For many Christians today, eschatology—that is, the doctrine of the last things—is either unfamiliar or viewed as a source of unhelpful speculation or regrettable division. Eschatology is often regarded as the domain of theologians (perhaps with too much time on their hands), but of little practical value for the faith and life of everyday Christians. It is striking, therefore, that of the handful of topics set forth as essential to Christian identity, the Nicene Creed twice asserts the believer’s eschatological hope as a non-negotiable element of Christian confession. The second section of the Nicene Creed concludes that Jesus, “shall come again, in glory, to judge both the quick (or living) and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end,” and the Creed comes to a close with the words, “and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”
Though expanded at Constantinople in 381 into the Nicene Creed with which most of us are familiar, the Creed, as it was originally formulated at Nicaea in 325, focused more narrowly on the fact and purpose of Christ’s second coming, as it reads simply, “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” In this clause, the authors adopted language derived directly from the New Testament, as Peter would relate that Jesus himself “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42; cf. 1 Pet. 4:5), and Paul wrote to Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom…” (2 Tim. 4:1). In this the apostles echo Jesus, who taught his disciples, “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (John 5:22–23).
Eschatology in the Old Testament
Though there is a great deal of theology contained in these mere ten words—at least in the English translation of the Creed—there is not a great deal that was new for the early church that formulated this Creed. As the authors summarized the teaching of the New Testament, they implicitly affirm the New Testament’s indebtedness to the Old Testament. In fact, the Creed’s vision of the eschaton reaffirms many of the fundamental beliefs of Old Testament saints. Ancient Israel believed that God would one day come to bring this world as we know it to an end in a cosmic act of judgment and salvation. This conviction stands at the heart of the prophets’ eschatology, as perhaps the dominant theme of their message is the coming of what they call the Day of the Lord. The prophet Joel, for example, declares: “Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes” (Joel 1:15). Isaiah, similarly, describes this Day of the Lord as a day of judgment and reckoning:
“For behold, the LORD will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment,
and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by the LORD shall be many…”
(Isa. 66:15–16)
Furthermore, the Creed’s specification that God will judge “the living (or quick) and the dead” affirms the universal scope of God’s judgment envisioned by the prophets of old. There are none who are exempt. Though it is often Israel who is the object of divine judgment, such historical judgments, like the Babylonian exile, are penultimate anticipations or foreshadowings of this final, eschatological, world-wide judgment. The whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, will one day give an account to their Creator. The prophet Micah, for example, prefaces his vivid depiction of God’s judgment against Jerusalem and Samaria by a call for the whole earth to bear witness to what God is about to do: “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple” (Mic. 1:2). Why is the whole earth summoned to witness God’s judgment against his covenant people? What interest do the nations have in a foreign deity’s dealings with a people called by his name? Because if God is ready to enter into such breathtaking judgment against his treasured possession, what is he ready to do with the nations around them? As the author of the letter to the Hebrews offers the sober reminder: “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27).
The Creed’s mention of “the living” not only establishes the merism with “the dead,” which underscores the universality of God’s judgment, but also affirms the Bible’s teaching that God will “come” or manifest his presence in the course of human history. This is not an atemporal judgment of souls apart from the body. The NT authors, drawing on the OT, affirm that there will be a judgment of every man, woman, and child, body and soul, that is, in a state of resurrection life (Dan. 12:2; John 5:28–29). But it is not just the dead who are judged, as Paul reminds the Thessalonians. There will be many who are alive when Christ returns, and God brings this world to an end (1 Thess. 4:13–17). These, too, the living and the dead, will stand before Christ on this day of judgment.
The whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, will one day give an account to their Creator.
It is implied in God’s judgment of the living and the dead that there is a future for all parties involved. In other words, there is a consequence to God’s judgment. God’s judgment is a judgment unto life or a judgment unto death. This, too, is a staid feature of the prophetic witness. God declares through his prophet Malachi:
“They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:17–4:3)
Similarly, Isaiah declares (Isa. 66:22–24):
“For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your offspring and your name remain.
From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the LORD.
And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies
of the men who have rebelled against me. For their
worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
What is striking from an Old Testament perspective is that this divine, eschatological judgment is typically the sole prerogative of Yahweh. What the Creed brings to the foreground, following New Testament revelation, is somewhat muted in the Old Testament, specifically, that God’s cosmic judgment would be executed by his Messiah. This minor theme is nevertheless present, and may be seen clearly, for example, in Psalm 2, when God declares to his messianic king, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:7–9). Similarly, Daniel sees in his night vision that “with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” (Dan. 7:13–14a). These prophecies, of course, find their fulfillment in the Son who teaches his disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:25–27).
