeemed, (called righteous, in the Lord’s righteousness,) to the gracious words of the king: Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee, etc. it appears that they had no consciousness of the oneness between Christ and his people, in a manner equal to what it really is. And perhaps no man alive, is, or can be able to conceive the intimate nearness between them. If we were, every child of God, would be more alive than he is, even upon motives of selfishness to minister to one another. One of the fathers of the Church (Cyprian) used to say, that this passage had never been understood; and the redeemed are all of them represented as saying as much, when thus expressing their astonishment!

I do not think it necessary to enlarge, on the awful part of the representation given in this Chapter, of the condemnation of the unregenerate. That the sentence uttered by the king, depart ye cursed; is spoken to such as were nominal Christians, is I think, too evident to be doubted, in that Jesus saith, I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat: which plainly proves that they dwelt among the Lord’s people, but had neither faith nor love for him, nor compassion for his members as such. In short the characters are contrasted. The righteous were righteous in Christ’s righteousness; and through grace had been savingly called, regenerated, justified, and sanctified; and had been deeply humbled under a sense of their own utterly lost estate, and had sought salvation only in Christ. The goats on the left hand, had neither felt a sense of sin, nor a desire of salvation; they are supposed to have heard of Christ, but valued him not; priding themselves in their own good works, or hoping that these would recommend them to Jesus, and what was wanting, if there were any deficiency, he might make up. So that their unhumbled hearts had never known anything of their own corruption; their acts of charity, if any, had never been given with an eye to Christ: they had lived and died, as they were born, and knew not the Lord. It is of such Christ speaks, when he saith, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

Ver. 31. And all the holy angels with him ] He shall not leave one behind him in heaven. Oh! what a brave bright day must that needs be, when so many glorious suns shall shine in the firmament, and among and above them all the Sun of righteousness, in whom our nature is advanced above the brightest cherub.

Upon the throne of his glory ] Perhaps upon his angels, who are called thrones, Col 1:16 , and possibly may bear him aloft by their natural strength, as on their shoulders.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

31 46. ] THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF ALL NATIONS. Peculiar to Matthew . In the two former parables we have seen the difference between, and judgment of, Christians in their inward readiness for their Lord, and their outward diligence in profiting by his gifts. And both these had reference to that first resurrection and millennial Kingdom , the reality of which is proved by the passages of Scripture cited in the notes above, and during which all Christians shall be judged. We now come to the great and universal judgment at the end of this period, also prophesied of distinctly in order in Rev 20:11-15 in which all the dead , small and great, shall stand before God. This last great judgment answers to the judgment on Jerusalem, after the Christians had escaped from it: to the gathering of the eagles (ministers of vengeance) to the carcase. Notice the precision of the words in Mat 25:31 , the setting forth the indefiniteness of the time the the distinction from the two parables foregoing; and , to mark a precise time when all this shall take place a day of judgment.

Compare for the better understanding of the distinction, and connexion, of these ‘two comings’ of the Lord, 1Th 4:16-17 , and 2Th 1:7-10 .

This description is not a parable, though there are in it parabolic passages, e.g. . . . .: and for that very reason, that which is illustrated by those likenesses is not itself parabolic . It will heighten our estimation of the wonderful sublimity of this description, when we recollect that it was spoken by the Lord only three days before His sufferings .

. . ] This expression, repeated again at the end of the verse, is quite distinct from . . . ch. Mat 24:30 : see Rev 20:11 . This His glory is that also of all his saints, with whom He shall be accompanied: see Jude, Mat 25:14 . In this his coming they are with the angels , and as the angels: see Rev 19:14 (compare Mat 25:8 ): Zec 14:5 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 25:31-46 . The Judgment programme . Much diversity of opinion has prevailed in reference to this remarkable passage; as to the subjects of the judgment, and the authenticity of this judgment programme as a professed logion of Jesus. Are the judged all mankind, Christian and non-Christian, or Christians only, or non-Christian peoples, including unbelieving Jews, or the Jewish people excluded? Even as early as Origen it was felt that there was room for doubt on such points. He says ( Comm. in Ev. M. ): “Utrum segregabuntur gentes omnes ab omnibus qui in omnibus generationibus fuerint, an illae tantum quao in consummatione fuerint derelictae, aut illae tantum quae crediderunt in Deum per Christum, et ipsae utrum omnes, an non omnes, non satis est manifestum. Tamen quibusdam videtur de differenti eorum, quae crediderunt haec esse dicta.” Recent opinion inclines to the view that the programme refers to heathen people only, and sets forth the principle on which they shall be judged. As to the authenticity of the logion critics hold widely discrepant views. Some regard it as a composition of the evangelists. So Pfleiderer, e.g. , who sees in it simply the literary expression of a genial humane way of regarding the heathen on the part of the evangelist, an unknown Christian author of the second century, who had charity enough to accept Christlike love on the part of the heathen as an equivalent for Christian faith ( Urchristenthum , p. 532). Holtzmann, H. C., also sees in it a second-hand composition, based on 4 Esdras 7:33 35, Apoc. Bar. 83:12. Weiss, on the other hand, recognises as basis an authentic logion of Jesus, setting forth love as the test of true discipleship, which has been worked over by the evangelist and altered into a judgment programme for heathendom . Wendt ( L. J. , p. 186) thinks that the logion in its original form was such a programme. This seems to be the most probable opinion.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 25:31 . , the description following recalls Mat 24:30 , to which the seems to refer.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE

Mat 25:31 – Mat 25:46 .

The teachings of that wonderful last day of Christ’s ministry, which have occupied so many of our pages, are closed with this tremendous picture of universal judgment. It is one to be gazed upon with silent awe, rather than to be commented on. There is fear lest, in occupying the mind in the study of the details, and trying to pierce the mystery it partly unfolds, we should forget our own individual share in it. Better to burn in on our hearts the thought, ‘I shall be there,’ than to lose the solemn impression in efforts to unravel the difficulties of the passage. Difficulties there are, as is to be expected in even Christ’s revelation of so unparalleled a scene. Many questions are raised by it which will never be solved till we stand there. Who can tell how much of the parabolic element enters into the description? We, at all events, do not venture to say of one part, ‘This is merely drapery, the sensuous representation of spiritual reality,’ and of another, ‘That is essential truth.’ The curtain is the picture, and before we can separate the elements of it in that fashion, we must have lived through it. Let us try to grasp the main lessons, and not lose the spirit in studying the letter.

I. The first broad teaching is that Christ is the Judge of all the earth.

Sitting there, a wearied man on the Mount of Olives, with the valley of Jehoshaphat at His feet, which the Jew regarded as the scene of the final judgment, Jesus declared Himself to be the Judge of the world, in language so unlimited in its claims that the speaker must be either a madman or a god. Calvary was less than three days off, when He spoke thus. The contrast between the vision of the future and the reality of the present is overwhelming. The Son of Man has come in weakness and shame; He will come in His glory, that flashing light of the self-revealing God, of which the symbol was the ‘glory’ which shone between the cherubim, and which Jesus Christ here asserts to belong to Him as ‘His glory.’ Then, heaven will be emptied of its angels, who shall gather round the enthroned Judge as His handful of sorrowing followers were clustered round Him as He spoke, or as the peasants had surrounded the meek state of His entry yesterday. Then, He will take the place of Judge, and ‘sit,’ in token of repose, supremacy, and judgment, ‘on the throne of His glory,’ as He now sat on the rocks of Olivet. Then, mankind shall be massed at His feet, and His glance shall part the infinite multitudes, and discern the character of each item in the crowd as easily and swiftly as the shepherd’s eye picks out the black goats from among the white sheep. Observe the difference in the representation from those in the previous parables. There, the parting of kinds was either self-acting, as in the case of the foolish maidens; or men gave account of themselves, as in the case of the servants with the talents. Here, the separation is the work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken. All these representations must be included in the complete truth as to the final judgment. It is the effect of men’s actions; it is the result of their compelled disclosing of the deepest motives of their lives; it is the act of the perfect discernment of the Judge. Their deeds will judge them; they will judge themselves; Christ will judge.

Singularly enough, every possible interpretation of the extent of the expression ‘all nations’ has found advocates. It has been taken in its widest and plainest meaning, as equivalent to the whole race; it has been confined to mankind exclusive of Christians, and it has been confined to Christians exclusive of heathens. There are difficulties in all these explanations, but probably the least are found in the first. It is most natural to suppose that ‘all nations’ means all nations, unless that meaning be impossible. The absence of the limitation to the ‘kingdom of heaven,’ which distinguishes this section from the preceding ones having reference to judgment, and the position of the present section as the solemn close of Christ’s teachings, which would naturally widen out into the declaration of the universal judgment, which forms the only appropriate climax and end to the foregoing teachings, seem to point to the widest meaning of the phrase. His office of universal Judge is unmistakably taught throughout the New Testament, and it seems in the highest degree unnatural to suppose that He did not speak of it in these final words of prophetic warning. We may therefore, with some confidence, see in the magnificent and awful picture here drawn the vision of universal judgment. Parabolic elements there no doubt are in the picture; but we have no governing revelation, free from these, by which we can check them, and be sure of how much is form and how much substance. This is clear, ‘that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ’; and this is clear, that Jesus Christ put forth, when at the very lowest point of His earthly humiliation, these tremendous claims, and asserted His authority as Judge over every soul of man. We are apt to lose ourselves in the crowd. Let us pause and think that ‘all’ includes ‘me.’

