The Righteous Judge
The Righteous Judge
"The rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He." (Dt 32.4)
From time-to-time, I encounter Christians who believe and feel (usually deeply!) that they have been treated unjustly by and in the Church. Such experiences are usually distressing, because of the pain such people are in...and also because, often any kind of remedy seems distant, if not impossible.
Added to these already considerable difficulties, is the fact that my own personal conviction (and thus counsel!) in such cases, is that Believers who seek justice from men, will obtain man's justice. Whereas, those who ask God for a verdict and redress, will receive a remedy which is both holy and divine. However...it may take seemingly "forever" to obtain! That's the high-hurdle for many people.
Justice is usually slow concerning matters outside the Church, because up until the Last Day, God is permitting "both (tares and wheat) to grow together until the harvest...(at) the end of the age." (Mt 13.24-30, 36-43) That is when the two are finally "separated", which is the root meaning of "judgement" in the Bible.
Inside the Church, justice is also often ponderous because we are told to "not go on passing judgement before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts". (1 Co 4.5)
It is both reasonable and fair to say therefore, that justice is often hard to come by (both inside and outside the Church) at the present time because of the mercy of God. And that He restrains His judgement (withholding both punishment and reward) in favour of unrelentingly offering mercy and the possibility of (last-minute?) redemption.
(NB "Mercy" is not being kind or giving someone "a break"! It is the conscious reduction or lessening of the legitimate and fitting punishment for sin or a crime!)
"Mercy triumphs over judgement." (Jas 2.13)
So, are we naive to cry out to God for justice, and then wait for His reply? Not in the least...for such faith honours God, and He always honours such faith, which is clearly spelt out in both Scripture and Creed:
"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." (Ac 10.42)
"Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead." (2 Ti 4.1)
"They will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." (1 Pe 4.5)
"I believe...He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead." (The Nicene Creed, 325)
The Early Church accepted and consciously lived in this light:
"Do not complain (groan, grumble) brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door." (Jas 5.9)
But has this sense of the nearness of the Judge and His justice faded in our "modern" days, and if so, why? I believe that it has, mainly because of the phony notion that Christians pass through the judgement of God when they repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation. Indeed, a passable Biblical argument can be made for this view, but it is thoroughly shipwrecked upon the very word of God itself:
"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 judgement seat of God...So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God." (Ro 14.10-12)
"For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Co 5.10)
By seeking an imagined short-cut into the Kingdom of God which deletes all reference to our having to render a final account to the King (face-to-face), we actually deprive ourselves of the prospect of justice and reward.
In some instances, justice can be swift...but in most, seemingly "plodding"?
"The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgement; for others, their sins follow after (following the offender to the bar of judgement and coming into view there)." (1 Ti 5.24)
But of its eventual arrival we may be as confident as we are of the Righteous Judge's Return:
"Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly." (Lk 18.6-8)
"The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation (trial), and to keep the unrighteous (unjust) under punishment for the day of judgement." (2 Pe 2.9)
So, what may be said and anticipated of that Day, described by the Prophet Malachi, as "great and terrible" (4.5)?
(i) Our Judge is just. By this we mean and believe that His every decision will be and be seen to be perfect...everything wrong will be put absolutely right! But not only is Jesus "a God without injustice", He is also our Saviour...in Him judgement is perfected and made complete and whole by mercy! But this mercy is not the result of some subjective emotion. It was wrought and won for us through the awful sufferings of His finished work upon The Cross.
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Co 5.21)
As the Reformed scholar-prophet, Karl Barth (1886-1968) of Switzerland, has so succinctly set forth: "The Judge who puts some on the left and others on the right, is in fact He who has yielded Himself to the judgement of God for me and has taken away all malediction from me...There is a decision and a division, but by Him who has interceded for us."
Finally, in our Lord Jesus Christ are harmonized justice and mercy; miraculously both the unjust and their "victims" obtain complete satisfaction from The One who alone is "Holy, Holy, Holy."! (Rev 4.8)
(ii) There is a clear "downside" to this Day of Judgement. It is not only the time for separating the quick ("born again") and those dead ("in trespasses and sins"). It is that time when "the wheat and chaff" which together compose our own individual lives...are suddenly, publicly and irrevocably disentangled and divorced!
"Now if any man builds on the foundation (which is Jesus Christ) with...wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire...if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Co 3.12-13 & 15)
"The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple...He is like a refiner's fire...He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." (Mal 3.1-3)
(iii) But there is also an obvious "upside" to The Day, which tragically is usually obscured by our collective eagerness to fashion for ourselves a consequence-less Christianity. For some Believers the result of judgement is "loss"...while for others:
"If any man's work which he has built on it (the foundation of Jesus Christ) remains, he will receive a reward (payment for his labour)." (1 Co 3.14)
The great Paul was in no doubt that his walk of faith and life of obedience would one day be honoured and compensated:
"(When) the Lord comes (He) will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise (applause) will come to him from God." (1 Co 4.5)
"In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." (2 Ti 4.8)
A profound appreciate of "eternal judgement" should be built four-square into our foundations. (Heb 6.2) Then, whatever superstructure we choose to build, should be formed along the following lines:
a) To act justly in all of our dealings with others. And when we fail, to be diligent to rectify our errors. Injustice does not simply expire with the passing of time; it cannot be erased with a slap on the back and a glib, "Build a bridge and get over"!
"The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground." (Ge 4.10)
"Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house...Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework. Woe to him who...founds a town with violence (injustice)." (Hab 2.9-12)
b) To live accountably and thus carefully. Saying nothing, or "Whoops...that's regrettable", is not authentic repentance. Such always contains lasting penitence, meaningful reparation and reconciliation...by all the parties. Our salvation was not effected by God letting "bygones be bygones" with the passing of time:
"Now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace." (Eph 2.13-14)
"Bear fruits in keeping with repentance." (Lk 3.8)
We have a choice; to burn the rubbish in our lives ourselves today! Or wait until The Day, for a very public and humiliating incineration!
"But if a man's (life's) work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire." (1 Co 3.15)
c) To work hard to earn a reward. Modern Christianity often seems to exists suspended between the two poles of drifting listlessly along with "majority", or a madcap, selfishly ambitious drive to be "up front" and/or "on top"! Neither leads to the "reward" (payment for labour) of "the crown of righteousness". This is not a kingly crown, but the wreath (woven of leaves and flowers) awarded to winning athletes. And I personally hold the belief that every Christian who completes the "race" of faith mapped out for them by Jesus, "wins" the race and receives a "crown", which is their reward.
"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith." (Heb 12.1-2)
"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize (victor's garland). Run in such a way that you may win." (1 Co 9.24)
Now, either this verse is phenomenally cruel...or it means that every Believer who runs and completes his race will win his reward.
Hence the Lord Jesus will have cause at the end of this Age to make it abundantly clear to some of His servants that "the race is not to the swift" (the flashy, "successful", popular), but the obedient! (Ecc 9.11)
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness (iniquity, wrongdoing).' " (Mt 7.22-23)
Tragically, I do believe that some of those "ministries" which have been feted and flocked to in our own time will "burn" at The End. And others which have struggled and apparently "failed" in ecclesiastical obscurity and abnegation, are going to be lauded and rewarded by Heaven and in Eternity. Nevertheless, there is still time. Our eternal destiny does not become irrevocable until The Day,
"I strain to reach the end of the race, and receive the prize for which God through Jesus Christ calls us upward." (Php 3.14)
"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first." (Mt 19.30)
