THE LAST JUDGMENT

The Last Judgment, John Martin

The Advent Prayer

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; so that, at the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit¸ one God, world without end. Amen.

I wrote last week about the first of The Four Last Things: traditional subjects of the four Sundays in Advent – Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. The second of the four last things in Advent is the theme of Judgment. This is not a popular topic today but it is part of the message of Holy Scripture: the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles.

In his commentary on Romans 2:1-16, John Stott reviewed Paul’s arguments for the judgment of all people.

1. God’s judgment is inescapable. “You, therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (1-4). Many people maintain that God is much too kind and longsuffering to punish anybody, and that they can therefore sin without impunity for he will forgive them.
2. God’s judgment is righteous. “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil…but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good…For God does not show favoritism.” (5-11). What he is affirming is that, although justification is indeed by faith, judgment will be according to works. The day of judgment will be a public occasion. Its purpose will be less to determine God’s judgment than to announce it and to vindicate it. Such a public occasion on which a public verdict will be given and a public sentence passed, will require public and verifiable evidence to support them. And the only public evidence available will be our works, what we have done and have been seen to do. The presence or absence of saving faith in our hearts will be disclosed by the presence or absence of good works of love in our lives (cf. James 2:18; Gal.5:6). The basis on which this judgment is made will be the combination of what we seek (our ultimate goal in life) and what we do (our actions in the service either of ourselves or others) cf.Matt.6:31ff.; 7:24ff. To sum up, those who seek God and persevere in goodness will receive eternal life, while those who are self-seeking and follow evil will experience God’s wrath.
3. God’s judgment is impartial. “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when unbelievers who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” (12-16). The greater our moral knowledge, the greater our moral accountability will be. God knows our hearts.
4. Conclusion: God’s judgment and God’s law. The law of the commandments is a basis of divine judgment. Both believer and unbeliever have some knowledge of God’s law. No one can plead complete ignorance. We have all sinned against a moral law we have known. The point is that all human beings have known something of God (1:20) and of goodness (1:32;2:15), but have suppressed the truth in order to indulge in wickedness (1:18;2:8). So we all come under the righteous judgment of God. The purpose of Romans 1-3 is to prove that all human beings are guilty and inexcusable before God (3:9,19), and in particular that nobody can be justified by observing the law (3:20). How should we respond to Paul’s devastating exposure of universal sin and guilt, as we read it today. We should not try to evade it by changing the subject and talking instead of the need for self-esteem, or by blaming our behavior on our genes, nurturing, education or society. It is an essential part of our dignity as human beings that, however much we may have been affected by negative influences, we are not their helpless victims, but rather responsible for our conduct. We have no merit to plead and no excuse to make. We too stand before God speechless and condemned. But now in Christ God himself has intervened. Over against God’s wrath resting on evil-doers Paul sets God’s grace to sinners who believe. Over against judgment, he sets justification (Romans 3:21-26). Thanks be to God.

(Forthcoming, THE GLORY OF CHRIST: The Theology of John Stott, Ted Schroder)