II. Note the principles of Christ’s universal judgment.

It is important to remember that this section closes a series of descriptions of the judgment, and must not be taken as if, when isolated, it set forth all the truth. It is often harped upon by persons who are unfriendly to evangelical teaching, as if it were Christ’s only word about judgment, and interpreted as if it meant that, no matter what else a man was, if only he is charitable and benevolent, he will find mercy. But this is to forget all the rest of our Lord’s teaching in the context, and to fly in the face of the whole tenor of New Testament doctrine. We have here to do with the principles of judgment which apply equally to those who have, and to those who have not, heard the gospel. The subjects of the kingdom are shown the principles more immediately applicable to them, in the previous parables, and here they are reminded that there is a standard of judgment absolutely universal. All men, whether Christians or not, are judged by ‘the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad.’ So Christ teaches in His closing words of the Sermon on the Mount, and in many another place. ‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.’ The productive source of good works is not in question here; stress is laid on the fruits, rather than on the root. The gospel is as imperative in its requirements of righteousness as the law is, and its conception of the righteousness which it requires is far deeper and wider. The subjects of the kingdom ever need to be reminded of the solemn truth that they have not only, like the wise maidens, to have their lights burning and their oil vessels filled, nor only, like the wise servants, to be using the gifts of the kingdom for their lord, but, as members of the great family of man, have to cultivate the common moralities which all men, heathen and Christian, recognise as binding on all, without which no man shall see the Lord. The special form of righteousness which is selected as the test is charity. Obviously it is chosen as representative of all the virtues of the second table of the law. Taken in its bare literality, this would mean that men’s relations to God had no effect in the judgment, mid that no other virtues but this of charity came into the account. Such a conclusion is so plainly repugnant to all Christ’s teaching, that we must suppose that love to one’s neighbour is here singled out, just as it is in His summary of ‘the law and the prophets,’ as the crown and flower of all relative duties, and as, in a very real sense, being ‘the fulfilling of the law.’ The omission of any reference to the love of God sufficiently shows that the view here is rigidly limited to acts, and that all the grounds of judgment are not meant to be set forth.

But the benevolence here spoken of is not the mere natural sentiment, which often exists in great energy in men whose moral nature is, in other respects, so utterly un-Christlike that their entrance into the kingdom prepared for the righteous is inconceivable. Many a man has a hundred vices and yet a soft heart. It is very much a matter of temperament. Does Christ so contradict all the rest of His teaching as to say that such a man is of ‘the sheep,’ and ‘blessed of the Father’? Surely not. Is every piece of kindliness to the distressed, from whatever motive, and by whatsoever kind of person done, regarded by Him as done to Himself? To say so, would be to confound moral distinctions, and to dissolve all righteousness into a sentimental syrup. The deeds which He regards as done to Himself, are done to His ‘brethren.’ That expression carries us into the region of motive, and runs parallel with His other words about ‘receiving a prophet,’ and ‘giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones,’ because they are His. Seeing that all nations are at the bar, the expression, ‘My brethren,’ cannot be confined to the disciples, for many of those who are being judged have never come in contact with Christians, nor can it be reasonably supposed to include all men, for, however true it is that Christ is every man’s brother, the recognition of kindred here must surely be confined to those at the right hand. Whatever be included under the ‘righteous,’ that is included under the ‘brethren.’ We seem, then, led to recognise in the expression a reference to the motive of the beneficence, and to be brought to the conclusion that what the Judge accepts as done to Himself is such kindly help and sympathy as is extended to these His kindred, with some recognition of their character, and desire after it. To ‘receive a prophet’ implies that there is some spiritual affinity with him in the receiver. To give help to His brethren, because they are so, implies some affinity with Him or feeling after likeness to Him and them. Now, if we hold fast by the universality of the judgment here depicted, we shall see that this recognition must necessarily have different degrees in those who have heard of Christ and in those who have not. In the former, it will be equivalent to that faith which is the root of all goodness, and grasps the Christ revealed in the gospel. In the latter, it can be no more than a feeling after Him who is the ‘light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.’ Surely there are souls amid the darkness of heathenism yearning toward the light, like plants grown in the dark. By ways of His own, Christ can reach such hearts, as the river of the water of life may percolate through underground channels to many a tree which grows far from its banks.

III. Note the surprises of the judgment.

The astonishment of the righteous is not modesty disclaiming praise, but real wonder at the undreamed-of significance of their deeds. In the parable of the talents, the servants unveiled their inmost hearts, and accurately described their lives. Here, the other side of the truth is brought into prominence, that, at that day, we shall be surprised when we hear from His lips what we have really done. True Christian beneficence has consciously for its motive the pleasing of Christ; but still he who most earnestly strove, while here, to do all as unto Jesus, will be full of thankful wonder at the grace which accepts his poor service, and will learn, with fresh marvelling, how closely He associates Himself with His humblest servant. There is an element of mystery hidden from ourselves in all our deeds. Our love to Christ’s followers never goes out so plainly to Him that, while here, we can venture to be sure that He takes it as done for Him. We cannot here follow the flight of the arrow, nor know what meaning He will attach to, or what large issues He will evolve from, our poor doings. So heaven will be full of blessed surprises, as we reap the fruit growing ‘in power’ of what we sowed ‘in weakness,’ and as doleful will be the astonishment which will seize those who see, for the first time, in the lurid light of that day, the true character of their lives, as one long neglect of plain duties, which was all a defrauding the Saviour of His due. Mere doing nothing is enough to condemn, and its victims will be shudderingly amazed at the fatal wound it has inflicted on them.

IV. The irrevocableness of the judgment.

That is an awful contrast between the ‘Come! ye blessed,’ and ‘Depart! ye cursed.’ That is a more awful parallel between ‘eternal punishment’ and ‘eternal life.’ It is futile to attempt to alleviate the awfulness by emptying the word ‘eternal’ of reference to duration. It no doubt connotes quality, but its first meaning is ever-during. There is nothing here to suggest that the one condition is more terminable than the other. Rather, the emphatic repetition of the word brings the unending continuance of each into prominence, as the point in which these two states, so wofully unlike, are the same. In whatever other passages the doctrine of universal restoration may seem to find a foothold, there is not an inch of standing-room for it here. Reverently accepting Christ’s words as those of perfect and infallible love, the present writer feels so strongly the difficulty of bringing all the New Testament declarations on this dread question into a harmonious whole, that he abjures for himself dogmatic certainty, and dreads lest, in the eagerness of discussing the duration which will never be beyond the reach of discussion, the solemn reality of the fact of future retribution should be dimmed, and men should argue about ‘the terror of the Lord’ till they cease to feel it.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 25:31-33

31″But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”

Mat 25:31 “the Son of Man” This was a term used in the OT to simply signify a human being, as in Psa 8:4 and Eze 2:1. However, in Dan 7:13 a human being, called “a son of man,” comes riding on the clouds of heaven-the mode of transportation for deity -and is given the eternal kingdom. The title “Son of Man” was not used in rabbinical Judaism. Jesus used this term as a self-designation which included the concepts of humanity and deity and did not have the narrow Jewish nationalistic, militaristic connotation. As the Son of Man rode on the clouds of heaven in Dan 7:13, He now comes with all the holy angels to judge mankind (cf. Mat 25:31; 1Th 4:13-18).

“in His Glory” See note on “glory” at Mat 16:27.

“and all the angels with Him” The angels will do the work of gathering and dividing. They were often associated with Christ’s coming (cf. Mat 16:27; Mar 8:38; 2Th 1:7; Jud 1:14; and Dan 7:10).

“He will sit on His glorious throne” He will take His seat on the throne of God (cf. Psa 110:1) not only as Lord and King, but as Judge (cf. Mat 19:28). Rejecting Jesus has a temporal aspect (cf. Joh 3:18) and an eschatological aspect. The judgment in time is consummated in eternity.

Mat 25:32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him” This passage may not be a parable, but a dramatic presentation unique to Matthew. All questions about the end time are not dealt with. One wonders if all nations include those humans who are alive and dead, or just those who are alive. The phrase “all the nations” implied the universal spread of the gospel to all people (cf. Revelation 5) which included Israel. This is the goal of Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3, and Exo 19:4-6. Israel’s call was to be missionary to the nations!

It is difficult to identify with certainty who “the goats” are: (1) those who have rejected the gospel or (2) those who have an outward profession only? Both groups call Jesus “Lord” (cf. Mat 7:21-23). This judgment seems to be limited to those who have, at least outwardly, responded to the gospel. Therefore it is similar in meaning to the parable of the soils (cf. Matthew 13). The pressures of end-time events and the lack of love for other believers (cf. 1Jn 2:9; 1Jn 2:11; 1Jn 3:15; 1Jn 4:7-21) will clearly reveal false professions (cf. Mat 13:21-22; 1Jn 2:19).

