“I Believe”—a sermon series on the Apostles Creed
The Judgment of Christ >John 5:18-29 Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
One glorious day, God will ring down the final curtain on history, and time will be no more. Judgment Day--the Day of the Lord--will come. We have hints in the Bible as to when this will happen, but no one knows the exact time. Some people claim it will happen soon, in our lifetime; they could be right, but they cannot know for sure. Jesus said, “No one knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven” (Mark 13). Christ’s return in judgment is imminent, meaning it could happen at any time. When I was in the Army I joked that I had a “Top-Sacred” security clearance, meaning I had access to the prophetic timetable!
The Bible assures us that good will ultimately triumph over evil, and that all tears will be wiped from our eyes, but what it does not give is the specifics as to how things will unfold. Much of the prophetic passages of Scripture are poetic, filled with images and symbols that peak our curiosity--but can also, if we’re not careful, lead us to over-explain and make dogmatic pronouncements. There’ve been many disappointed sky-watchers. It’s fine to believe you have a fairly clear idea of how things will play out, but it’s presumptuous to sound like a doomsday prophet. We need to avoid 2 extremes—apathy about the Second Coming of Christ, and becoming obsessed over it. We’re told to be watching, waiting, and ready. That’s all. We need to trust the details to God. When we read the book of Revelation, we may feel bewildered. The first time I read it, I realized there was a lot to this book I didn’t know, which led me to discover why Jesus died. The basic message of prophecy is that God’s in control of history. We don’t have to worry about the future; God’s got it all worked out. We can also be comforted to know that God is equally in charge of today.
On that Last Day, Jesus will emerge as Judge. He will be sent for this express purpose. This may seem confusing, because we don’t see Him as a Judge in the Gospels. In fact, Jesus states that He “did not come to judge the world, but to save it” (John 12:47). But that’s His first coming. We read those words and feel safe…but Jesus will return. Someone said, “I’ve got good news and bad news—the good news is that Jesus is coming back; the bad news is that He’s not too happy!” Jesus came the first time as the world’s Savior; when He returns it will be as the world’s Judge. All who reject His mercy will feel His wrath. Jesus says that on that Day, “the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous” (Mt 13:49). The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son. Jesus explains in John 9:39, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see may become blind.”
“The One who judges us most finally is the One who loves us most fully” (Bueckner). Christ’s love sees us with utmost clarity. He loves us so much that He is ruthless against anything in us that diminishes our joy.
We live in an unjust world, where evil goes unpunished, and life often seems unfair. We wonder, “Why isn’t God doing anything about wicked people?” Well, that is an assumption based on insufficient information. God does things we know nothing about. And, when someone seems to get away with a crime, we can know that justice is certain. It may not be immediate, but it is inevitable…if not in this life, surely in the next.
Many people figure that everyone will be forgiven and make it to Heaven. At first thought, universal salvation seems like a marvelous, gracious thing…but as we consider the evil actions of unrepentant people, it would be unjust to reward their depravity. Should God forgive people who’ve spent a lifetime refusing His mercy? Such people wouldn’t even appreciate Heaven because of their heart attitude. Judgment is self-inflicted; it follows from the deliberate choice of evil rather than good. To them, Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “This is the judgment, that the light from Heaven has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their actions were evil…all who reject Me and My message will be judged at the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken” (John 3:19, 12:48). Salvation is promised to all who believe in Jesus; those who refuse salvation condemn themselves.
The Apostles Creed states that Jesus will “come to judge the living and the dead”. He comes to reward those spiritually alive and punish those spiritually dead. Judgment upon believers is both a positive appraisal of their service and a presentation of rewards. The Bible talks about “crowns” being given to faithful followers of Christ. This is a familiar scene to soldiers, who receive medals at awards ceremonies. The worst-case scenario soldiers of Christ can anticipate is a lack of reward. At the Judgment seat of Christ, what we’ve done for God will be rewarded, but it will also be pointed out what we could have done--the open doors we passed by, the talents we chose not to develop and use for Him, the people we could have encouraged, the acts of kindness we neglected. There may be some regrets in Heaven, for failing to use opportunities to express our faith. We are not saved by what we do, but genuine faith produces good works. A committed Christian life is the natural outgrowth of authentic faith. Luke poses a sober question to us: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (18:8).
This end-time judgment may seem kind of scary, but for all who’ve trusted in Jesus, there is nothing to fear. That doesn’t mean we’ll live a carefree existance. We who live by faith often live in conflict; we’re engaged in spiritual warfare. We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know the One who holds tomorrow. We know that at the Last Day, all troubles will be over. We believe history is “His Story”…yet we sometimes wonder whether God is working today, in the history in which we live.
Sometimes life seems quite unjust. Here in Massachusetts a man stole a car from a parking lot, then died in a traffic accident. His family sued the owners of the parking lot for “letting” him steal the car, and won. If Adam and Eve were alive today, they’d probably sue the snake! We may feel like the martyrs of Revelation 6, who cry out: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (vs 10). We believe in justice, even when we experience injustice. This keeps us from getting even. Though life may often not make sense, God is sovereign, His vengeance is sure, and His dealings with us are in love.
Because Jesus is preparing to return as Judge, we are at war. Everywhere we turn there are people bent on destroying what God created and called good. We may give in to fear about war, famine, disease--yet nothing in life comes as a surprise to God. War is social evil, a covetous sin against society; famine is ecological evil, an exploitive sin against the land; sickness is biological evil, the result of living in a fallen world (and sometimes the result of self-abuse). God is at war against evil, and it will not achieve its goals. God will prevail.
Bible prophecy is meant to give us hope that, in spite of world events, in the end the wrong will fail and the right will prevail. God will have the last word on evil; He will put it in its place. Justice will be restored, as Jesus comes to those who have suffered in a cruel, unjust world. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). In the meantime, we need to keep busy serving our Lord, waiting for His return, and remaining hopeful about our future. We should, in the words of J.I. Packer, live “packed up and ready to go, and packed up and ready to wait.”
