Commentary on Matthew (surviving edition contents) — Historical footnotes

“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His own Father with His angels.” Now, indeed, the Son of man has not come in His glory; “for we saw Him, and He had no form nor beauty; but His form was dishonoured and defective compared with the sons of men; He was a man in affliction and toil, and acquainted with the enduring of sickness, because His face was turned away, He was dishonoured and not esteemed.” And it was necessary that He should come in such form that He might bear our sins and suffer pain for us; for it did not become Him in glory to bear our sins and suffer pain for us. But He also comes in glory, having prepared the disciples through that epiphany of His which has no form nor beauty; and, having become as they that they might become as He, “conformed to the image of His glory,” since He formerly became conformed to “the body of our humiliation,” when He “emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant,” He is restored to the image of God and also makes them conformed unto it.