“and He will separate them from one another” Much like the wheat and tares (cf. Mat 13:24-30; Mat 13:36-43) could not be separated until judgment day, so the sheep and the goats wait until the last day for all to see the fruit of their lives. Also notice there are only two categories.

“as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” God as shepherd was a common OT metaphor (cf. Psalms 23). “Shepherd” was used in Ezekiel 34 to describe the false shepherds of Israel and God as Chief Shepherd and Judge. The same terminology is applied to Jesus in Zec 11:4-14; John 10.

Mat 25:33 “on His right” This is a biblical anthropomorphic phrase to describe the place of preeminence, honor, power, and authority.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

When the Son of man. See the Structure (p. 1366).

shall come = shall have come.

the throne. Luk 1:32. Compare Psa 47:8. Jer 3:17; Jer 14:21. Zep 3:8.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

31-46.] THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF ALL NATIONS. Peculiar to Matthew. In the two former parables we have seen the difference between, and judgment of, Christians-in their inward readiness for their Lord, and their outward diligence in profiting by his gifts. And both these had reference to that first resurrection and millennial Kingdom, the reality of which is proved by the passages of Scripture cited in the notes above, and during which all Christians shall be judged. We now come to the great and universal judgment at the end of this period, also prophesied of distinctly in order in Rev 20:11-15-in which all the dead, small and great, shall stand before God. This last great judgment answers to the judgment on Jerusalem, after the Christians had escaped from it: to the gathering of the eagles (ministers of vengeance) to the carcase. Notice the precision of the words in Mat 25:31, -the setting forth the indefiniteness of the time-the the distinction from the two parables foregoing; and , to mark a precise time when all this shall take place-a day of judgment.

Compare for the better understanding of the distinction, and connexion, of these two comings of the Lord, 1Th 4:16-17, and 2Th 1:7-10.

This description is not a parable, though there are in it parabolic passages, e.g. . …: and for that very reason, that which is illustrated by those likenesses is not itself parabolic. It will heighten our estimation of the wonderful sublimity of this description, when we recollect that it was spoken by the Lord only three days before His sufferings.

. .] This expression, repeated again at the end of the verse, is quite distinct from . . . ch. Mat 24:30 : see Rev 20:11. This His glory is that also of all his saints, with whom He shall be accompanied: see Jude, Mat 25:14. In this his coming they are with the angels, and as the angels: see Rev 19:14 (compare Mat 25:8): Zec 14:5.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 25:31. , in His glory) concerning which so many things have been foretold.- , and all the holy angels with Him) We must not here suppose , shall come, to be understood; but the nominative must be taken absolutely according to the Hebrew idiom, and rendered, all the angels accompanying Him.-, all) Add all nations from Mat 25:32. All angels; all nations. How vast an assembly!-, then) As has been foretold. The disciples thought that this would take place immediately.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Serve Christ by Serving Others

Mat 25:31-46

We are called to watch the procedure of Gods moral government. This is primarily a forecast of the judgment of the nations, Mat 25:32. It would seem as though, in the first instance, their doom will be largely affected by their treatment of the Hebrew people, the brethren of Jesus after the flesh, Mat 25:40. Probably this parable is being enacted before our eyes-Spain in the Cuban war and Russia today.

But the parable has a wider range. Our Lord evidently identifies Himself, not so much with great causes as with all who are weary and heavy laden, who are sorrowful or sinful, who have drifted into the hospitals and prisons of the world. None are too desolate and sorrowful to attract His loving notice, and He hails as blessed all who sympathize with and help them. In the closing verse, it should be noticed that in the r.v. the word eternal stands in each clause; and it should be remembered that it stands for a quality of existence which is altogether independent of time.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter 76

When the Son of Man shall Come

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

(Mat 25:31-46)

Few passages in the Bible are more solemn and heart-searching than Mat 25:31-46. Here our Savior speaks to us about his glorious second advent and the day of judgment. What a solemn passage this is! In that great day every son and daughter of Adam shall be present. Each one shall receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men (2Co 5:10-11). Every thing here spoken by our Master is plain and clear. There are no parables here. It is impossible to misunderstand our Saviors words in this passage.

When He Appears

This passage begins with the fact of our Lords glorious second advent. Verse thirty-one identifies three things about our Saviors second coming.

1.His Coming: When the Son of man shall come in his glory. He states the fact of his coming again as a well-known, commonly acknowledged fact. With his disciples, Christs second coming is not a speculative matter. We have no idea when he will come again. But we do know that he is coming. We rejoice in the hope of it. And we know that when he comes again, our great God and Savior will appear in all the splendor, grandeur, and majesty of his glory as the God-man, our Savior. Not only is he coming, but the Son of man shall come in his glory!

2.His Companions: When Christ comes again, he will not come alone, but all the holy angels with him. Elsewhere we are told that he will come with all his saints, too. This will be no secret rapture, but the glorious appearing of the great God, who is our Savior. The holy angels, who sang his praise at his first advent, will accompany him in his second advent.

3.His Character: Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. When our Savior comes again, there will be no more debate about his sovereignty. The throne of judgment upon which he shall sit will be the throne of his glory. Every knee shall bow before the throne of his glory. All his enemies shall be made the footstool of the throne of his glory. Everyone will worship before the throne of his glory.

Two Groups

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. (Mat 25:32-33)

We are once more reminded of the fact that all the human race is divided into only two families, two groups and two races, the one called the sheep, the other called the goats. You will never understand the Bible, or any of the workings of God, until you understand this fact. Earthly distinctions of race, nationality, social status, mental aptitude, and even religious affiliation are of absolutely no significance before God. We are all either sheep or goats.

Sheep have always been sheep; and goats have always been goats. Sheep never become goats; and goats never become sheep. Some sheep are saved, and some are yet lost; but all sheep shall be saved (Joh 10:11; Joh 10:14-16; Joh 10:27-30). Goats never shall be saved (Joh 10:26). Everything God does in this world, he does for the sheep, to save his sheep. He chose his sheep. Christ redeemed, seeks, and finds his sheep. And, finding them, he fetches them to himself by his omnipotent grace in the effectual call of his Spirit. And when Christ comes again, the sheep shall be set on his right hand, the place of highest honor and blessing. The goats shall be set on his left hand of contempt, judgment, and destruction.

Blessed of God

Gods elect, the sheep set on the Saviors right hand, are described as a people blessed of God the Father, and are bidden to come and inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Mat 25:34). In Mat 25:31 our Savior calls himself the Son of Man. Here he calls himself the King. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the King of his church, the saints, and the King of the whole earth. He will appear in his glory as the King, sitting upon his throne of glory as the Judge of all the earth.

In that great day he will speak as gently, tenderly, and lovingly to his sheep as he does today in the gospel, saying, Come, ye blessed of my Father. He will call those on his right hand to come before his great white throne with intrepidity and confidence, entering into and taking possession of heavenly glory as a people made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (Col 1:12), which he had afore prepared unto glory (Rom 9:23).

When we stand before Christ in judgment, he will call us a people blessed of my Father. What reason have any who are blessed of God to fear that day? Gods eternal choice of us as his people declares that we are loved of him with an everlasting love, accepted of him in Christ from eternity, and blessed of him with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began. Being blessed of God, we are redeemed by Christs precious blood, forgiven of all sin, justified, and sanctified by his grace. Having given us his grace, the Lord will give us glory, too (Psa 84:11).

A Kingdom Prepared

The happiness of Gods elect in the world to come is here described as a kingdom, because of the glory, riches, grandeur, and majesty of it. It is a kingdom prepared and suitable for a people who have been made kings and priests unto God by Christ. It is an inheritance obtained by the gift of our heavenly Father. It is ours by right of adoption as the children of God, by right of purchase by the blood of Christ, and by right of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, who has already taken possession of it as our Forerunner.

Heavenly glory is a kingdom prepared for us by Gods free grace and everlasting favor. Being prepared, it is both sure and made ready. As John Gill wrote, It is a kingdom erected, an inheritance reserved, and a crown of righteousness laid up in heaven, a glory really provided and secured in an everlasting covenant, and that for you.the peculiar favorites of God, the objects of his love and choice, the redeemed of the Lamb, and that are born of the Spirit.

That kingdom into which we shall enter at last was prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Heavenly glory is a kingdom prepared for Gods elect from all eternity. That fact alone should convince all that the blessings of eternity do not, and cannot be dependent upon or determined by the things we do in time. The whole of heavenly glory is the gift of God in Christ. It is written, The gift of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23). Nothing connected with eternal life is earned and merited by those who shall possess it. But plainly, as Robert Hawker put it, the whole is the result of free, sovereign grace, and not an atom of merit in man, contributing, in the least degree, to the accomplishment.

