Posts tagged judgment

Paul gives tremendous insight, as always:

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

“But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— not even to eat with such a person.

“For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13 NKJV)

Yeeeoowww! That last one stung some of you!

It was meant to.

I get it now: Jesus asked me to speak in my own words last time because He wanted you to see the contrast between Friday night and today, between Him and me.

Since Friday, some of you have lived with the knowledge that God is angry with you because you won’t stop sinning. You’ve lived with the understanding that He hasn’t forgiven you. You’ve lived with fear.

What is that about? Isn’t God a God of forgiveness?

Indeed He is, but some of you are confusing forgiveness with unconditional love. Some of you think you have a get-out-of-jail-free card because someone dunked you in their backyard pool once (Or the river. Whatever.)

Folks, if you don’t know God’s Word, how can you do it? In John 15:10-14, Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

If you don’t keep His commandments, how can you abide in His love?

What does Jesus command us to do in order to receive His forgiveness?

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

That’s it: Repent, turn away from your sins as in stop doing them, and start doing what Jesus tells you to do. That’s all.

What about all those prophecies against you?

“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (I Corinthians 13:8)

If you repent.

If not, you live under God’s wrath, and you get me prophesying your doom whenever He asks me to, broadcasting your sins in increasingly specific detail for all to see.

If you’ve got it going on, you’ve noticed that I haven’t mentioned one single sin, haven’t called anybody out today.

That’s what Jesus is offering you.

“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that,Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Yay! Don’t you want that? If you don’t have it (and if Jesus still has me on your back, you don’t have it), it’s because you haven’t repented yet.

Sin is the only thing standing in your way. You already know you have to repent, but as Paul writes in Romans 7:18-19, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

Yup, you’re gonna do it again, and again, and again, and again. Even if you repent.

How do you get out from under that?

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

What about those times when you’re so stubborn, so angry, so pained, so conflicted that you don’t know what’s right?

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

But we have to put in the time. We have to be present. We have to be praying.

I’ve already shown you that Jesus is way cooler than I am. What do you think would happen if, instead of coming here reviling me, you went to Him repenting of the sins you understand, asking Him to show you the sins you don’t, asking Him to help you move forward. What would happen if you stopped wasting time hating me and started gaining time loving Him?

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

You want power over someone? Stop sinning, and show Satan Who’s Boss.

Nobody wants to be judged, but everybody wants to be understood. Those two things are impossible to ask of anyone in this world, but what if I told you that your final Judge, the one who decides whether you’ll live or die, is the One Who understands you completely?

John 1:3 tells us that, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In Jeremiah 1:5, our final Judge tells us, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Who is John talking about? Who is speaking in Jeremiah 1:5?

John 5:18-30 records a long speech by our ultimate Judge. In it, He gives us clarity and simple guidelines to follow so that we can pass His judgment with flying colors:

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father  does, that the Son does likewise.

20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

24 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.

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Thank you, Jesus for telling us exactly what’s going on now and what will go on then. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without You, we’d still be stumbling around in the dark.

Jesus, speaking in John 12:46-50, says:

46 “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

48 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.

49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.

50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Thank you, Jesus, for making everything crystal clear. He doesn’t judge us now, but will judge us on the last day. He made us. He knows us. He feels — physically — what we’ve been through, because He’s been through it, too. If we’re going to believe anybody about what’s in store for us, there’s no better choice than Jesus.

I don’t understand how anybody ever got the mistaken idea that Christianity is restrictive. Oh, I know unchurched people get that idea from Christians. I just don’t understand how any Christian ever got the idea.

Christianity, for those of you who are now utterly confused, is adherence through faith to the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ — not televised shouting matches with political opponents.

But I digress.

How could anybody believe that Christianity is restrictive after reading John 8:3-11, which says:

3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst

4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.

9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more”?

There’s no question that Jesus is going to judge us after we die, but in this life, He gives us tremendous latitude. This life, however long it will be, is literally a grace period.

In this life, we decide what rules we’ll follow and why. We’re subject to society and to natural law, of course, but Jesus doesn’t judge us now. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

So here’s the question: Will you let Jesus save you? Will you accept the free gift of eternal life, purchased for you by Jesus’ blood, offered to you no matter what you’ve thought about doing; what you’ve done, to whom, or how often?

Will you confess that He is your Savior, as Paul writes in Romans 10:9-11 (emphasis mine)— “[C]onfess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.””

Will you trust Him so completely that you keep His commandments, as He told the rich young ruler to do in Matthew 19:16-22 (emphasis mine)?

16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,

19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Pretty simple: Confess that He is your Savior, keep His commandments, follow Him.

Still sound restrictive? Then, think on this: He loved you so much that He emptied Himself of Godhood, came down to earth, and died a hideous death by crucifixion so that we could have eternal life. Would Someone that good, that loving, ask us to follow pointless commandments, ask us to be someone we’re not?

Most of all, think on this: Would He give us the grace, time, and space to answer those questions for ourselves?

We have a good, good, unfathomably good Savior in Jesus Christ. It is a blessing — not a chore — to confess Him and keep His commandments when we let Him guide our steps, when we let Him tell us how and when someone else needs to hear the Word.

When we invite Him in, and let Him guide us, we actually have more freedom, not less. Freedom from fear, anxiety, hatred (of self and others), anger, hopelessness, hurt, and living death.

I’ve said it before: Christianity is freedom. Jesus is asking you nothing more than to come and be free.