Preamble
What is Judgment? This is not an easy answer. In this paper, I will try to explain why Judgment matters to God and to us. But we need to think: can anyone tell us what Judgment is? Not really, but I can tell you what it says in the Bible. One of the things we need to understand is that Jesus came into our world for a reason. Jesus came into our world to help us to really understand what the Father is looking for. Jesus’ chief mission was to provide us with “salvation” in what we are doing, over “Judgment” of us, and over the world, and to help us to save the world rather than judge it. If we understand His story (His parables), and understand His ideas of our lives, then maybe we can understand that Judgment is not as hard as we thought, and maybe it’s all right.
If we look at the Bible, in the Gospel of John 5:19-23 it says:
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. (John 5:19-23)[1]
As we read this above, what does this say to us? If you do not like the Bible as a book of truth, perhaps you can read a paper called “Is the Bible true and how can we tell?”[2] Now, as a believer, you need to ask yourself, “What is Jesus telling us?” He is the judge for all of us, and it was given to Him by His Father. How will Christ judge you? That is a question that you need to answer.
As Jesus talks to us, within the Bible, we can understand what judgment is, somewhat about how it works, and what the choices are. Within this text, there is a lot to understand. Take your time; don’t rush. If you have questions, ask them (You can reach me on my website).
At the end of this text, you may also want to review other texts in the Bible, like:
- Matthew 13:40–43: The Parable of the Weeds, where Jesus explains that at the “end of the age,” the Son of Man will send His angels to gather evildoers and throw them into the fiery furnace.
- Matthew 25:31–46: The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. Jesus describes His return in glory to separate the “sheep” (the righteous) from the “goats” (the unrighteous) based on how they treated the vulnerable.
- John 3:17: Jesus declares, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn (or judge) the world, but to save the world through him.”
- John 7:24: Jesus tells the crowd to “stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
- John 12:47–48: Jesus says, “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge them. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
Judgment is not as hard as you think. God is here to help us, and to give us a good understanding of what it is. If we can be humble, kind, considerate, forgiving, and not immovable, then we will not have a problem with Judgment. If we can help other people and to understand where we are within our sin, and we can be the people that Christ wanted us to be, then we will be fine. The more we try, the better we will be in God’s eyes.
What is Judgment?
As “believers,” one of the issues that we have is that we don’t understand what Judgment is. A believer is a person who truly believes in what Christ is telling us in the Bible. As honest believers, this is not something we are thinking about. We don’t understand what Judgment is, because we have been told that “if we do good, then we go to heaven.” Well, that is almost right. But, before we get to heaven, we need to go through Judgment first.
What is Judgment? Why do we need it? If we are “saved” as believers and even if we have not done our best, why do we care? And, when we are dead, why do we need this Judgment?
What is Judgment and why do we need it?
In the Bible, judgment is God’s “righteous” assessment of all humanity. Think of it this way: God wants us to go to heaven, but first He would like to ask us what we think as we are moving to “heaven.” As we move from our earth into heaven, we are held to God’s rules. And, in the rules, we need to be as “righteous” as He is. I can tell you that I am, and never will be, as “righteous” as God. But I can go to heaven when I pass judgment. Judgment is a place where we will meet God, or maybe Jesus as the Son of God, to understand all of the things that we have made mistakes on. This is the judgment of our souls.
Judgment is a place where we can be heard and understood by God/Jesus and then be judged. This Judgment is set by God/Jesus for us so that He can understand our “righteous” life. As we hopefully understand our life, perhaps more at the end than at the beginning, we can understand what Life should have been like for all of us.
Judgment is provided for us to maintain divine justice, correct sin, and ultimately provide salvation and closure. This is anything but a punishment; it serves as a mechanism to separate good from evil and bring believers into eternal alignment with God. God did not want to “choose” for us; He wanted to hear from us, and therefore judge correctly. This is God’s way of having to hear us, and understand all that we are.
