Friday 7 March 2014

Read: Matthew 25:31-33, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Jesus is Judge

There is an almost sure fire way of making some big mistakes when we are thinking about God. When people think about God this way they often end up with crazy and distorted ideas about how He treats people, end up applying their ideas in dangerous ways and even discard whole parts of the Bible. What is this sure fire way? Elevating certain attributes of God over others.

Think of this example. When we emphasise God's love over and above His holiness and justice we end up with a God who just ignores sin and rebellion and allows everyone into His presence regardless of what they have done. Have you seen this kind of teaching recently? This God seems to be terribly cruel when we consider that He sent His own son to die on the cross when He was just going to ignore sin anyway.

On the other hand, if we emphasise God's holiness and justice over and above His love we end up with a cruel, fearful God who can never be truly satisfied. We would have to throw out vast chunks of our Bible in order for it to make any sense at all. We might even end up becoming legalistic and imposing harsh rules which aren't biblical in an attempt to appease this angry God. Have you heard teaching like this?

If we want to have a right view of God we must understand all His attributes together and in balance.

This principle holds true also in our study of God the Son. This week we have studied His deity as God, His power as creator, His humility as a man and His grace and love as our Saviour. We must be careful, however, not to elevate these aspects of God the Son over and above the other things that we learn about Him in Scripture. You see Jesus is not just gracious, loving and humble. He's not just a cuddly fellow that we can lean on for love, comfort and support (not that He doesn't provide us these things). He is also a just, powerful and righteous judge.

Jesus Himself tells us about His role as judge in Matthew 25. Jesus tells us that one day He will return in glory. This won't be baby Jesus meek and mild, this will be King Jesus returning in splendour and glory. He will be escorted and praised by all the angels and He will take up His rightful position on the throne. All the nations will be gathered before Jesus on that day and He will judge each and every person. Jesus will separate the righteous from the unrighteous in the same way that a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Those who are righteous, those who put their faith in Christ and whose faith is proved by the fruit in their lives, will go to eternal life with Him. Those who are unrighteous will receive the only just punishment for sin against an all powerful, eternal God: eternal punishment in hell.

We see here that Jesus is not only gracious and loving as our Saviour, He is also just and righteous and cannot ignore the horror of sin. He will demonstrate this justice and righteousness when He returns to judge everyone who has ever lived.

How many people do you know who will face judgment on that day totally without hope? How many of your friends and family will be rightly punished for their unrighteousness and rebellion against God? Who in your life needs to hear the good news about Jesus our Saviour so that they might put their faith in Him?

It is not only non-Christians who will face the judgment seat of Christ. In fact, every person who has ever lived will face Him on that day. Paul reminds the Christians in Corinth of this fact in 2 Corinthians 5:10 but he does not remind them to make them afraid or to invoke some kind of guilt based righteousness. Rather he talks about the confidence that we can have knowing that to die is to be with the Lord. The person who has faith in Christ does not need to fear that day because their punishment has been paid forever at the cross.

So what does it mean to us that Jesus is Judge? Paul makes the application clear in verse 9: "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it."
Remembering Jesus as Judge should change our lives. As you consider the role of Jesus as Judge will you live to please Him today? Will you work in such a way as to please Him? Will you treat your family in such a way as to please Him? Will you live to please Him with your words? Will you live to please Him with your thoughts? Will you live every moment of your day to please Him?

Witness Moment
Make a list of all the people in your life who don't know Christ. Commit to praying for each of them regularly. Pray that God would give you an opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Keep your eyes open to opportunities and take advantage of them when they come.

Discussion Questions For Families and Groups
One of the most incredible passages on the Character of God in the whole Bible is Exodus 33:17-34:8. Read the passage together before answering the questions.

1. As a group see how many attributes of God that you can list from this passage. Hint: There might be a few more than there seems...
2. In addition to the ones mentioned above see if you can think of some other bad teachings about God which are caused by elevating certain attributes of God over others.
3. As you study the Bible what can you do to help keep the attributes of God in balance?

Prayer:
Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration: 

Confession: 

Thanks:

Supplication:

• Pray for the ministry of evangelism in your church. Pray that each congregation member would be filled with a passion and a heart for the lost. Pray that God would give each person courage to take advantage of every opportunity they have to share with others. Pray that you too would have a passion for the lost and to share the wonder of what Christ has done.
• Pray for all the married couples in your congregation. Pray that God would encourage them and strengthen them in their marriage. Pray that they would grow in their love for one another and their dependence on God in their marriage.