What can be so truly blessed than to contemplate this provision of grace our God has made for us, not only before we were born, but before the foundations of the earth were laid? How delightful our Saviors words are! It appears to me that his intent is to covey to us the greatest possible peace and joyful hope as we anticipate his glorious appearing, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jud 1:21). He seems to be saying here, as he did in Luk 12:32, Fear not little flock, for it is your heavenly Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The Day of Judgment

In Mat 25:35-46 our Lord Jesus Christ describes the day of judgment. Let no one be deceived, there is a day appointed by God when all men shall stand before his righteous bar, the throne of his glory, to be judged by him. There is a day of reckoning. Put it out of your mind, if you dare. Try to dismiss it from your thoughts, if you like. But there is a day fixed by God almighty when you and I must give account to him. It is written, after this, after this life is over, after we have finished our little space of appointed time in this world, after this the judgment (Heb 9:27). Therefore, I make no apology for echoing that which all men by nature prefer never to hear, Prepare to meet thy God!

Consider this sober fact seriously: You must soon meet God in judgment! How will it go for you in that great and terrible day? Where will you spend eternity? Do not be so foolish as to ignore these questions. Let me show you four things taught in these verses by the Son of God himself about the day of judgment.

1.First, our Savior assures us that he will himself be the Judge in that great day.

Understand this. Everything God does he does through the Son, for the honor of the Son, that the Son may have all preeminence and glory. The saving of men is the work of the Son; and the judgment of men shall be the work of the Son (Joh 5:22; Act 17:30; 2Co 5:10-11; Php 2:9-11).

That same Jesus who was born at Bethlehem, who was raised in Nazareth, who preached and performed mighty miracles of mercy in the days of his humiliation, who was despised and rejected of men, and who was at last betrayed, beaten, scourged, stripped naked, and nailed to the cursed tree by the hands of wicked men, that same Jesus shall himself come again in power and in great glory to judge this world. You and I will soon be gathered before his august throne of glory to answer for our lives upon this earth.

As I have already suggested, believers have every reason to look upon this august, solemn event with comfort and joy. He who shall sit upon that throne in that great and dreadful day is himself our Savior, our Redeemer, our Good Shepherd, our mighty Advocate, our great High Priest, our Elder Brother, and our Faithful Friend. I do not suggest for a moment that he will bend the law on our behalf. He will never do that! But I do mean for you to understand that so long as we have such an Advocate as Christ is in the court, indeed, upon the very bench of judgment, we have no reason to fear the proceedings of that bench.

If you are without Christ, if you are an unbeliever, if you are yet unconverted, if you yet live in rebellion to our great God, every thought of this great and terrible day should fill your very soul with utter terror. Your Judge in that day will be the very Christ whose gospel you have despised, whose gracious invitations you scorn, whose blood you trample beneath your feet. If you go on and die in your rebellion and unbelief, how great will be the wrath poured out upon you in that day! To be condemned by anyone would be terrible; but to be condemned by him who is the Savior of the world, who is able, willing, and ready to save all who come to God by him is unthinkable! I urge you in the words of the psalmist, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way (Psa 2:12).

2.Second, our Master tells us that everyone will be judged by him in that day.

Before him shall be gathered all nations (Mat 25:32). All who ever lived shall in that day give account of themselves before the Son of God. When the King of heaven issues his summons, his holy angels like a great hosts of deputies will fetch you before his throne. Each one will be forced to step forward to receive his sentence from Christ himself. J. C. Ryle wrote, Those who would not come to worship Christ on earth, will find that they must come to his great assize, when he returns to judge the world.

In that great day all the human race shall be publicly divided into two groups. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left (Mat 25:33). In that day earthly distinctions shall be meaningless. Rich and poor, the learned and the unlearned, black and white, religious and irreligious men and women, moralists and rogues shall all be lumped into one group – goats. All former, earthly distinctions, for which people contend and strive, will then have passed away.

In that day nothing will matter to you or to God himself except this Are you or are you not in Christ? Grace or no grace, faith or no faith, converted or unconverted, saved or lost are the only distinctions that will matter when you stand before the bar of God. If you trust the Son of God, you shall be seated with Christ on his right hand, with his sheep, in the throne of his glory. If you die without faith in Christ, you will in that day be found among the goats at his left hand.

3.Third, our Lord here shows us that the judgment of that great day will be totally righteous, just, and equitable.

No one will challenge the proceedings of that day. When the judgment is over, even the damned will acknowledge that it was right. The judgment will be conducted upon the basis of evidence.

We recognize that we are justified by grace through the redemption that Christ accomplished at Calvary. Our only righteousness before God is his righteousness, that which he has made ours and given to us, the righteousness of God in Christ. Our works have nothing to do with our everlasting acceptance with God. When God opens the books on that day, he will bring us into heaven because no sin is recorded against us; but only righteousness, perfect righteousness is recorded under our names in heaven (Rev 20:11-12; Jer 50:20; Num 23:21; Rom 8:33-34).

However, God will in that day demonstrate that grace made his elect to be truly new creatures in Christ. Their works, which follow them into heaven, shall be witnesses brought forward by Christ himself as to why they should be admitted into his heavenly kingdom. Above all else, their works of charity, kindness, and hospitality shall be brought forth as evidences of their faith. Our faith is proved to be either false or true by our lives. In that sense, and only in that sense, the Spirit of God declares, by works a man is justified (Jas 2:24). Believers show the reality of their faith by their works (Jas 2:18). The fact is, faith without works is dead (Jas 2:11-14; Jas 2:20-26). And the great test of godliness, the great evidence of faith in Christ is love. He that loveth not knoweth not God.

The day of judgment will bring great, eternal joy to every believer (Mat 25:34). The savior will say to each of his elect, to every believing sinner, Well done, thou good and faithful servantEnter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Mat 25:21; Mat 25:23). The wages God shall give to his faithful servants shall be the full kingdom of grace and glory. The least, the lowest, the poorest, the weakest, and the youngest shall have the same reward as the greatest, the richest, the highest, the strongest, and the oldest. We shall all receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away from the King of glory.

The day of judgment will bring utter confusion to all unbelievers (Mat 25:41). Those who will not heed the Saviors call now, Come unto me, will obey with terror when he says, Depart from me, ye cursed!

Judgment day will demonstrate the character of all the saved and the character of all the lost in a striking manner. Believers, the saved, Christs sheep, will be clothed with humility, never imagining that they had done anything worthy of his notice and approval. When the Lord Jesus speaks of their good deeds, they will be astonished by his words.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Mat 25:34-40).

Whenever we think of good works, we ought to think of works of kindness, mercy, and love. Nowhere in Holy Scripture are good works spoken of under any other terms. And, it appears, judging from our Saviors words here, that those who perform such works are totally oblivious to having done so. Whereas, those who never perform such works, but only live in the delusion of self-righteousness, presume that they do good all the time. The lost, the unbelieving, will yet be blind and self-righteous, never imagining that they had failed to make themselves worthy of Gods acceptance.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Mat 25:41-46)

In that great day, our Lord will make all men see how highly he regards his people. He considers anything done for them or against them as being done to him. It seems to me that no man alive is able to conceive how real the union of Christ and his people is. The astonishment here expressed, both by the redeemed and the reprobate, at our Lords words seems to suggest that the real union of Christ and his church will be comprehended by none until we stand before him in that great day.

4.Fourth, the Son of God here tells us that the results of that final judgment will be final, everlasting, and immutable. These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Mat 25:46).

Everything after the judgment will be eternal. There will be no changes in eternity. The blessedness of the saved shall be eternal. We shall enjoy eternal life, eternal rest, eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal satisfaction, eternal righteousness, eternal communion with the Lord Jesus Christ!

The misery of the damned shall also be eternal! Who can describe the woe of the damned? It is eternal wrath, everlasting fire, undying torment, the second death, everlasting hell! It is unceasing separation from God and all good! All the lost shall be required to endure eternal agony, eternal separation from all that is good and pleasant, eternal sin, eternal want, eternal company with the most vile, wicked, abominable creatures!

Let us solemnly consider these things. Soon, you and I must meet God in judgment.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. (2Co 5:10-11)

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

The Royal and Universal Judge

Here we have the King’s own description of the Day of Judgment; and in the solemn silence of our spirits we may well put off our shoes from our feet as we draw nigh to this holy ground.

Mat 25:31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

Our Saviour had a wonderful series of contrasts passing before his eye as he uttered this sublime prophecy.

Within three days he was to be crucified; yet he spoke of the time “when the Son of man shall come in his glory.” He had with him a little company of disciples, one of whom would betray him, another would deny him, and all would forsake him; yet by faith he saw the heavenly retinue that would attend him at his coming: “and all the holy angels with him.” Wearied and worn with his labours, and saddened because of the hardness of men’s hearts and the impending doom of Jerusalem, he sat on the slope of the Mount of Olives; but his thoughts were projected across the ages as he told his hearers of the glorious throne he would occupy in the day when he should return as the Royal and Universal Judge of mankind: “Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” The great white throne shall be set on high, all pure and lustrous, bright and clear as a polished mirror, in which every man shall see himself and his sins reflected; and on that throne shall sit “the Son of man.” Behind the Kingly Judge, “all the holy angels “shall be ranged, rank on rank, an innumerable and glorious body-guard, to grace the court of their enthroned Lord on the day of the last great assize; and, at his bidding, to remove from his presence all whom he shall condemn.

