Judgment

Judgment

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Big Government scooping up meta-data in quantities and in ways which we’ve been completely unaware; where the whistleblower is either a patriot or a traitor, depending upon your viewpoint and, perhaps, where he eventually finds asylum. Or, the IRS singling out religious groups and individuals, and others who had the name “tea party,” or “patriot” included in their 501(c)(4) application. Or, Benghazi – where talking points were so carefully crafted that it reduced facts to fingering an amateur filmmaker for the deaths of American citizens. Or, seizing the records of an investigative reporter on the sworn statement of a politico that the reporter was a “criminal co-conspirator” as justification for a records grab that included the records of the reporter’s parents. And all of us Christians wring our hands and cry out, “See? America is going to hell in a hand basket! Those heathens better start praying and seeking God and turning from their wicked ways and then maybe God will forgive their sins and heal our land.” Really? “Their” sins? “Our” land?

The 2 Chronicles text is what God told Solomon the night after he had consecrated the newly-constructed temple. The corollary, however, was equally chilling: “But if you (referring to Solomon) turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you …, then I will uproot Israel from my land … and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble.” (2 Chron. 7:19-21) But why would God do such a thing? Well, God doesn’t leave us uninformed. “People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them — that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’” (Vs. 22)

What if it were you, living there at that time and walking in their sandals? What if it were you who heard the voice of the prophets and knew that certain judgment was coming, and that everyone around you was oblivious to it? That everyone simply went on with their lives with absolutely no idea of what was coming. What would you do? Maybe you’d want them to know. Maybe you’d want them to be saved, so maybe you’d tell them. But, frankly, who’d listen to you? Who’d take your warning seriously? Better yet, what about your own predicament? A nation’s heading for judgment, but you’re part of that nation. So, how do you save yourself? Where will you go to find safety? Outside the country? Judgment isn’t a matter of geography, you know. It doesn’t matter where you are. No place is far enough away.

We live in such a time and place, and we’ve heard the voice of the prophets. So the question isn’t hypothetical. It’s not even, “What would you do?” It’s, “What will you do? What will you do on the day of your judgment? What if you were one of them, back then, and your life ended before the nation’s judgment came? What then? Would you have escaped judgment? No. Judgment isn’t ultimately about nations; it’s about people. The Hebrew writer said as much: “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27)  No one is exempt.

As long as there’s evil, there has to be judgment. Every sin, every wrong, every evil has to be brought to an end. Without it, there’d be no hope because heaven would then be filled with locks and prisons, hatred, violence, fear and destruction. Heaven would cease to be heaven. There must be judgment, because evil must end beyond which is then heaven. In other words, if evil entered heaven, heaven would cease to be heaven because it would have evil in it. And who are the evil? Killers; human trafficker’s; pedophiles, and the like. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of “evil” categories. But of the categories mentioned, do any of you fit into one of them? Probably not. But remember, “All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes.” (Proverbs 16:2) That’s just human nature, and we have to beware of the good Nazi. A good Nazi? Seriously? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

The Nazi’s sent millions to their death out of pure hatred and evil. In fact, can you think of a people more evil than that? And yet, do you think they saw themselves as evil? Probably not. And why? Because they compared themselves and measured themselves by the standards they themselves had created. Each, in his own eyes, was a good Nazi, a moral Nazi, a decent Nazi, a religious Nazi, and a Nazi no worse than the next Nazi. In other words, by seeing themselves in their own eyes, they became blind to the truth of what they’d become. And, ultimately, their judgment would come in the form of destruction, and their sins would be exposed to the world. Granted, there may be a big difference between Nazis and most people, but the principle is still the same. You can never judge yourself by your own standards and by your own righteousness, but only in light of God’s righteousness.

So, how do you hold up in the light of His righteousness? Put differently, which do you think is greater – the moral distance that separates us from Hitler, or the moral distance that separates us from God? Right – the distance that separates us from God. Because the first separation is finite; the second is infinite. So, what we see as the slightest of sins within ourselves appears, in the eyes of God who is absolute goodness, even more abhorrently evil than the crimes the Nazis committed appears to us. In the light of the absolute God, hatred becomes murder (Matt. 5:22), and lust becomes adultery. (Vs. 28)

So, who then can stand? Who can make it to heaven? Well, no one can stand, and no one can make it to heaven on their own, because how far would just one sin take you away from the infinite righteousness of God? It would take you an infinite distance away. So then, how far are we away from heaven? Right – an infinite distance. And how great is the judgment? Infinitely great. And how long would it take us to bridge the gap, to be reconciled to God, to enter heaven? An infinity of time. In a word, eternity. So we could never get there on our own, and to be infinitely separated from God and heaven is … well, it’s hell. The infinite separation from God and from all things good, total, infinite and eternal.

Since the soul is eternal, one way or another, at the end of a thousand ages, we’ll still exist. The question is, “Where?” And if the joy and glory of being in God’s presence in heaven is beyond our imagining, so then, too, is the darkness and horror of being in His absence … forever. Which leaves our predicament even more grave than that of a nation in the hour of judgment. The prospect of entering eternity without God, on the wrong side of an infinite judgment, is far graver than the judgment of any nation – infinitely more so. Nations are temporary; but the soul is eternal.

