Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “The Judging Process”. For this lesson, “we will consider the end-time judgement process with its three main phases: the pre-Advent judgment, the millennial judgement, and the executive judgment. The whole process ends with the vindication of the righteous and second death of the wicked” (Quarterly for Sabbath, December 17). It surely is Bible truth worth knowing. But in the final analysis, God’s children should never fear any “judgment”. Not because Christ bears our “judgment” or any such foolish notion. But because God’s judgment is but revealing the truth of things. The truth about Himself and the truth about ourselves.
Are you afraid of the truth? Are you hiding from our Father, our God? Then I guess you have something to fear. But our Father’s true children welcome the truth… long to see the truth… strive to have every ugly thought, every sinful desire be revealed to our Father. The One who alone can heal all the damage done to our minds and hearts. Sinners who love sin fear exposure… fear losing the sin they so dearly love. Fear being discovered for the sinner they are.
Part of the reason for this fear is because of Satan’s spurious deception of the Son’s character… the Father’s character. Here are some of those deceptions:
· That the death of God’s Son somehow changed the Father, enabling Him to forgive us. Not so. (“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” … see 2 Corinthians 5:19).
· That the Father cannot relate to us sinners but must have His Son be a mediator, intercessor, intervener between Him and us. Not so. (Christ brings the things of God to us, not the things of man to God… see Isaiah 59. God sees every sinful thing… and He becomes the mediator bringing Himself to us).
· That the Son’s death on the cross is in-place of my death to self. Not so. (I am to follow Christ to the cross and die to self with Him there every day… and then rise to newness of life with Him every day… see Luke 9:23).
· That God is obliged to execute sinners at the end of time. Not so. (Sin kills us in the end, not our loving Father. We are to fear sin, not fear Him… see Romans 6:23).
· That God punishes His perfect Son instead of rebellious you, and we keep calling this “justice”. Not so. (True “Justice” is holding the guilty party responsible… you and me… we die with the Son, He dies with us… He shares our death so that we can share His endless life… see Exodus 32: 30-33).
· That the “cross” is an unusual act for God. Not so. (The cross shows us the self-sacrificing motivation of the entire Godhead and of the heavenly universe… see John 17:5).
I maintain that we Adventists still have misunderstandings of God that need work (see “bullets” above). The repetition of long-held doctrines by us is not proof that they are accurate. I maintain that the “Judgement” is not about condemnation or vindication. Not about sins being covered or Christ being our defense attorney before a very vindictive “Judge”. The “Judgement” is about truth being revealed. That the only thing that “judges” us is the truth.
In a very telling exchange with His listeners, Christ reveals what the “Judgement” is all about. Please follow the Scriptures quoted:
· John 5:22-23 – “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him”.(THE FATHER JUDGES NO ONE!!!. He has given this prerogative to the Son).
· John 12:44-47 – “Then Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world’.” (THE SON JUDGES NO ONE!!! Especially those who do not believe!)
· John 12:48 – “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” (THE “WORD” JUDGES US!! What does Jesus mean by this?).
· John 17:17 – “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (THE TRUTH JUDGES US!!!)
· John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’.” (THE VERY LIFE JESUS LIVED AND THE WORDS HE SPOKE TESTIFY TO WHO WE ARE TO BE, WHAT WE ARE CREATED TO BE. This is our “judge”. The truth of what we really value in our hearts and minds).
For so long, we Christians have promoted a “Santa Claus” kind of god (small “g”). A god who watches to see if you are naughty or nice and rewards (or withholds reward) accordingly. But this caricature of the real GOD (big “G”) and the real “Judgement” has only created nominal Christians (in name only) and has promoted outward conformity, not inward renewal. The real “Judgement” is a disclosure of who you really are inside. What you really want, what your true heart motive is. Not to punish you. But to lead you to repentance (if you will) and to give you what you really want. The truth about those who do not want the life God created you to have, is this…
“Could those whose lives have been spent in rebellion against God be suddenly transported to Heaven, and witness the high, the holy state of perfection that ever exists there,— every soul filled with love; every countenance beaming with joy; enrapturing music in melodious strains rising in honor of God and the Lamb; and ceaseless streams of light flowing upon the redeemed from the face of Him who sits upon the throne,—could those whose hearts are filled with hatred of God, of truth and holiness, mingle with the heavenly throng and join their songs of praise? Could they endure the glory of God and the Lamb?—No, no; years of probation were granted them, that they might form characters for Heaven; but they have never trained the mind to love purity; they have never learned the language of Heaven, and now it is too late. A life of rebellion against God has unfitted them for Heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire. They would long to flee from that holy place. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them. The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from Heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the part of God” (The Great Controversy pg. 542).
This is the “Judgement”. For the irreclaimably wicked it is not punishment, not condemnation, but mercy/ love.
May we proclaim and live that truth about Him just as Christ did. It’s what we are called to do and to be.
With brotherly love… and a prayer for a wonderful Christmas holiday for you all,
Jim