We do, indeed, speak of Christ’s future Parousia as His coming in glory (to judge the living and the dead).
But when I read Exodus 33, what is being communicated is that the Divine Glory is impossible for human beings.
The better contrast, here, is found in John 1:18, “No one has at anytime seen God”, for the Divine Nature or Being is beyond human comprehension, as we read elsewhere God dwells in unapproachable light, that He is invisible. But the passage continues that it is the Divine Son and Word, made flesh, that makes God known, “but God, the only-begotten Son, had made Him known”. This is further articulated in the many statements made later in John’s Gospel by Jesus to His disciples, “If you have known Me you have known My Father as well” “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father” “I and My Father are one”.
That is to say, the Invisible, Unapproachable, Unknowable, and Terrifying Holy God, whom no man can see, and who cannot be approached for He is Holy and we are wicked; is made known through the Incarnate Son and Word, in Jesus. So that when we behold Jesus in His lowliness, we are, truly and indeed, beholding God.
The Second Coming, indeed, is Christ appearing in glory; as opposed to in weakness. For He comes to judge, and His Parousia brings about the Eschaton, the finale of history, and draws all things into their promised telos. For when Christ comes, the dead shall be raised. When Christ comes, there shall be the renewal of all things, for God shall make all things new.
In this we also hear the words from the text of Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand on the earth, and though my skin be destroyed, yet with my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-26).
Does this text mean that we shall ultimately behold the Invisible Glory? Or is it that we shall behold the fullness of God in the glorious, returned, Incarnate Person of Jesus? In the Revelation we read of that time of New Creation where God and the Lamb are the light that illuminate all things.
From another angle: Will we ever, with our sight, behold the Father? That is to say, behold the Father in any way other than beholding the Father in and through His Son. For we do, indeed, behold the Father in His Son: Christ says so.
We see in the Dread Glory of the naked God of Mt. Horeb that sinful human beings are to tremble, fear, be afraid; for the God who reveals Himself through the Law is a Holy God, “No one may see Me and live” even “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. Which is why man in his fallen condition cannot grow near to God, but flees from God, and is utterly incapable of being justified by works of the Law. It is only through the Gospel, through the Incarnate Person, in the Works of Jesus Christ, in the Suffering and Death of Jesus, etc that we can come to meet God “face to face”–and here is our salvation, God comes down to rescue us, redeem us, and is going to ultimately bring us from death to life, passing through judgment, toward that life everlasting in the Age to Come. The work of New Creation sprang forth from the empty tomb that first Easter Sunday, and it is at work in us now as we are being conformed to the image of Christ, and it shall become full when on the Last Day God makes all things new.
I can’t help but think that the glory of the Hidden God, and the glory of the Revealed God shouldn’t be confused. The glory of the Hidden God, God naked in His holiness and glory is sharply contrasted with the Incarnate encounter with God in the weakness of Jesus, who indeed comes in glory.
I don’t know, I simply don’t think that this is the best hermeneutical out-working of the text(s) in question.
