Understanding Divine Judgment Through Christ's Sacrifice

god the father judges the world through jesus christ the god man sharing that judgment in appropriate ways with apostles and christians and with the confirming indictments of sin and truth so that's the sentence that answers the question as i see all the pieces going together but before i give the building blocks and unpack those pieces let me say why i think this is worth talking about i mean i think this is really important and the reason is because every single human being i just think of the listeners right now every single individual listening to our voices will be held personally accountable before the maker of the universe for the way each of us has responded to the measure of revelation that each of us has concerning god concerning his ways in the world and for the way we have lived our lives including our attitudes and our words and our actions in response to the witness of god in nature in scripture in our own conscience which is just another witness to god's reality we will all stand before the judgment seat of god paul says in romans 14 10. [00:01:19]

there are biblical passages that say plainly that god judges the world the father judges the world first peter 1 17. if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds conduct yourselves in fear throughout the time of your exile so there it is clear the father judges impartially all of us or romans 3 5 what shall we say that god is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us by no means for how then could god judge the world so that's the first building block the father judges the world here's the second one you have biblical passages about christ judging the world so ii timothy 4 1 jesus christ is the judge of the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom he judges the world so you have christ at his second coming described as the judge of the living and the dead [00:03:16]

god the father judges through god the son the god man christ jesus and the new testament expresses that relationship between the father and son in different ways for example luke in the book of acts expresses it by saying god appointed christ to be the judge of the world acts 10 42 christ is the one appointed by god to be the judge of the living and the dead same thing in acts 17 verse 31 god has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance by raising him from the dead that's about the clear statement you could get of god judges by a man christ jesus so god through jesus christ [00:05:10]

besides the judgment of the world through the father and the son the new testament also speaks of the involvement of the apostles and the saints in the judgment of the world this is really amazing for example jesus says to the 12 apostles in matthew 19 28 truly i say to you in the new world when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne you who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel and then paul says in first corinthians 6 verses 2 and 3 to the church the whole church he says do you not know that the saints that is all christians will judge the world and if the world is to be judged by you are you incompetent to trust trivial cases here now do you not know that we are to judge angels how much more then matters pertaining to this life [00:07:53]

to be part of christ's people by faith simple childlike trust in the infinitely worthy christ to be part of christ's people part of his body his bride is to be part of his rule that's what he said part of his rule which includes part of his judgment so if we sit with his with him on his throne in some sense sharing in his rule we then share in his judgment just like paul said now there are two more building blocks in that sentence that i gave so besides god christ apostles christians listen to the way jesus describes the judgment in john 3 19. this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil in other words it is our own sin our own love of darkness which will be our judge at the last day [00:10:28]

the one who rejects me jesus says the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge the word that i have spoken will judge him on the last day in other words at the last judgment the truth that jesus spoke and that we knew and did not follow will rise up as our judge so the truth and our sin will also be our judges now let me draw in one last cluster of a different kind of building block to use when when we're building our biblical theology of divine judgment there are not only uh six judges so to speak god christ apostles christians truth sin there are at least six meanings of the word judgment and we should ask each time we're talking about it which one are we talking about [00:11:13]

judgment is an expression of the highest and final authoritative decision about our destiny by god romans 3 6 judgment is an expression of the immediate execution of the act of judgment acts 17 31 judgment is an act of final and decisive separation from god for non-christians that's matthew 25 32 and judgment is an act of meeting out various rewards to christians first corinthians 3 15 and judgment is an effect of truth that has been believed or rejected john 12 48 and judgment is an effective sin in response to truth john 3 19. so we should always clarify what we're talking about when we ask about particular texts concerning god's judgment [00:11:13]

the distinctive christian reality is that god's son came into the world in order to take on himself the judgment that we deserve when he died on the cross so that these words from um john i mean from jesus in john would be gloriously true he said truly truly i say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come in to judgment but has passed from death to life that's the distinctive christian message [00:14:34]