Here, in Judgment, we are all judged one at a time. No one can lie about us and we cannot lie either. As we talk to God/Jesus, we can explain the mistakes we made and what the remedies are. When we are done, we can be sent to heaven, or we can be removed from Judgment.
In Judgment, God wants to be with us. He knows who we are and understands the difficulties we were born with and the constraints we have developed as we have lived our lives. And yet, are we living our lives with Him in mind? Do we talk to Him, and what do our prayers mean to us and to us? Do we forgive, and what wasn’t forgiven by us? As we talk to our God, or maybe Jesus, we need to talk about the things in our lives that we made mistakes on. This is what Judgment truly is. It is a conversation between two people that count, Him and us. This is what Judgment is.
But doesn’t God love us? So, why judgment?
Think of judgment this way: there is a God, and He really loves us and wants us to do everything right. He wants us to know Him and understand what He was trying to do with His kingdom. If we listen to what Christ is telling us, He says:
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. (John 15:9-10)[3]
From this text, we know that we are to keep the commandments of Jesus, and then He loves us. But there is forgiveness. In forgiveness, we have the understanding that we can be forgiven for “misconceptions,” or “misunderstandings.” However, we need to remember what else Jesus told us:
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
If we don’t forgive people their sins against us, then God cannot easily forgive our sins, and then we need to talk to Him about what this means to us.
Let me give you an example: As we move into the Judgment place, our God is there, loving us so much that we cannot even look away. His love is so great! It is Awesome! His love for us is wonderful and marvelous, and no one could ever love us more. As we are staring at Him, a simple question is asked of us, like “Why do you not like this person?” At first, we don’t really understand the question. As we continue staring at Him, we began to understand the question. After a short amount of time, we understand the question completely, and we burn with frustration because this person hurt us, they hurt our pride, and we were mad at this person. Because we didn’t like this person, we hurt them back. We say, “They hurt me!” And the question that comes back is, “And, why didn’t you forgive them?”
Here, this is not understanding the question; this is us condemning ourselves. Is there anything we can say? If not, then we are condemned; we need to understand what that means for us and for us. God does love us and wants to help us in all of the things we do. But He cannot help us if we condemn ourselves so easily. This is what we must think of as we walk through our world. It is our actions that speak the loudest. Here, judgment is God’s “righteous” assessment of all humanity. If we condemn ourselves, can we go to heaven?
Why would God want to do this?
God invites us to go into judgment, so that He can “weed” out the good from the bad. Let’s look at an example of what Jesus gave us in this story of the Wedding Banquet:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:2-14)
In this story, God is having a wedding banquet for his son, who is Jesus. Jesus is figuratively “getting” married to the believers. The Jews were invited, but they paid no attention and went off to do their own thing. This is telling us that the Jews who were first invited to the wedding banquet didn’t want to go, and thought that this was foolhardy. Others seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. This is the slaying of the prophets, the crucifixion of our Christ, and the harm it caused. “Then he said to his servants, (this is God talking to the “servants”, to His angels) ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
I am one who stands on the street corners; I am a German/American gentile, and I am not a Jew. With this statement, Jesus, through God, is inviting us into the kingdom of heaven. And, to be frank, I am very happy that I get to go into the kingdom of heaven with our Lord! Wouldn’t you?
When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. Here, the wedding clothes is a symbol for us as we are coming to the wedding banquet, we have “proper” clothes to wear. So, when you’re coming to the wedding banquet you have on God’s clothing for the banquet. Remember, when Jesus talked about clothing us all:
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:28-34)
Here, Jesus is telling us that what we wear in the wedding banquet will be given to us by God. But from above, we see that the wedding clothes are not given to this man: (this is God asking) He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ If you are “not dressed for the occasion,” then you need to explain it to God. Here, God’s “righteous” assessment of our humanity is real. He wants to know, “Why are we in the room”? Are we “righteous” enough to understand what God is asking us? Are we “righteous” enough to explain ourselves to God? If our explanation is good, and the judgment that comes from our Lord is all so good, then we can go into heaven.
