Friend [1]

The Bible’s teaching on judgement is not merely figurative, but real. God has spoken to us about a coming judgement, in part to show that he takes us and our sin seriously. He is not an immoral or amoral God. He does punish sin. To hold to an understanding of a God who does not punish sin is most strange.

[2]

I agree – God takes sin seriously. So seriously, in fact, that He answered it through the costliness of the Cross. So why do we constantly try to undermine the seriousness and significance of the Cross by minimizing its ‘once-for-all-ness’? The objective (not merely subjective) reality of God’s judgment has been effected in its entirety at Golgotha – that is surely the significance of Jesus’ ‘It is finished.’ (What was finished? His life? His suffering? No, I submit that the thing that was finished, i.e. completed, i.e. totally satisfied, was God’s righteous judgment). THAT is the good news; not so much that God judges (although undoubtedly in some sense He still does), but that He judged, once for all; there is no unfinished work here; no judgment on humanity that still needs to be done to somehow complete the judgment borne by Christ. I’m not suggesting that there is no corresponding response that we all are individually required to make – what I’m querying is whether our emphasis on ‘coming judgment’ actually serves to rob the Cross of its full import.

I don’t know about others, but for myself – this is the sort of God whose gospel I want to proclaim!

Have a look at 1 Peter 1:17–“God who without respect of persons JUDGES every man’s work” (A.V.). The verb for judge is krino–past participle–KRISIS, which we transliterate into the word ‘crisis.’ (Krisis = judged, in some form or other).

ONLY GOD’S WAYS WORK, so that anything that deviates from those ways leads to a crisis of some sort, and the crisis is a “wake-up” call to change something, seek the ‘better way’, to repent where we realize our own wilfulness, stupidity, ‘sinfulness’. THAT IS ,to really learn from experinece, as well as from the Word, the ‘better way’ — the Way of God.

And THUS we can grow in holiness out of every experience of life. The GOOD NEWS IN CHRIST IS THAT, when we thus have the humility to learn from all life experiences– and GROW UP!–of course God forgives us! Christ died to give us such a view into the Heart of God! But if we believe that we were “saved” by the ritual sacrifice of Jesus, and so don’t need to take such “judgments” (crises) in our lives seriously –WHERE IS THE MOTIVATION FOR GROWTH IN HOLINESS? And people become sickened by our smugness — “Christians aren’t perfect, only forgiven”!!

So Yeah! Let’s do a bit more thinking about the judgments of God operating in or lives moment to moment–and give heartfelt thanks for their loving purposes, i.e. respond to GOD’S OWN HEART, revealed in Christ.