Mat 25:32-33. And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

In the last great day of the Lord, all nations that have ever existed on the face of the globe shall be gathered before the judgment-seat of Christ. The earth, which is now becoming more and more one vast graveyard or charnel-house, shall yield up her dead; and the sea itself, transformed into a solid pavement, shall bear upon its bosom the millions who lie hidden in its gloomy caverns. All mankind will be assembled before their Judge: “and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” At first they will be gathered together in one heterogeneous mass; but the myriad multitude will speedily be divided into two companies: “And he shall separate them one from another.” The King will be the divider in that dread day. How he will separate them, no one can tell, except that it will be “as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” Not one goat will be left among the sheep, nor one sheep with the goats. The division will bo very close and personal: “one from another.” They will not be separated into nations, nor even into families; but each individual will be allotted his or her proper place among the sheep or among the goats.

“And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, hut the goats on the left.” There will be only two companies, one on the right hand of the Judge, and the other on his left. The Lord Jesus Christ “shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing “; and all who will be summoned before his dread tribunal will be either alive from the dead, or still dead in trespasses and sins. There will be no middle company in that day, as in God’s sight there is no third class even now. All our names are either in the Lamb’s Book of Life or in the Judge’s Book of Death.

Some have taught that the judgment here foretold is that of the professing Church, and not of the whole world. There may be some ground for their belief; yet it seems impossible to apply the full meaning of our Saviour’s majestic words to any scene except the general judgment of the whole human race.

Mat 25:34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Turning first to the chosen company on his right hand, the “great multitude, which no man could number,” the King will say to them, “Come.” They had accepted his previous invitation, “Come unto me;” now he gives them another and a more glorious “Come,” which was, however, included in the former one; for when he said, “I will give you rest,” heaven itself was promised to them. The King calls his loved ones by a choice name: “ye blessed of my Father.” We shall not know what bliss that title implies until we hear it from our Saviour’s lips; and even then we shall only begin to understand what we shall continue to enjoy throughout eternity.

All true believers are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, so the King will next say to them, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” The “inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,” is the inalienable right of all who are made kings and priests unto God; and that which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world must be possessed by them when the world itself has answered the end of its creation, and has been burned up.

Mat 25:35-36. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

The King dwells with great delight upon the details of his servants’ kindnesses to himself. Are we, then, after all, to be saved by our works? By no means. Yet are our works the evidences of our being saved. If our actions are such as Christ will commend at the day of judgment, they prove that we are saved by grace, and that the Holy Spirit has wrought effectually in us, and through us. The services mentioned by the King were all rendered to himself: “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” There is no mention of what the righteous had said, or of what profession of love to Christ they had made; the commendation was for what the King declared they had actually done by way of ministering unto him.

Mat 25:37-39. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw toe thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

They will bashfully disclaim the praise pronounced by the King. They had no idea that there was anything meritorious in what they had done; they never dreamed of being rewarded for it. When the saints stand before the judgment seat, the bare thought of there being any excellence in what they have done will be new to them, for they have formed a very lowly estimate of their own performances. They fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, for Christ’s sake, because it was the sweetest thing in the world to do anything for Jesus. They did it because they delighted to do it, because they could not help doing it, because their new nature impelled them to it.

Mat 25:40. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Christ has much more to do with his brethren’s sorrow than we sometimes think. Are they hungry? He puts it, “I was an hungred.” Do they thirst? He says, “I was thirsty.” The sympathy of Christ is continuous, and all adown the ages he will perpetually incarnate himself in the suffering bodies of his tried and afflicted people. Hence the opportunity of doing him service so long as we are here.

Mat 25:41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Every word in the King’s sentence upon those on his left hand will strike terror into their hearts. “Depart from me: “to be banished from Christ’s presence, is hell. “Ye cursed: “they could not plead that they had either kept the Law or obeyed the Gospel; they were indeed doubly cursed. They were bidden to depart “into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'” They had joined the devil in refusing allegiance to the Lord; so it was but right that, imitating his rebellion, they should share his punishment.

Mat 25:42-43. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed vie not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Two little words, “no “and “not”, explain the difference between their conduct and that of the righteous. To those on his right hand, the Bang will say, “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat,” but to those on his left hand, he will say, “Ye gave me no meat.” This omission on their part was no small matter; it was fatal, and it was visited with the eternal death-sentence, “Depart from me.” Men may think lightly now of their want of love to Christ, and their neglect to care for his poor brethren, but their conduct will appear in another light in the blaze of the last great day. Yet, even then, some will try to justify themselves.

Mat 25:44. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

What a deceiver is sin! How presumptuous, that even in the presence of the Omniscient Judge, it denies its own real character; and makes its votaries pretend to have attained to the divine standard of holiness!

Mat 25:45. Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Our Lord does not mean to teach that men will be condemned because they have not been charitable to the poor and needy, or that they will be saved if they are generous and open-handed. That would indeed be salvation by works, to be boasted of to all eternity. He does mean that only those who produce such fruit as this prove that “the root of the matter” is in them; by ministering to his poor brethren, out of love to him, they show that they are the subjects of that distinguishing grace which makes them differ from others. All our future depends upon our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mat 25:46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

“Everlasting ” and ”eternal” are different translations of the same Greek word. The “punishment” is of the same duration as the “life.” The one is no more temporary or terminable than the other. In heaven “the righteous” will be for ever anticipating future bliss while enjoying present perfect happiness; and in hell, the unrighteous will be ever looking forward to “the wrath to come” while enduring what our Saviour here describes as “everlasting punishment” in “everlasting fire” (Mat 25:41). Between heaven and hell there is a great gulf fixed, an awful abyss that cannot be crossed, so that the separation between the sheep and the goats will be eternal and unalterable. God grant that none of us may be on the wrong side of that great gulf!

Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom

Son of man (See Scofield “Mat 8:20”).

angels (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

the Son: Mat 25:6, Mat 16:27, Mat 19:28, Mat 26:64, Dan 7:13, Dan 7:14, Zec 14:5, Mar 8:38, Mar 14:62, Luk 9:26, Luk 22:69, Joh 1:51, Joh 5:27-29, Act 1:11, 1Th 4:16, 2Th 1:7, 2Th 1:8, Heb 1:8, Jud 1:14, Rev 1:7

then: Psa 9:7, Rev 3:21, Rev 20:11

Reciprocal: Deu 11:27 – General 1Sa 2:10 – judge 1Ki 22:19 – all the host 2Ki 11:19 – he sat Psa 24:10 – he is Ecc 3:17 – God Ecc 12:14 – General Isa 6:1 – sitting Jer 17:12 – General Eze 34:20 – Behold Dan 4:13 – an holy Dan 7:10 – thousand thousands Mic 4:3 – he shall judge Mic 5:4 – in the majesty Zec 1:11 – they answered Mat 13:39 – reapers Mat 16:13 – I the Mat 20:8 – when Mat 22:11 – when Mat 24:31 – his angels Mat 26:53 – and he Mar 9:1 – the kingdom Mar 10:37 – in Mar 13:26 – General Mar 13:27 – shall gather Luk 5:24 – that the Luk 12:8 – confess Luk 12:9 – shall Luk 17:24 – in Luk 21:27 – with Joh 5:22 – General Joh 5:29 – come Joh 11:52 – gather Joh 12:23 – The hour Joh 12:48 – judge Joh 21:22 – If Act 7:56 – the Son Act 10:42 – that it Act 17:31 – he hath appointed Act 24:25 – judgment Rom 2:16 – God Rom 8:19 – the manifestation Rom 14:10 – for 1Co 15:58 – in the 2Co 5:10 – we Gal 5:6 – faith Eph 1:21 – in that 2Th 1:10 – to be glorified 2Ti 4:1 – who Tit 2:13 – the glorious Heb 4:13 – with Heb 6:2 – eternal Heb 9:27 – but Heb 12:23 – God Jam 2:21 – justified 1Pe 4:5 – that 1Pe 4:13 – when 1Pe 5:4 – appear

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5:31

Many of the passages of a descriptive character in the Bible are worded like the transactions of men. We know from all the direct teaching of the New Testament that Christ will be the sole judge of the human family (Act 17:31) at the day of final accounts. No conversation or other participation will be allowed upon the part of human beings. Therefore all the parables and other passages that speak of such actions are used figura-tively. They truly represent what would be the result were the mentioned conversations to be permitted. But aside from such parts of the various descriptions, the direct predictions will take place. For instance, the Son of man will actually come with the angels (2Th 1:7), and will sit upon the throne of his glory which means the throne of judgment.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

IN these verses our Lord Jesus Christ describes the judgment-day, and some of its leading circumstances. There are few passages in the whole Bible more solemn and heart-searching than this. May we read it with the deep and serious attention which it deserves.

Let us mark in the first place, who will be the Judge in the last day. We read that it will be “the Son of Man,” Jesus Christ Himself.