The problem is that if we are speechless, then bad things happen to us. In our story, it says: the “man was speechless”. This means that he had nothing to say that could have helped him in going to heaven. The issue is that if we don’t go to heaven, there is another place for us to go. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
If you look at the darkness, you will begin to understand what “this place” is. In this place, we are not under God’s purview. In this place, God is not “watching” us, and anything can happen. If we understand this, it is the darkness and the weeping that should be the warning flags, and the gnashing of teeth means that people are mad that they are not loved anymore, and there is nothing that they can do about it.
The harm of this story is not the first part, or even the end; it is the last sentence, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” What does it mean that few are chosen? You cannot get to Heaven without being a “true” Christian. This is someone who really believes in what Christ is telling us within the scriptures of the New Testament. So, from this perspective, I am invited to the wedding banquet, or I could say that I am invited into the kingdom of heaven, but I still need to go through the judgment of my soul, and if God says “Yes”, then I can go to heaven. But if not, I will be sent to the place where God is not “watching” us, and anything can happen, even horrible things.
So, why would God want to do this? God is not going to judge us without a good understanding of who we are. But we are not slaves; we are free men and women. We can do as we see fit. But our God would like us to consider what we need to do to be free men and free women for Him. And our God loves us. But we need to understand that His love will not keep us for all times. There is a time that God will turn His back on us. That time is not now, and not soon. It is at the end of all things. At the end of the world. Then God will call us back, into Judgment, where He will allow us to go to heaven, or to “hell”.
But in this Judgment we must understand that He doesn’t want us to judge others. In the Gospel of Matthew 7, it says:
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)
Why doesn’t God want us to judge others? Because we don’t know enough. We don’t know the other person’s history, nor do we know the ideas that the other person had about anyone. From this perspective, we are not capable of judging others. In this, God would like us to forgive others and not to judge them for things they may have done wrong. This is God asking us to be more like Him than like us. If we can forgive others and not hold them accountable for their failings, then we are doing what He thinks is righteous. This is not easy, but this is what God would like us to do at all times.
When I am dead, do I care?
The question is, where do you want to go? If it is heaven, then study the scriptures, and if not, then don’t. The choice is all yours, but the end will not be. Let us look at the choices that we have:
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: “‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land! 3 The end is now upon you, and I will unleash my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. 4 I will not look on you with pity; I will not spare you. I will surely repay you for your conduct and for the detestable practices among you. “‘Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ (Ezekiel 7:1-4)
This is the end of our world. You might be thinking that if this is “the end”, then so what, you won’t be there at “the end”, so who cares? And that is true, but God is not simple. Do you remember when Jesus died for us? He was crucified on a cross. Do you remember what it says? It says that Jesus breathed his last. Let’s look:
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46)
We now move three days later, after the crucifixion, into the “Upper Room” (or Cenacle), which refers to the traditional site in Jerusalem where Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples, and where the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles at Pentecost. Here, we see this:
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:36-49)
What happened here? Did Jesus just “show up” in the room? He didn’t! God brought Jesus back to life. Then, when His people needed Him, He was put into the Upper Room. If God can do this for Jesus, can He not do this for us? Can we not be brought back to life? We can. And, because we are brought back to life, is there a time, at any moment, that we can be brought back to life? No, there isn’t. So, as we die in this world, God can bring us back at any moment He feels necessary. And this is what the book of Daniel says as well:
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)
This is why we care about what judgment means to us, because God can bring us back to life anytime He needs to. As He did with Jesus, He can “blink” us back into existence even at the end of the world. So, we do care because of what He has already done.
