Jesus The Judge?

StuartwhitePSALM 50:1-6

At first blush our Old Testament reading starts off pretty vanilla as Old Testament scriptures go – innocuous enough in its basic description of who God is as creator of all – “The mighty one . . . who speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting . . .” He who “shines forth” as the “perfection of beauty” from “out of Zion” which in this case means “out of Jerusalem” the very heart of Israel.

Indeed the hearer of this word (remember only the priest actually READ the Torah and the people listened) – the hearer, is feeling pretty comforted by these soothing words that affirm God as all powerful and that He is indeed their God – launching each new day into being by “speaking” it into existence and then “summoning” the very earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Yes – every new day is God’s – from beginning to end – HE is in control.

But then the Psalmist shifts gears rather unexpectedly – and his words begin to sound more like a proverb of warning than a psalm of comfort: “Our God comes and does not keep silence, [rather] before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.”

Uh oh. Here are some words meant to wake us up: “A devouring fire – a mighty tempest” – they invoke an unsettling image of rage and fury – one that has about it a stern and forthright purpose that comes in the very next line: “He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people . . .”

Oh dear. There’s that word: “Judgment” – that we modern American “Christians” (would be followers of Christ) have such a hard time with. Because OUR God (inasmuch as we have defined him through the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st) is a God of forgiveness and mercy only. We can’t talk about judgment and sin and being held accountable – no one wants to hear that! That will just drive people away! We need to be forgiving and inclusive and accommodating. The days of fire and brimstone are over – we are “New Testament people now! Just give me the red letter words of Jesus – that’s all I really need!”

Well, the red letter words of Jesus – as are the one’s attributed directly to God in the New Testament – aren’t quite so accommodating to such a view as one might suspect. In fact, Joe Average Church goer (who proclaims so casually that God forgives all as long as we seek “justice” in the world) would be stricken with much of what they would find between the first line of Mathew and the last line of Revelation. If they took the time to actually READ it.

Here are a few verses that should get our attention:

James 5:9 – “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.”

Acts 10:42 – “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.”

2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body . . .”

Acts 17:31 – “Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

John 5:22 – “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.”

John 5:30 -“I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 8:15-16 – “My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.”

John 9:39 – And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

Romans 2:16 – “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

Romans 14:10 – But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Revelation 19:11 – “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges. . .”

Feeling a little less comfortable? Well, we ALL should – because (just as the Apostles Creed affirms), “he HAS come to judge the quick and the dead.”

This is, for most of us, an usual way of putting it – for “quick” is simply not a term we use much anymore. The original meaning of the word “quick” in English is actually “alive.” When a baby was first felt to move in its mother’s womb it was considered to have come to life, and this moment was called “quickening.” Of course, the original meaning of the word “quick” has now died out, but leave it to the church to continue to use a word whose modern translation serves mostly to confuse its hearers. So, restating it with its original meaning gives us: “He who comes to judge the ALIVE and the DEAD . . .”

Well, that rings a little differently now, doesn’t it? We get a whole new sense of what both the writers of the creed and scripture is really trying to say: Which is, how you stand before Jesus Christ means EVERYTHING – in that YOU WILL BE judged!

Yes, all of scripture – from Old Testament to New – indicates that our eternal future is in God’s hands –and ultimately as He receives it from Jesus, the Son of God – the Word made flesh! He who, according to the same creed that declares him our “Judge,” tells us that he was crucified, dead and buried and descended into hell that he might save all that would receive him even there!

And yet, before ANY of this salvation history becomes known in scripture, we are given a clear window into who he IS and what is going to happen! Hear now the Word of the Lord as it comes to us from the Gospel of Mark 9:2-9

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

We, of course, now refer to this event as “The Transfiguration” – a moment in which Jesus appears to have taken on a “heavenly form” and in which he speaks to those who are no longer in time and space as we know it (Elijah and Moses). He then is pronounced to be the very Son of God by God himself. And the one thing we are told in this holy of holy moments is to “listen to him.”

Not to build buildings – or attractions – or icons – or seek to honor him in any other worldly way . . . But to simply to listen to him.

But are we listening? Are we REALLY listening? Or are we trying to take our own idea of what God’s justice and mercy really looks like, and substituting it for a sacrificial grace that also carries with it the reality of judgment that holds us accountable to who God has proclaimed himself to be – and ALL that Jesus has told us!

I’m sorry folks – we can’t have one without the other – and any doctrine that preaches social justice apart from the requirements of God’s Law and Holy Word (no matter how “good intentioned”) is no less dysfunctional and lacking than “the law” itself is, apart from the redemptive salvation of Jesus Christ! Who was crucified, dead and buried and yet rose again from the dead! And if you think that’s just some “nice idea” – no more or less true as any other “instructional” part of the bible then you are selling yourself your own understanding – and not the one that scripture, history and yes, the Holy Spirit is trying to impart to you!

“My ways are not your ways!” Says the Lord through Isaiah. “And perhaps most especially when you think you are somehow doing good by sacrificing my law to my love . . . Or my love to my law . . . I am sovereign. I am God. I have given you my very son . . . Now LISTEN to him.”

In his novel, “The Last Battle” C.S. Lewis writes a heart grabbing parallel to the last judgment of God that closely mirrors that which is found in Mathew 25: 31-41. Clearly he believes that God’s Word leaves little doubt as to the fact that all of creation is ultimately judged for both the good and the bad we bring into his world. (Most of you probably remember that in the Narnia series “Aslan” is representative of Jesus.)

“The creatures came rushing on, their eyes brighter and brighter as they drew nearer and nearer to the standing stars. But as they came right up to Aslan one or other of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his face; I don’t think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly – it was fear and hatred . . . All the creatures who looked at Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow which (as you have heard) streamed away to the left of the doorway.

 I don’t know what became of them. But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan’s right. There were some queer specimens among them. Eustace even recognized one of those very Dwarfs who had helped to shoot the Horses. But he had no time to wonder about that sort of thing (and anyway it was no business of his) for a great Joy put everything else out of his head.”

Well, I would like to think that if we are “listening to him” – really listening to him – that the great joy that comes in doing so will also put all other questions out of our head . . . That in trusting him fully with all that we are, that we too might be able to live our lives as we were truly (and always) meant to be – fully free to His glory – and to the glory of His Son Jesus Christ who has chosen to sacrifice himself completely that we might have life abundant in him.

Now unto the Father, (who even now watches us) and to the Son,(who even now prays for us and to the Holy Spirit, (who even now intercedes for us in ways beyond describing) be all honor and glory forever and ever – Amen.

Latest Articles

- Advertisement -

Latest Articles

- Advertisement -

Related Articles