That same Jesus who was born in the manger of Bethlehem, and took upon Him the form of a servant,-who was despised and rejected of men, and often had not where to lay His head,-who was condemned by the princes of this world, beaten, scourged, and nailed to the cross,-that same Jesus shall Himself judge the world, when He comes in His glory. To Him the Father hath committed all judgment. (Joh 5:22.) To Him at last every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. (Php 2:10-11.)

Let believers think of this, and take comfort. He that sits upon the throne in that great and dreadful day will be their Saviour, their Shepherd, their High Priest, their elder Brother, their Friend. When they see Him, they will have no cause to be alarmed.

Let unconverted people think of this, and be afraid. Their judge will be that very Christ, whose Gospel they now despise, and whose gracious invitations they refuse to hear. How great will be their confusion at last, if they go on in unbelief and die in their sins! To be condemned in the day of judgment by any one would be awful. But to be condemned by Him who would have saved them will be awful indeed. Well may the Psalmist say, “Kiss the Son lest he be angry.” (Psa 2:12.)

Let us mark, in the second place, who will be judged in the last day. We read that before Christ “shall be gathered all nations.”

All that have ever lived shall one day give account of themselves at the bar of Christ. All must obey the summons of the great King, and come forward to receive their sentence. Those who would not come to worship Christ on earth, will find they must come to His great assize, when He returns to judge the world.

All that are judged will be divided into two great classes. There will no longer be any distinction between kings and subjects, or masters and servants, or dissenters and churchmen. There will be no mention of ranks and denominations, for the former things will have passed away. Grace or no grace, conversion or unconversion, faith or no faith, will be the only distinctions at the last day. All that are found in Christ will be placed among the sheep at His right hand. All that are not found in Christ will be placed among the goats at His left. Well says Sherlock, “Our separations will avail us nothing, unless we take care to be found in the number of Christ’s sheep, when He comes to judgment.”

Let us mark, in the third place, in what manner the judgment will be conducted in the last day. We read of several striking particulars on this point. Let us see what they are.

The last judgment will be a judgment according to evidence. The works of men are the witnesses which will be brought forward, and above all their works of charity. The question to be ascertained will not merely be what we said, but what we did,-not merely what we professed, but what we practiced. Our works unquestionably will not justify us. We are justified by faith without the deeds of the law. But the truth of our faith will be tested by our lives. Faith which has not works is dead, being alone. (Jam 2:20.)

The last judgment will be a judgment that will bring joy to all true believers. They will hear those precious words, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.” They will be owned and confessed by their Master before His Father and the holy angels. They shall find that the wages He gives to His faithful servants are nothing less than “a kingdom.” The least, and lowest, and poorest of the family of God, shall have a crown of glory, and be a king.

The last judgment will be a judgment that will bring confusion on all unconverted people. They will hear those awful words, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” They will be disowned by the great Head of the Church before the assembled world. They will find that as they would sow to the flesh, so of the flesh they must reap corruption. They would not hear Christ, when He said “Come unto me, and I will give you rest,” and now they must hear Him say, “Depart, into everlasting fire.” They would not carry his cross, and so they can have no place in his kingdom.

The last judgment will be a judgment that will strikingly bring out the characters both of the lost and saved. They on the right hand, who are Christ’s sheep, will still be “clothed with humility.” They will marvel to hear any work of theirs brought forward and commended.-They on the left hand, who are not Christ’s, will still be blind and self-righteous. They will not be sensible of any neglect of Christ, “Lord,” they say, “when saw we thee,-and did not minister unto thee?” Let this thought sink down into our hearts. Characters on earth will prove an everlasting possession in the world to come. With the same heart that men die, with that heart they will rise again.

Let us mark, in the last place, what will be the final results of the judgment day. We are told this in words that ought never to be forgotten, “the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

The state of things after the judgment is changeless and without end. The misery of the lost, and the blessedness of the saved, are both alike forever. Let no man deceive us on this point. It is clearly revealed in Scripture. The eternity of God, and heaven, and hell, all stand on the same foundation. As surely as God is eternal, so surely is heaven an endless day without night, and hell an endless night without day.

Who shall describe the blessedness of eternal life? It passes the power of man to conceive. It can only be measured by contrast and comparison. An eternal rest, after warfare and conflict,-the eternal company of saints, after buffeting with an evil world,-an eternally glorious and painless body, after struggling with weakness and infirmity,-an eternal sight of Jesus face to face, after only hearing and believing,-all this is blessedness indeed. And yet the half of it remains untold.

Who shall describe the misery of eternal punishment? It is something utterly indescribable and inconceivable. The eternal pain of body,-the eternal sting of an accusing conscience,-the eternal society of none but the wicked, the devil and his angels,-the eternal remembrance of opportunities neglected and Christ despised,-the eternal prospect of a weary, hopeless future-all this is misery indeed. It is enough to make our ears tingle, and our blood run cold. And yet this picture is nothing, compared to the reality.

Let us close these verses with serious self-inquiry. Let us ask ourselves on which side of Christ we are likely to be at the last day. Shall we be on the right hand, or shall we be on the left? Happy is he who never rests till he can give a satisfactory answer to this question.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Mat 25:31. Now when the Son of man shall come. An interval is hinted at, but not asserted.

In his glory. Comp. chap. Mat 24:30. The great glory culminates in His glory (comp. Joh 17:5).

And all the angels with him. All the angels,all the nations; the former interested and active in the work of mans salvation. Comp. Heb 1:14; Mat 13:40; Mat 24:31; Luk 12:8. It is an objection to the pre-millenial view that it must include the redeemed among these angels.

Sit upon. The sitting expresses finished victory.

The throne of his glory.More than glorious throne; the throne peculiar to, manifesting, His glory. What and where it will be, we do not know; nor are these the most important questions.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Subdivision 3. (Mat 25:31-46.)

The day of manifestation.

Thus Israel and the professing church have been before us in their relation to the coming of the Lord; and now we have the Gentiles similarly, – the judgment of the living nations, when, having come, and His throne established upon the earth, He casts out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and those that work iniquity – a judgment not to be confounded with the final judgment of the “great white throne,” which is a judgment of the wicked dead alone.

To those who see in Scripture but one general resurrection of saint and sinner at the last day, with one general judgment in which the righteous will be manifested and separated from the wicked, the scene that the Lord puts before us here seems naturally to picture what is in their own minds. If their view be right, it is, of course, quite clear that it must picture it; and this it is to which we must confine our attention here: does it indeed represent a judgment of all the generations of men; Jew, Christian; heathen, dead and living, at the end of the world? Is this what it states or what it implies? If so, we must heartily and unreservedly accept this, assured that it will be found, of necessity, in conformity with all other scriptures; and that if it plainly declares this, we may accept it even without going further. But it must plainly declare it.

Now the coming of the Son of man in His glory with all His holy angels with Him, we have already seen in its relation to Israel, and to the prophecy of Daniel, to which our Lord Himself directly points us. In Daniel He comes to receive a kingdom which He shares with the “saints of the most high” and which stands for ever; first of all, breaking in pieces and consuming the kingdoms of the earth (Dan 2:34-35). There surely can be no doubt, except to those entirely prepossessed with other thoughts, that this is a kingdom yet to be set up. To speak of the saints reigning now is a thought utterly foreign to Scripture. It is to the overcomer that the Lord promises that he shall sit with Him on His throne, even as He also overcame and is set down with His Father upon His throne (Rev 3:21). Who could sit with Christ upon the Father’s throne? And notice He is speaking in this promise as Son of man; walking in that character among the candlesticks (Rev 1:13). If Christians “reign as kings without” the apostles, (who certainly never did) it is a rebuke simply to mention it (1Co 4:8).

Thus the Kingdom in Daniel is the Kingdom for which still we wait, introduced by that personal and manifest coming in the clouds of heaven of which Matthew (as well as Daniel) speaks, and it is when the Son of man so comes and sits on the throne of His Kingdom that the nations are gathered before Him in the manner spoken of here. There is no hint of resurrection here, and for a good reason. The first resurrection has already taken place before His appearing, for when He appears, we shall appear with Him in glory (Col 3:4). This is indeed a truth which Matthew does not reveal to us, though we have seen the living saints called forth to meet the Bridegroom. But it is a thing made known afterwards to Paul “by the word of the Lord,” that the dead saints are to join this blessed company and rise to “meet the Lord in the air,” together with them (1Th 4:14-17). Thus it is plain why there is no mention of resurrection after He is come, and that there could not be any. The wicked dead are yet in their graves, and will only come forth after the millennium is at an end, to stand before the “great white throne” for judgment (Rev 20:5; Rev 20:11-13). The company gathered before the Son of man when He appears and sets up His throne on earth, is simply of living men who have never died, and of Gentiles only.

The judgment is a selective judgment, – the righteous separated from the wicked, the “sheep from the goats.” But the saints alive or dead of the present or the past dispensations, will not (as we have seen) stand in such a promiscuous assemblage, to be picked out from the rest by the judgment of their works. The first resurrection will have separated them wholly and for ever. Raised or changed, the saints caught up to meet the Lord in the air will be already in His likeness (1Co 15:42-44; 1Co 15:52). Give account of themselves they will, and their works will be appraised for suited recompense, but personally into judgment they cannot come (Joh 5:24, R.V.). Thus it should be absolutely clear that they are not among the mingled company which the King judges here.

