Two Different Judgements

We continue to look into the fact that judgement is part of the Gospel.

In John 16:8 Jesus said:

“When He, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will convict the world of [three things], of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.”

As I see it, those are the three eternal, unchanging realities on which all true religion is based. Sin, righteousness and judgment. And if we ask what sin is, the Scripture says all unrighteousness is sin. So there are just two possibilities in every action and every life, sin or righteousness. And if a thing is not righteous it is sinful.

It is, in a way, easy to define what sin is. As if I were asked: “what is crooked?”, all I would have to do is hold up a straight line and say that anything that departs from that, whether by a little or by much, is crooked.

The same is true with righteousness and sin. God has held up a line of righteousness, it is Jesus. And anything that departs from that, little or much, is sin.

And, on the basis of how we have lived, whether by sin or by righteousness, we will face the judgment of God. There is one appointment that every one of us here will inevitably keep, it’s the judgment of God. Not one of us can escape.

There are two different judgments. There’s the judgment of condemnation and there’s a judgment for those who have received Jesus and lived for Him, which is an assessment of reward. But, every one of us will stand before the judgment of God. I think it’s foolish to live as if that were not so. I think, in a way, it’s unjust to the unconverted not to confront them with the reality of God’s judgment.

In what I’m going to say, if I succeed, I will paint a picture of some very terrible and frightening things that are going to come quite soon over the whole earth and all humanity. I could wonder if when these things begin to happen the unconverted will not say to you and me, “Why didn’t you ever warn us that this was going to happen?”

You see, the same person who is the savior is also the judge. His name is Jesus. It’s interesting that when the apostles presented the gospel to people from a non-Jewish background, they always presented Jesus as both savior and judge. For instance, in Acts 10 when Peter went to the house of Cornelius and began to tell them about Jesus, he said in verse 42 and 43:

“And he commanded us to preach to the people and testify that it is He, that is Jesus, who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that through His name whoever believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins.”

In actual fact, Peter put judgment before forgiveness. He said the same one through whom you can receive forgiveness of sins is also the one who’s ordained by God to be the judge of all.