Jesus Christ, the Judge and Savior
The question of whether it will be God or his messianic king who will execute eschatological judgment is, of course, resolved in the person of the God-man, Jesus the Christ. God the Father has handed over all judgment to his Son, who will judge the living and the dead according to their submission to his rule: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps. 2:10–12). It is the response of the nations, here represented metonymically, with mention of their kings who may submit to the rule of Israel’s Messiah or be destroyed. There are only two choices with two inevitable results. What the Old Testament therefore intimates the New Testament heralds, that the authority to execute the final judgment of God belongs not only to Yahweh in his divine majesty, but to the Son of Man in his incarnate glory—so that the one who will judge the nations is the very one who came to save them.
When the Old Testament prophets announced the coming Day of the Lord, they did not do so to simply inform Israel of tomorrow’s news. The reality and certainty of this future day, and indeed its imminence, were announced beforehand to shape the daily lives of the faithful in their present moment. Their daily lives were not only to be lives of faith in Yahweh, but lives of hope, specifically, hope that the future glories God promised would one day become a present reality. Likewise, those who confess the faith summarized in the Nicene Creed do not simply affirm their intellectual assent to doctrinal truths, but also their commitment to the life of faith lived in relationship with the triune God so wonderfully set forth in its articles.
Those who profess with their mouth and believe in their hearts that Christ will come (again) to judge the living and the dead take their stand on the belief that this world—twisted as it is by sin, violence, and injustice—is not how it will always be. The judgment that Christ will bring is a judgment that sets the world in its proper order under the lordship of his sovereign rule. God’s judgment, often depicted in terms of cataclysmic natural disasters, will not reduce the world as we know it to a state of disorder and chaos, like those images we too often see of the devastation wrought by hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. Just the opposite: God’s judgment of the living and the dead will set the world right, ordered and at peace under Christ’s kingship (Isa. 2:2–5). To confess that Christ will come to judge is not to retreat into apocalyptic abstraction, but to live each day in the sober joy of knowing that history is headed toward justice, vindication, and the glory of God made manifest in Christ.
God’s judgment of the living and the dead will set the world right, ordered and at peace under Christ’s kingship.
There is, however, an inescapable personal element to the Creed’s claim. Though the prospect of a final judgment is understandably frightening, even for believers, the doctrine is not intended to cause terror for those who have been united to Christ by faith. The doctrine must be understood with reference to the context in which it comes. Who will come to judge the living and the dead? It is the one who “for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven, … who was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; who suffered and was buried; and who on the third day rose again…” That is to say, the one who gave himself for sinners will render to those sinners for whom he died that verdict which he won for them on the cross: righteous.
This eschatological judgment or, in OT terms, Day of the Lord, is not intended to evoke fear in the believer, but rather faith which leads to hope. The sixteenth-century Reformed theologian Zacharius Ursinus summarized this hope well when he wrote Heidelberg Catechism (1563) question 52, “How does Christ’s return ‘to judge the living and the dead’ comfort you?” To which the answer is given: “In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place and removed the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory of heaven.”
For believers, their judgment in the sense of God’s punishment of their sins has already taken place on the cross of Calvary. This is, in part, the significance of the geo- and meteorological events which transpired on that day. The darkened sun, the earthquakes, and even the resurrection of the dead were all aspects of the prophetic vision of the Day of the Lord (e.g., Isa. 24:1, 4; Joel 2:30–31; Ezek. 32:7–8), and therefore it is not a coincidence that such phenomena were observed at Christ’s death on the cross (Matt. 27:45–54). At the crucifixion, we’re given a mini picture, or better, an in-breaking of this future eschatological event. Therefore, Christ’s future judgment of the living and the dead will, for those who are united to him by faith, serve as their vindication before God and man. Many whom this world regarded as most to be pitied and whose lives were regarded as a waste will be revealed as beloved children of God whose works are of eternal significance.
Expansions to the Creed
It is both interesting and instructive to consider the expansions to the original Creed of Nicaea that were made on this topic at the Council of Constantinople in 381. These expansions flesh out some (but by no means all) truths confessed in the original words of the Creed. For example, the insertion of the adverb “again” in “and he will come again” recalls Jesus’s earlier promise: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself” (John 14:3). As surely as Christ came once, and as surely as he goes to prepare a place for his people, so surely will Christ return. Believers who struggle with doubt may find assurance in these realities coupled with God’s word of promise.