But a difficulty arises in the mind immediately – one of those difficulties by which, if fairly met, we are led on to fuller apprehension of the truth itself. It may be naturally asked, if the Lord thus takes away to Himself all the living saints before His appearing, how can there be any “sheep” to put upon His right hand when the Son of man appears? What are they who now are welcomed by the King, as blessed of His Father, to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world?

A similar question, it will be remembered, is asked of John in Revelation (Rev 7:13) by one of those elders whom he has seen in heaven; sitting upon thrones around the throne of God, and heard singing the song of redemption in the presence of the Lamb (Rev 5:7-10). Here is another company, distinct from these, as also from the 144,000 sealed out of the tribes of Israel, just before seen. They are Gentiles, “out of every nation and tribe and people and tongue,” with blood-washed robes and palms in their hands, and the elder asks, “Who are these? and whence do they come?” He asks, and has himself to answer: “These are they who come out of the great tribulation” – not simply “out of great tribulation,” which might apply very generally to Christians, but out of the tribulation of which Daniel and the Lord in Matthew speak. Thus they are a company precisely defined and limited, and to the very time of the prophecy before us, – a time in which, if we compare the scriptures, Christianity in the true sense of that term is taken from the earth. Once more, Jew and Gentile, even in blessing, form distinct companies; temple-worship is again going on, till the abomination of desolation stands in the holy place; it is in short that “end of the (Jewish) age,” which is nothing else than the cut-off end of Daniel’s seventy weeks, – the last week.

In it we see the “everlasting gospel” going out (Rev 14:6-7), declaring (gospel as it is) “the hour of God’s judgment” to have come; and here the instrumentality used is, no doubt, Jewish. Thus we can understand the special character of the judgment itself which turns entirely upon how men have treated the King in His “brethren,” the time being that in which “His brethren,” instead of being separate, as while the natural promises and privileges were in abeyance, have returned, as Micah prophesies they will, unto the children of Israel (Mic 5:3). Even the apparent ignorance, on the part of the righteous, of the glorious King can in this way be accounted for; because it is only when they look upon Him whom they have pierced that the veil drops completely off Israel’s own face (Zec 12:10; Zec 13:6). No wonder if the Gentiles, turned by their means to God, should not be in advance of the ministry they have received.

Thus there is fullest harmony; and we see that this last week is indeed a seed-time for Israel and the earth. Before it begins, the Lord has called His saints of the past and present up to Himself, and removed the candlestick of Christianity from the earth, spuing out, as in the threat to Laodicea, the mere lukewarm profession. Darkness then covers the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but the light begins to rise upon Israel, the morning (stormy as it is) of an unending day (Isa 60:1-22 :

There needs not much more to be said of this closing part of the Lord’s prophecy. For the righteous there is eternal life, death being for them completely abolished. They “go into eternal life,” – which is not yet said even of the Christian; and the immensely lengthened life of that time Isaiah witnesses (Isa 65:20-22). On the other hand the wicked go away into eternal punishment – the fire prepared, not for man but “for the devil and his angels.” They share the portion of those to whom they have chosen to unite themselves. All Scripture declares, with this passage, that it is strictly eternal.*

{*See for a full discussion, “Facts and Theories as to a Future State”.}

I do not know of another scripture which treats definitely of such a sessional judgment of the Gentiles as that which the Lord puts before us in this prophecy. The fiftieth psalm seems about as unique with regard to a similar judgment in Israel, when Jehovah having come and shining in glory out of Zion gathers before Him the covenanted people, and when there are, apparently, as here among the Gentiles, the wicked whom He addresses. Psalm fifty-one follows with a general confession on the part of the nation; who own their guilt in the rejection of Christ (see “Notes”). But the Lord’s words in Matthew, in accordance with the character of the New Testament generally, bring in more clearly the eternal consequences.

In general the judgment of the nations when the Lord appears is set” before us, as even in Revelation (Rev 19:1-21), as a smiting with the sword. In the symbolic language of the Apocalypse, Christ is pictured as a Warrior upon a white horse, whom the “armies in heaven” follow. The beast and the kings of the earth and their army are gathered together to make war with Him that sits upon the horse, and with His army. The beast and false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire; while those that follow them are slain with the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Him who thus manifests Himself as the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Taken with arms in their hands, in open rebellion; there is no need of judicial inquiry in such a case. But, undoubtedly, with the “rest of the dead” (Rev 20:5) they await the judgment of the “great white throne” for their measured out award. And this marks a wide difference between the selective judgment of Matthew and the distributive judgment which closes up the record. That in Matthew, being simply selective, requires but the one point to be raised – for Christ or against? While that of the great white throne, being judgment according to their works, requires the whole life-history to be brought into account. As forming no part of the “first resurrection,” the “resurrection of life,” all is settled for these as to the company with which they stand: it is of the “few stripes,” or the “many” that alone there is question.

An Old Testament prophet confirms with his testimony that of Revelation. “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says Isaiah (Isa 24:21-23), “that Jehovah shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed: for Jehovah of hosts shall reign in mount Zion; and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.”

Revelation shows us both the punishment of the “host of the high ones on high,” as implied in the binding of Satan (Rev 20:1-3) and casting him into the abyss, and that of the “kings of the earth upon the earth.” But the great assize is not then. The millennium intervenes before their “visitation” comes, and final judgment. The Old Testament doctrine is in necessary harmony with the New and with the so-called “premillennial” interpretation of it.

The Old Testament also shows us Gentile nations outside of the empire of the “beast” and his associates, – the “Latin” nations. “Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal” is neither in the empire, nor in alliance with it; and the names given and the powers connected, show not obscurely Russia and the east (Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29). Daniel’s “King of the north” is as certainly Greek, all through his closing chapters; and his position and might, which is not his own (Dan 8:24) suggest that his connection is with the colossus at his back. All these are to find Jerusalem “a burdensome stone” to them, and meet their judgment at the day of the appearing of the Lord.

But these are the banded armies, behind which are the nations themselves; and we hear of spared ones sent to them (Isa 66:1-24 : And so His Kingdom still extends, not by a sudden revelation; as we might expect, and divine power alone, but by the aid of human instruments, with an economy of that which at such a time we might think would cease to be held for miracle, instructive to realize.

Christianity, it must be remembered, has entirely passed away. The true saints in Christendom having been taken up to meet the Lord in the air, those that have refused His grace while the day of grace continued, have been given up to strong delusion; to believe the lie of Antichrist (2Th 2:8-12). These swell the ranks of the followers of the beast and false prophet; and their doom is fixed (Rev 14:9-11). But the mercy of God still finds its objects, those whom divine wisdom and love may count never to have really had the truth before them, so as to have rejected it, and to these, as well as those outside all profession; the everlasting gospel may bring salvation yet. To the Old Testament prophets Christianity is a thing unknown, and in their writings we must not expect to find it. The book of Revelation it is that adds all this to the Old Testament.

Among the nations outside of the Latin powers, it would seem that the same power of delusion will work in gathering after “false prophets,” if not after “false Christs.” The Lord warns of these in that day, as if there were more than the one special form of Antichrist which we find in the land of Israel. Satan has usually more than one device, and although never really “divided against himself,” can work upon men by deceits of diverse kinds. Thus the Grecian king of the last days, – quite distinct as he is from the more conspicuous form of evil, – is spoken of as a king “of bold countenance, and understanding dark sentences” and who “stands up against the Prince of princes.” This is usually taken to be Antiochus, or else Mohammed; but both are negatived as the complete fulfilment by the time specified for the fulfilment by the interpreting angel, “for the vision belongeth to the time of the end,” “the end of the indignation” – of God against Israel, – “the appointed time of the end” (Dan 8:17; Dan 8:19, R.V.). Such expressions a comparison with what we have had in Matthew should make absolutely clear.

How little we realize what “he that restraineth” (2Th 2:7, R.V.) is keeping back, and the flood-tide of evil ready to roll in; when in righteous compensation for the refusal of God’s fullest grace, “he is taken out of the way.” It is surely the Spirit of God as now working out His purposes as to the Church, that is the restraining power. He alone is competent for it. But the wearing out of divine patience is already manifesting itself for those that have eyes to see. The fearful “end” is not far off.

It is the “cutting off” of the Gentile church, which the apostle at the beginning distinctly threatened (Rom 11:21-22), and thus the absence of Christianity from the world when Old Testament prophecy resumes its now suspended course of fulfilment, which necessarily baffles every interpreter who does not recognize this. For he must in that case necessarily bring in what he looks for, and apply what relates to Israel wholesale to the Christian church. It must be so: for while the Church is the object of God’s favor upon earth, the Jews (nationally) are “enemies for your sake” (Rom 11:28). Christianity and Judaism cannot go on together; and the “end of the age,” the Lord’s prophecy here shows fully to be Jewish. For this to come, the Church, as well as the Holy Spirit indwelling her, must be taken out of the way; and “then” only “shall that wicked one be revealed,” who for this reason cannot be the papacy, for it will have then no Christian “temple of God” to “sit in” (2Th 2:4). Any neglect of landmarks so definite as these must work confusion as to the interpretation of prophecy.

