As Judge

by George Prasher, Manchester England | Category: The Excellencies Of Christ | Aug 1990

How thankful we should be that God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him! The Lord Jesus Himself said:

And if any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to jud2e the world. but to save the world (John 12:47).

God has, however, appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained, our Lord Jesus Christ:

and the certainty of this has been confirmed by the Lord's resurrection from the dead. The Lord Jesus Himself said:

For neither doth the Father judge any man. but He hath given all judgement unto the Son; that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father (John 5:22,23).

So the Lord Jesus will be the executor of all divine judgement.

Let us think for a moment about one of the Lord's most reassuring promises. It can be found in John 5:24:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life.

We trust that each one of us who has accepted Christ as Saviour is resting thankfully in the assurance of this wonderful promise. It confirms the

finality of our salvation from the judgement of G~ When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ we passed out of death into life. Because His sacrifice at Calvary for our sins was perfectly completed, each believer is saved from the wrath of God through Him.

But are not all believers told in the epistles to the Romans and to the Corinthians that we must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ? Yes that is so, but we must distinguish between that judgement and the judgement to be experienced by the unbeliever. The reference to the judgement seat of Christ in Romans 14:10 is in relation to the believer's attitude to his brethren - the possibility of wrongly judging another's actions or motives. "Why dost thou judge thy brother?", Paul asks, and then he solemnly reminds us that, "We shall all stand before the judgement seat of God", inferring that these are things that should be left to the Lord to judge.

There is a similar emphasis in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, where the apostle discusses our stewardship of the truths of the Faith:

Wherefore judge nothing before the time. until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall each man have his praise from God (v.5).

It will be realized of course that there are other matters upon which disciples of the Lord Jesus are responsible to form a judgement, such as the need to discipline an evildoer as in the Corinthian Church (see 1 Cor. 5:1-13).

So the believer's appearing before the judgement seat of Christ will be for the assessment of his service, to receive the things done in the body. according to what we have done whether it be good or bad. Referring to his own service Paul wrote:

I have kept the Faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give to me at that day (2 Tim. 4:7,8).

When will "that day" be? We would understand that believers of this age will appear before the judgement seat of Christ immediately following His coming to the air to take His saints from the world. This seems to be confirmed in Revelation chapter 19 where we read:

The marriage of the Lomb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine line, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints (vv. 7,8).

From which it would seem that the saints of this present dispensation will have already been before the judgement seat of Christ. Their works have been assessed by Him, their righteous acts are seen as fine linen, bright and pure.

Following this, the Lord Jesus is portrayed as King of kings and Lord of lords, coming to earth to take His great power and reign. The nations of the earth will at that time be judged by Him, as illustrated in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Mat: 25:31-46).

The final great assize will not take place until the end of His thousand year reign: That will be at the awesome judgement of the Great White Throne as described in Revelation chapter 20. All who have not shared in the earlier phases of resurrection will then be raised from the dead to be judged by Him there. The great and the small will stand before the Throne. They will be judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works - marvellous divine records of myriad human lives! Another book too will be opened - the book of life. We understand that many standing before the Great White Throne for judgement will find their names written in the book of life. For millions have lived and died without heating the gospel of Christ: Among them are many such as are described in Romans chapter 2 who "by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption. They will be judged according to their works because these reflected spiritual light was available to them. Their guilt as sinners before God will be covered by Christ's work at Calvary. On this ground their names will be found in the book of life.

But unto them that are factious. and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul that worketh evil (Rom. 2:8,9).

So wrote Paul as he discoursed on God's dealings with men. The word of God solemnly confirms that at the judgement of the Great White Throne:

Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14,15).

We naturally recoil from the thought of such fearful judgement: But we realize that the One who sits upon the Throne, from whose face heaven and earth flee away, is the same One whose face was marred more than any man's on Calvary's cross. All who hear the verdict against them on that day will have chosen judgement by their rejection of all God's pleadings that they should turn to Him and receive His mercy.

When we know as we are known, when we are with the Lord and like Him, we shall see everything in a clearer light: We shall join the acclaim of the great multitude in heaven, of which we read in Revelation chapter 19:

Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God: for true and righteous are His judgements (vv. 1,2).

Meantime, resting by faith on God's word, we share the confidence expressed by Abraham, when God was about to visit judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah:

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen. 18:25).

George Prasher, Manchester England | Aug 1990
The Excellencies Of Christ