Let me put it this way. If you have an infinite gap and an infinite problem, what do you need? An infinite solution. Which means that the answer cannot come from yourself, or from this world. It can only come from the Infinite, from heaven … from God. Which means that any given answer, any given ideology, or any given system based on the efforts of man is ruled out which therefore rules out every answer; every answer based on man trying to reach God by reaching upward to heaven with his hand, so to speak. The answer can only come the other way ‘round – from the Infinite to the finite, from heaven to earth … from God to man. A hand reaching down from heaven. And what alone could answer an infinite judgment? The infinite mercy of an infinite love. And what alone could fill an infinite absence? An infinite presence: the infinite presence of the Infinite love.

You see, it’s not about religion. It’s about love. The overcoming of the infinite judgment by the infinite love of God. God is love. And what is the nature of love? To give. To give of itself. To put itself in the place of another even if it means that by doing so it sacrifices itself. So, if God is love, then what would the ultimate manifestation of His love be? The giving of Himself. God giving Himself to bear the judgment of those under judgment if, by so doing, it would save them. Love puts itself in the place of the other. So then the ultimate manifestation of love would be God putting himself in our place – in our life, in our death, in our judgment, in our eternity.

Jesus – the infinite sacrifice. The infinite sacrifice to bear an infinite judgment, in which all sins are nullified and all who partake are set free, forgiven and saved. An infinite redemption in which judgment and death are overcome and a new life is given, a new beginning, a new birth. The love of God is greater than judgment. There is no sin so deep that his love isn’t deeper. No life so hopeless, no soul so far away, and no darkness so dark that his love isn’t greater still.

Being religious has nothing to do with it. There’s no religion in heaven, only love; it’s the heart. And you couldn’t have been born into it to begin with, only born again into it. In fact, Jesus told one of the religious wise guys of his day that, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3) But it can’t happen without you choosing it.

In the day of judgment, there’s no safe ground, no salvation, except in Him who is Salvation. And His name? Jesus. Actually, Yeshua, which in Hebrew means “God is Salvation,” or “God is Deliverance,” “Protection,” “Rescue,” “Freedom,” “Refuge” and “Safety.” And how does that happen? By receiving, by letting go, by letting the old life end and the new one begin. By choosing, by opening your heart to receive that which is beyond containing – the presence, the mercy, the forgiveness, the cleansing, the unending love of God. Which means accepting the gift, freely given and freely received, and yet so great a gift that you treasure it above life itself – so great a gift that it changes everything else. And the gift? Well, if God is love, and love is a gift, then the Giver and the Gift are the same. Salvation comes in the giving of his life and is complete in the receiving of his life. Here’s what I mean.

Think of a bride and bridegroom. The bridegroom gives everything he has for the bride, even his life. The bride does likewise. He calls her, and if she says yes, everything he has becomes hers, and everything she has becomes his. Her burdens become his burdens, her sins become his sins. He becomes her’s, and she becomes his. She leaves her old life behind for a new one with her husband. Wherever he goes, she goes with him, and wherever she dwells, he never leaves her. He loves her with all his being, as she loves him. The one lives for the other, and the other for the one. The two become as one. And although it’s a beautiful picture of an earthly marriage, Jesus used this same example in his ministry. And in his example, Jesus referred to the bridegroom as himself, and the bride as the one who receives him, collectively the church, his body, the ecclesia, the “called out.” Those who accept his offer; those who commit their lives for his purposes.

It’s a love story, and after all is said and done, that’s what it was always meant to be … a love story. An eternal marriage for which we were all born, and of which no one was to be left out, that no one would enter eternity alone. And it begins with the receiving, with the opening of one’s heart, with the turning away from darkness to light, with the giving of one’s self, the committing of one’s life – a vow, a prayer, a decision, an action, a total and unconditional yes.

And it takes place anywhere and any place. Alone, or with others. Wherever you are. It takes place anywhere, because it takes place in the heart. But it doesn’t take place at any time. It only takes place at one time. Now.

Now is the only time in which it can happen. Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, said, “Now is the time of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2) Never tomorrow, only now. I suppose if we were talking about tomorrow it could still happen then. But only when then has become now, and tomorrow is today. But when that happens, where will you be?

And what if you choose not to choose, at least for now? Well, then you’ve chosen already. If you don’t choose to be saved, then you’ve chosen not to be saved. Your life and your eternity … it all rests on one heartbeat. So then, what will you do on the day of judgment? In the end, that’s really the only question. And no one knows when that day will come. The only thing you can be sure of is that it will come, and the only time you can be sure of is now. Now is all you have. And now is the time of salvation.

It’s a big decision. But it’s too big a decision not to make. And you don’t have to see to believe. In God’s economy, it’s just the opposite: believing is seeing. Seeing the meaning, the purpose of your life, the reason you were born. It’s the only way you’ll ever find it. Only in him who gave you life, can you truly find its meaning.

Grace,

Randy