The judgement of God

“Fire and brimstone preachers”. People often raise this image with me. Even though I doubt many people today have experienced it, I think it’s a way of saying that we’ve heard enough about judgement and we want to focus on the positive.

I think we need to discuss the judgement of God. It matters. Why?

1) Salvation makes no sense without it.

2) Without it there is no justice

3) Without the judgement of God there is no affirmation of what is good.

4) It shows how seriously God takes our choices and the position of honour He gave us

So how does God judge?

1) Death
In Genesis 3 we are told that the choice to rebel would lead to death. In God’s mercy this was not immediate, yet everyone born of Adam is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1-2) and will one day die physically. We were not created to die but to enjoy God’s rest. Death is part of God’s judgement.

2) Immediate consequence

There are times in the Bible when God responds to sin by an immediate judgement.

Two examples are Herod (Acts 12:21-23) and the Christians in Corinth (1 Cor 11:20-30). This is what we would expect but God in His mercy withholds.

3) Final judgement

God’s kindness, tolerance and patience (Rom 2:1-4) can only last so long. God has set a day when He will judge the whole earth (Acts 17:31). This day of judgement is called the “last day” (John 6:39) or “that day” (Is 10:20-23, Joel 1, Amos 5:18-20).

God will stop history and call everyone to give an account of their lives and conduct (Dan 12:1-13, Rev 20:11-15). No-one is exempt and every wrong is accounted for.

4) Christ takes our judgement

There is a cup of God’s anger that is ready to be poured out (Ps 75, Is 51:17-23, Jer 25:15-29). This is what we must drink on the last day.

But in the garden of Gethsemane we learn that Jesus is going to drink this cup for us (Mark 14:36). The righteous one will stand in the place of the unrighteous (Is 53:4-6, Rom 3:21-26, 2 Cor 5:21).

Jesus takes our judgement on the cross. This is seen with the darkness over the whole land (Mark 15:31).

5) Judgement of creation

To bring about a new creation involves a destruction of the old. This is described in 2 Peter 3:10, 12, Rev 21:1. Romans 8 sees creation groaning for the new to come and the restoration that the sons of God will bring (Rom 8:19-21).

6) Judgement of Christians

It’s interesting that Paul’s ministry is carried because he is aware of the judgement seat of God (2 Cor 5:10). Being saved does not make everything permissible. God is still a consuming fire (Heb 12:28) and we will still be held accountable for our actions even though our names are in the book of life.

This sounds really scary, BUT, this judgement has an upside. It means that Christians will be vindicated for choosing the path of righteousness. It means that we will stand before God and He will declare, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21). Our ministry will be shown for what it is (2 Cor 3:10-15) and we will experience the joy of seeing those we ministered to standing in the kingdom (1 Thess 2:19-20) as our reward.

We mustn’t doubt that God will judge. This shouldn’t lead to us judging others. Instead it should promote humility and gratitude that God has provided a way for us to avoid condemnation through Christ Jesus. Knowing that there is a judgement day helps us to do good even when we face suffering for this, because we will be vindicated on that day.