Thus the “everlasting gospel” sent out to the nations (Rev 14:6-7) is applied without question to the missionary labors of the present day, although we may be thankful to know that the devoted men who give themselves to this blessed work, could scarcely find their Christian evangel in the words of the angel there, and most certainly do not say, what is so characteristic of the time to which it really refers, “the hour of His judgment is come.” They say on the contrary, and rightly, with the apostle, “Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.”

But upon all this here is not the place to enlarge further. We pass on to very different themes from this.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

From hence to the end of the chapter, we have a draught and scheme of the general judgment.

Where observe, the person judging, the Son of man; the persons judged, good and bad; the one called sheep, for their innocency and meekness; the other goats, for their unruliness and uncleanness.

Observe also, The manner of his coming to judgment, most august and glorious: glorious in his person, glorious in his attendance.

Learn, That Christ’s appearance at the great day to the judging of the world, will be a splendid and a glorious appearance: He will come with power, and in great glory, in regard of the dignity of his person, and the quality of his office, and the greatness of his work. He will appear as a king in the midst of his nobles, to take off the scandal and ignominy of the cross, and as a recompense for his abasement and humiliation, to strike the hearts of his enemies with dread and fear, and to fill the souls of his people with joy and confidence.

Let us therefore propound it to our faith, to believe it; to our fear, to tremble at the thoughts of it; to our hope and love, that we may expect and wait, look and long for it.

Observe farther, The work of this Judge: he shall first gather all nations.

Learn, That at the general judgment all that have lived shall be summoned to the bar of Christ: persons of all sects, of all ages, of all nations, of all conditions; having gathered them together; he shall next separate them, as a shepherd his sheep.

Thence learn, That though there be a mixture and confusion of the godly and the wicked here, yet at the day of judgment there will be a separation made betwixt them, and they shall never come together more.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 25:31. When, &c. The same great truth, that there is no such thing as negative goodness, which was shown, 1st, in the parable of the virgins; 2d, in the still plainer parable of the servants who had received the talents; is here shown a third time, in a direct unparabolical declaration of the manner in which our Lord will proceed at the last day. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, &c. With what majesty and grandeur does Christ here speak of himself! giving us one of the noblest instances of the true sublime. Indeed, not many descriptions in the sacred writers themselves seem equal to this. We can hardly read it without imagining ourselves before the awful tribunal it describes. He styles himself the Son of man here, because, when he appears as the great Judge, he will appear in the human form, and as very man, as he is, being to judge the sons of men. For by being of the same nature with those whom he judges, and having shared with them in human infirmity, he is the more proper for the office of their judge. But no one that reads this can reasonably suppose that he who speaks thus is a mere man. He is termed the Son of man, too, because his wonderful condescension in taking upon him our nature, and becoming the Son of man, will be recompensed by his exaltation in that day. For he shall come, not only in the glory of his Father, but in his own glory as mediator. His first coming was under a dark cloud of obscurity; but his second will be in a bright cloud of glory. Doubtless if his disciples understood and believed what he here declares concerning his future glory, it would help them to meet with fortitude the offence of the cross, and prepare them for the approaching scene of his humiliation and sufferings. To manifest his glory still more, all the holy angels, who had long been subject to him as his ministering servants, shall now come along with him, and that not only for state, as his attendants, but for service, as ministers of his justice. They shall come to summon the court; to gather together the elect, to sever the wicked from the just, to be witnesses of the saints glory, Luk 12:8; and of the sinners misery, Rev 19:10. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory A throne high and lifted up, and conspicuous to the eyes of the whole assembled world; the throne of judgment, very different from the throne of grace, upon which he now sits, with his Father, and to which we may come boldly.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mat 25:31-46. The Day of Judgment (Mt. only).Though the nations are gathered before the Son of Man as judge, they pass into the background in the trial which is really that of the Christian Church, unless indeed the assumption is that all the nations have become Christian ere the Judgment. For the sheep and the goats cf. Eze 34:17 ff. Note the sudden transition to the title King (Mat 25:34). Have we here another adaptation to the Parousia of a parable in which originally the King was the central figure, or simply the development of a passage like Enoch 62f.? For the test cf. Mat 10:40 ff., Mat 18:5; it even goes beyond these sayings, for in my name is not here required. The act of love is all-sufficient, yet it is in Christs name, for Christs sake, that Christians have ever since so acted. For an OT parallel cf. Isa 58:7. The best rabbinical thought placed performance of kindnesses above mere almsgiving. The visiting of prisoners may point to a time when persecution had set in. From the principle of the worth of every human being as a brother of Jesus, a child of God, laid down in Mat 25:40, have sprung all the Gesta Christi, the achievements of Christianity in the sphere of philanthropy, education, the uplifting of the despised and downtrodden, the ingathering of the outcast. See further, p. 670.

Mat 25:32. The idea is that of a universal resurrection for judgment (cf. Dan 12:2).

Mat 25:34. prepared for you implies foreknowledge and election (cf. Mat 20:23), yet the following verses assume human responsibility.

Mat 25:40. This picture of the Messiah as full of human love and sympathy is unknown to the warrior-king of Jewish Apocalyptic.

Mat 25:41. The punishment of fire (cf. Mat 3:10) is not prepared for you, but for the wicked angels.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 31

In his glory; to judge the world at the last day.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

25:31 {3} When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

(3) A graphic setting forth of the everlasting judgment which is to come.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

7. The King’s judgment of the nations 25:31-46

Jesus concluded the Olivet Discourse with further revelation about the judgment that will take place at the end of the present age when He returns. He had referred to it often in the discourse, but now He made it a special subject of explanation. This judgment will occur when the King returns to earth at the end of the Tribulation to set up His kingdom. [Note: See Eugene W. Pond, "The Background and Timing of the Judgment of the Sheep and Goats," Bibliotheca Sacra 159:634 (April-June 2002):201-20.]

As we have seen, Matthew stressed judgment in his Gospel (Mat 3:12; Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5; Mat 6:16; Mat 7:24-27; Mat 13:30; Mat 13:48-49; Mat 18:23-34; Mat 20:1-16; Mat 21:33-41; Mat 22:1-14; Mat 24:45-51; Mat 25:1-12; Mat 25:14-30). This is not unusual since the Old Testament predicted that judgment would precede the messianic kingdom, and Matthew emphasized the kingdom. It is not surprising, therefore, that Jesus concluded this discourse that reveals events leading up to the inauguration of the kingdom by explaining the judgment that will precede it.

The New Testament teaches that there will be two distinct judgments relative to the kingdom. Many scholars believe there will only be one general judgment at the end. [Note: E.g., Kik, pp. 92-97; Lenski, pp. 986-88; Tasker, p. 238; M’Neile, p. 369; France, The Gospel . . ., p. 959; and Shepard, pp. 528-29.] Most of these are amillenarians, but some premillenarians believe this as well. [Note: E.g., Alford, 1:254.] One of these judgments will occur just before the messianic kingdom begins and another will follow at its end. The one at the end is the great white throne judgment when God will send all unbelievers to hell (Rev 20:11-15).

Some differences between these two judgments indicate their distinctness. First, the first judgment will not involve a resurrection of unbelievers but will deal with unbelievers alive then on the earth. The word "nations" (i.e., Gentiles, Gr. ethne) never refers to the dead elsewhere in Scripture. [Note: Peters, 2:374.] The second judgment will involve a resurrection of unbelievers. Second, the first judgment will involve three different kinds of people: the sheep, the goats, and Jesus’ brethren. The second will involve the wicked (Rev 20:13-15) and possibly the righteous who have died during the Millennium. Third, the first will result in some inheriting the kingdom and others getting eternal punishment, but the second will result in the wicked judged going into the lake of fire. Fourth, the first happens at the beginning of the messianic (millennial) kingdom, but the second happens at its end. [Note: Cf. Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 288-89.]

This pericope rounds off Jesus’ instructions about the future in a way similar to how Mat 10:40-42 completes Jesus’ charge concerning His apostles’ mission in Israel (Mat 10:5-42). It is the parable of the sheep and the goats. Some writers have argued that this is not a parable. [Note: E.g., Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 200; and Carson, "Matthew," p. 518.] However most have dealt with this section as a parable in the looser sense of a lesson.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

This verse fixes the time of the judgment described in the following verses at the beginning of Jesus’ messianic reign (cf. Dan 7:9-14; Dan 7:22-27). Nowhere in this discourse did Jesus explicitly identify Himself as the Son of Man. However, since He used that title in answer to the disciples’ questions in Mat 25:3, the inference is inescapable (cf. Zec 14:5; Joe 3:1-12). Jesus becomes the eschatological Judge that the Old Testament identified as God. Jesus again referred to His coming with heavenly glory (Mat 16:27; Mat 24:30; cf. 1Th 4:16; 2Th 1:8). Jesus will sit on His earthly throne as Judge and King (cf. Mat 28:18; 1Co 15:25; Heb 12:2).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)