God’s Judgment.


We hear its immanency preached. We read about it in Scripture. The message of the coming judgment of God hits us with an almost exclusively negative and undesirable punch to the gut. But should it? When we hear the words “judgment” and “God” in the same conversation, is it right to then immediately picture a huge 2x4 with nails sticking out of it swinging in our direction?

Let’s take a walk through a bit of how the Bible talks about judgment.

There are plenty of passages in Scripture that carry the tone of Matthew here: “But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom than for you,” and “I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” And these types of passages do teach us a great message about the purity that God demands and the seriousness of sin. This is a severe problem in American culture, and any God-fearing individual should give this message its proper place in his/her life. However, a Biblical survey of the doctrine of judgment does not stop at this message. This message leads us to fear God and plead for His mercy. And truly God is a God who deserves to be feared, and we can ask for nothing but mercy. But the Bible does not just tell us that God is a God Who is to be feared. He is also a God Who is to be loved, and a Father who can rightfully be called Abba.

See these passages below:

John 5: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

John 9: “Jesus said, ‘for judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’”

Romans 5: “And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.”

1 John 4: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

From these passages we can make the following conclusions about God’s judgment:

1. God’s judgment works in two directions – to death and to life. Without God’s judgment, we would never know life.

2. God’s judgment gives sight to the lowly minded and blindness to the high-minded. Without God’s judgment, we could never be enlightened to truth in Christ.

3. God’s judgment brings both condemnation and justification. Without God’s judgment, we would never be justified.

4. God’s judgment gives grace its potency. God judges sin, and our sin makes us unworthy of God’s acceptance. But God gave us a Redeemer who God has judged to be acceptable, on whose behalf we are made acceptable through the justification of faith. Without God’s judgment, we could never know grace.

5. God’s judgment is based on our association with Christ. If He is not our Savior, then we should fear the judgment. If He is our Savior, we have no need to fear the judgment, as the Father sees us as He sees Christ. We are guilty or guilt-free based on our association with Christ, rather than our association with our deeds. Without God’s judgment, we would never be free from our guilt, and we would never know sanctification in the love of God.

We CANNOT preach judgment properly without preaching the grace of God in judgment. Judgment for the believer is actually a very glorious and exciting time! Will anything really be better than the moment when God judges us and says “well done my good and faithful servant”? Without God’s judgment, we would never hear these intimate words of acceptance.

How then shall we live?

We must never forget that judgment is a two-way street. When we remember this, it impacts our walk with God, our view of Scriptures, and our interaction with the world around us.

1. We develop confidence in Christ’s propitiation. Therefore, we develop stability in our daily efforts to please Him, knowing that these works are not what makes us acceptable. We can love Him unconditionally because of His absolute faithfulness to us in spite of our daily failures. He has already passed judgment on us in Christ. We need not strive to gain His love. Rather, we work to please Him because of the grace He has shed upon us. When we falter, it is because we have taken His judgment for granted.

2. When we read the Word, we see our justification everywhere. A page is not turned where we do not see God’s justifying grace spelled out for us. Therefore, we are constantly encouraged in our faith to keep up the good fight for the one who has loved us, even though He didn’t have to, nor did He have to provide a Substitute and Atonement for our sins. If judgment were only to be feared, we would take no pleasure in His Gospel. But we can take pleasure in Him because His judgment is good, and teaches of a life and hope that we do not deserve.

3. When we become tuned into God’s gracious judgment, we too become gracious in our judgment of others. Not that we do not judge. We are meant to judge. But our judgment is discernment between good and evil. We praise and promote what is good, and we condemn and lead people away from what is evil, in agreement with God’s judgment. We are not critical of all men everywhere. We are quick to praise, but also quick to defend God’s stated truth, and promote sanctification in our churches, and salvation in our communities, because we have responded to God’s judgment of us and wish for others to share in our glorious judgment. We walk humbly among men, knowing that we too are in need of God’s grace. We for whom Christ died. Nothing makes us more acceptable to God, as we are all looked upon by the same Father who has given us the same Christ and works through us by the same Spirit. We judge ourselves when we find ourselves more acceptable and someone else less acceptable based on the merit of personal decorum. In a world where good judgment was practiced by all men, no church would die. No church would split. No family would shatter. There would be no reviling comments on blogs. There WOULD still be arguments, disagreements, and differences. However these would not lead to segmentation, but rather true love, as our weaker love is practiced through confrontation so that it becomes strong.

4. God’s judgment allows true hospitality to exist in all believers’ houses. Since God has judged us all to be sinners, but has then provided a redeemer for all men, we are all judged on the merit of the same standard: Christ’s atonement, which God has judged to be acceptable, thereby judging us to be acceptable due to the justification of faith in the Redeemer. Seeing that we have a common foundation for God’s love, we have a common foundation for brotherly love and missional involvement. If God has redeemed that man, he is your brother, and is worthy of your acceptance. If that person is not redeemed, then that person is still your equal, as you are no better due to your merit. And he has a great need that you are able to provide. And you have a true joy, given by Christ, that reveals the quality of your redemption. Let it shine in the darkness! True Christian hospitality is hard when we are not consumed with Christ. Some have a special gift for hospitality, and profitable communion just seems natural to them. But we are all given grace, which is the basis for deep relationship. What we need is not more dinners or conversation pieces. What we need is more of Jesus and more involvement in people’s lives on a spiritual level. Christian brotherhood does not exist to give more substance to our conversations about the weather, but to give more substance, abundance, and guidance to our walks with God. We can, because of God’s judgment, fellowship with people on a deeper, more personal level than we do now. We are all part of the fallen world that God is in the business of redeeming. We all naturally have something in common, and this is often the hard part of being hospitable-finding something in common to commune about. Like I said, we need to be consumed with Christ. Then we will see how we cannot so easily run out of things to talk about. And we musn't forget that hospitality is not all about talking. It's about serving. It's about others. Hospitality is essentially practical Christianity. It is where theology hits our hands. It's about opening up our livelihood to others, resembling God opening up His Kingdom for us. We make a place for others where they can feel accepted and at home, as God does for us. But in order to do that, we must agree with God's judgment. In order to really feel like that are worthy partakers of our livelihood, we must see others as God sees them. No more lost than we were, and no less acceptable than we are. Loved, cherished, and sought out. God loves us not because we are lovable, but because it is His character to love. And He passes that character on to us as we are progressively sanctified.

I hope this brief perspective on judgment is helpful. It’s part of the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be preached apart from judgment. It is involved in any profitable and Biblical discussion of our sin and our Savior, both of which should be as much of a center piece in our lives as the TV is in our living rooms (ok, that was a little sarcastic). Truth be told, we cannot really live without having a proper understanding of judgment.