Let’s look at the process of Judgment
Judgment is. This is what God wanted for us and where we can understand our good life. Let’s look at another set of texts that Daniel says:
9 “As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:9–10)
One of the questions we have is who is the Ancient of Days? This is Jesus. However, this is Jesus at the end of our world. And here, there are thousands and thousands serving him. But they don’t say who they are. You might think that they are “man”, but they could be angels as well. The people that are being judged, the ten thousand times ten thousand who stood before him, are people like you and me being judged. “The court sat in judgment.” This is our judgment for what our soul has “accomplished.” “And the books were opened.” This is the Book of Life, God’s “registry” of those living, which is mentioned throughout both the Old and New Testaments. It is described as a record of those who are faithful to God and is often referred to as the “Lamb’s Book of Life”. Here, in this book, this is what we have done, and what we have not done. Let’s listen to what the Bible tells us in the Old and New Testaments:
Here, Moses is frustrated with the Israelites because they have built a gods of gold, and Moses is talking to God about it. But here is what God has to say about what will happen to these people:
31 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
33 The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” (Exodus 32:31-34)
Like our judgment, this will be their judgment as well. Here, God is mad at them and this is what He will do. But this doesn’t have to happen to us. We can understand from this text that God wants to be with us and loves us. So, if we can be good to Him, then we can go through judgment easily.
Again, if we look at the Old Testament, Daniel talks to us about delivered people:
1 “At that time Michael, (Michael is an Angel of God) the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. (Daniel 12:1)
In this discussion of the Book of Life, in Philippians, Paul talks of it as well:
3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 4:3)
Here, we see Jesus talking to the churches:
5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. (Revelation 3:5)
This is also in Revelation, but it is talking about who Jesus is:
8b “all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8b)
From the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Life is written by and for us, and we need to understand what this means to us. If we hide things, they are not hidden from our God, and they may be in the Book of Life. Do we completely understand what the Book of Life truly is? I am afraid not. However, we know it as a set of things that are required for us and our life.
Here, Daniel talks about what Judgment is for us. Is it easy? No, being judged is never easy, but it can really help us if we understand what Judgment is and what we need to do to help us on the way.
Conclusion
As we consider what Judgment is to us, we may wonder why we have Bible Study, or questions that we have about our Faith? This is part of Judgment. If God didn’t care for us, then we would not have a judgment. Death would be death, and there would not be a Heaven. But there is a Heaven, and we are invited into this Heaven. And, because God wants us in Heaven, we need to assume that we are people who are going to be part of Heaven, and I hope you are one of them. This is why we have Bible Study in our churches, so people can understand the Bible and understand what they are to do. This is also why we have questions about our faith. Questions about our faith are natural for anyone who is inquisitive. With Worship, Bible study, and Faith questions answered, our church will work as Jesus wanted them to.
We all have to do praiseworthy things that matter to our Lord, but it doesn’t have to be big. We don’t have to do something extraordinary or extravagant. We can be simple and understand other people’s lives as we understand our own. If we can do this, then judgment will be simple for us, because we want to do the right thing for others and not be a pain for those around us. This is what judgment is. Judging is a place for us to shine, not a place for us to be frustrated. Judgment can be a great thing for all of us, and we don’t need to worry. Just be careful of how you think and how you act, so that judgment will be good for you.
Judgment is not a hard teaching. But it is a warning! It can be a hard teaching if we don’t understand what judgment is to us. If we have faith in our Lord, if we understand what God is asking us to do in our world, we can be fine and have no problems at all with judgment. We need to be humble, kind, considerate, forgiving, and not unmovable. We need to help other people and to understand where we are within our sin. If we can do this, then we will be fine within Judgment. We need to be the people that Christ wanted us to be.
If you think God is the Judge, look at this: Jesus the Judge
[1] This text is taken from the New International Version (NIV) from Zondervan Bible Publishers, all the italicizes text is from the NIV.
[2] This text is taken from MallMinister.com You can visit this paper here: https://mallminister.com/questions-for-believers/
[3] This text is taken from the New International Version (NIV) from Zondervan Bible Publishers, all the italicizes text is from the NIV.