Furthermore, the contrast between Jesus’s first and second comings should bring to mind the purpose of both. What was the purpose of Jesus’s first coming? Jesus, to be sure, had much to say about judgment, such as in his seven ‘woes’ against the religious leaders in Matthew 23. However, Jesus declares, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47). Jesus did not need to come for the world to stand under God’s judgment. The world had stood under God’s judgment since the days of Adam. The purpose of Jesus’s first advent was the salvation of sinners. There would come a day of judgment, but Jesus’s day was not yet that day. Jesus’s second advent, however, will be different. There will come a day when God’s judgment will be meted out on the entire world, and no longer will today be a day of salvation.
Similarly, the second adverbial phrase, “in glory,” further highlights the contrast between Jesus’s first coming and his second. Jesus’s first coming was characterized by the humiliation and suffering of the cross. His entire life reflected the humility that would climax in his humiliation, degradation, and death at the hands of those he came to save. Born to poor Jewish parents, Jesus spent his first nights in a stable. Escaping Herod’s death sentence, Jesus was raised in the backwater village of Nazareth. There was little that this world would recognize as glorious about Jesus’s ministry. The Nicene Creed, however, reminds us that Jesus’s second coming will have a different character altogether. Far from humility, the risen, ascended, and triumphant Christ will return “in glory.” As John declares, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (Rev. 1:7). And again, “The one sitting on [the white horse] is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war… On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:11, 16). The one who once came in weakness to bear our judgment will return in power to execute judgment, and bring his people into the fullness of the kingdom he has prepared for them.
Finally, the qualification, “whose kingdom will have no end,” sets in bold relief the contrast between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Human kingdoms rise and fall. Though it is not uncommon for man, in his arrogance, to envision a kingdom of man that will last forever, such delusions of permanence have always been folly. The folly of such hubris is one of the major themes of the book of Daniel, as, for example, when Nebuchadnezzar’s dream reveals the succession of rising and falling kingdoms beginning with his own, a succession climaxing in the triumph and permanence of the kingdom of God (Dan. 2:36–45; cf. Dan. 4:28–37). When Daniel beheld one like a son of man receiving dominion, glory, and a kingdom, he tells us that, “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14b).
It is well known that Jesus’s disciples were confused about many things during Jesus’s ministry. The nature of his earthly mission, the character of his kingdom, and even his identity as Israel’s Messiah created much confusion among Christ’s earliest followers. However, they understood one thing with pinpoint accuracy, namely, the connection between the Messiah’s triumph and the establishment of the kingdom of God. The two realities were so connected in the disciples’ minds that they would ask the risen Christ: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Now, they thought, would certainly be the moment for God’s promises and Israel’s hopes to be realized. Yet, once again, Jesus’s response would surprise, challenge, instruct, and encourage his nascent church: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7). The culmination of history, the fulfillment of God’s promises, would wait until Jesus had finished his work on earth by the power of his Holy Spirit. The disciples would have to wait with assurance that Christ would return, as the angels promised: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). With these words, these angels reiterate what Jesus himself had taught, that though he must leave, he will most certainly come again. Christ’s work is not finished with his resurrection or even his ascension. It is not until Christ returns that his work on earth will come to its consummation.
Conclusion
It is significant that the framers of the Nicene Creed identify the believer’s eschatological hope as essential to the Christian faith. Such hope is not an optional add-on for the super-spiritual, but is the natural outworking of the faith that trusts Christ and believes his promises: “I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you will be also” (John 14:3). The hope confessed in the Nicene Creed has its roots in the Old Testament promises. As Israel’s prophets looked at the present plights of God’s people—whether they be the plight of sin and its curse from within or the plight of oppression and suffering from without—they proclaimed a day when God would intervene with finality and bring justice, vindication, and restoration. Encapsulated in these ten words is the hope of every Christian: a hope which looks to the future in the confidence and the conviction that Jesus will return in glory just as he has promised, and that when he does, he will make all things new (Rev. 21:5). The trials and travails which characterize this present evil age do not have the last word for those whose lives are hid in Christ by faith.
The Creed’s confession that Christ will “judge the living and the dead” is more than a theological footnote—it is a word of profound hope rooted in the promises of God from of old. Like us, the prophets longed for a day when justice would reign, when evil would be undone, when the righteous would be vindicated and the wicked held to account. The apostles proclaimed that this day would come with the return of Jesus Christ. For believers, this is not cause for fear but for longing. We await the Judge who is also our Savior. The same Christ who bore our judgment at the cross will one day judge the world in righteousness. And on that day, the cries of the oppressed will be answered, the tears of the faithful will be wiped away, and the kingdom that knows no end will dawn in glory. Until that day, we continue to pray as Christ instructed, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).