A Shepherd’s Musings: Week 11 – God is Judge

Having considered that God is righteous and just, we come to the truth that He is judge.  Scripture makes God’s authority as judge absolutely clear in the following two passages:

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10b-12 ESV)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV).

Every person will someday stand before God as judge.  What will He be like?  Biblical theologian J. I. Packer summarizes God’s characteristics as judge by pointing out the following:

1. God, as judge, has all authority,

2. God, as judge, is purely good and completely righteous.

3. God, as judge, is a person of wisdom, He is omniscient, and

4. God, as judge, has the power to execute every sentence (Knowing God – pg. 138–147).

Therefore, we can conclude that no person will be outside the jurisdiction of God’s good and righteous judgment, that nothing will be hidden from Him in making judgment, and that nothing can hinder him in carrying out His sentencing as an all-powerful being.

Again we turn to the Psalms where we see God and man in relationship.  This time the Psalmist is praising God as the coming king and perfect judge:

Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness (Psalm 96:10-13 ESV).

Are you prepared to stand before your judge?  Will you be rejoicing like the heavens and earth? Or will you want to hide and flee in fear and trepidation?

The Lord Jesus Christ through a story illustrated the attitude needed to love and look forward to the coming judge:

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13-14 ESV).

Are you humbly looking for God’s mercy or are you trying to offer up your own self-righteousness?  How you answer this question will effect how you spend all of eternity.

With Prayer, Mark                                                                                         © March, 2011

Selected Verses on God as Judge
ESV – Emphasis added

Genesis 16:5,  And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”

1 Samuel 24:15,  “May the LORD therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.”

Psalm 7:11, God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

Psalm 50:6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah

Psalm 75:7, “But God is the judge:  he puts down one, and exalts another.” NKJV

Ezekiel 18:30,  “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.”

Acts 10:38-43, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

2 Timothy 4:1, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

2 Timothy 4:8,  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Hebrews 10:29-31,  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 13:4,  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Revelation 6:10,  They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”