Judgement and Justice, Part 4

CONCLUSION

Do we want justice? To see right exalted and evil punished? God does. Can we proclaim with the Psalmist (45:4-7): “Ride on in majesty to victory for the defense of truth and justice! Your strength will win you great victories! Your arrows are sharp, they pierce the hearts of your enemies; nations fall down at your feet. The kingdom that God has given you will last forever and ever. You rule over your people with justice; you love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your God, has chosen you and has poured out more happiness on you than on any other king.” 

The price of justice is that punishment takes place. Imagine a world (this may not be hard) in which criminals are convicted but the judge frees them and says “don’t do it again”. Is this justice? Imagine a God who, when Hitler (other dictators are available) stands before Him says, “Well, you were evil, you didn’t repent, but come into Heaven anyway.” Is this justice? Does it show God hates evil? 

And yet, God doesn’t want to punish. He wants us to repent and live with Him eternally. Thus, “God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)! Thus, “Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Is it just that a thief dies on a cross, repents with his last breath, and Jesus says, “See you in Paradise”? Is it just that a kind atheist is punished for not believing in Christ? Hitler, a thief, a kind man. You and me! “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The difference is only the degree of sin. We all deserve punishment for our sins. Each week in church we confess our sins trusting God is merciful to those who repent. We want justice, but it traps us, too, so we want mercy more! We need Jesus, who died for sins, a good man on behalf of sinners. “Because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received. All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved” (Isaiah 53:5-6). In Christ on the cross, God punishes our sins. We are not just nodded into heaven by a lovey-dovey, dopey god. Our sins were punished. Judgement has been served on Jesus, so mercy can be granted to us. Freedom is won, for all who believe. This is our Lord. This is our God.

Judgement and Justice, Part 3

Jesus - Saviour? Judge?

We rightly speak of Jesus as Saviour. John 3:16-18 is God’s statement of intent: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour. Those who believe in the Son are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because they have not believed in God's only Son.” Want to be spared God’s judgement and have eternal life? Jesus says, believe in Him. 

John 12:44-48: Jesus said in a loud voice, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in him who sent me. Whoever sees me sees also him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. If people hear my message and do not obey it, I will not judge them. I came, not to judge the world, but to save it. Those who reject me and do not accept my message have one who will judge them. The words I have spoken will be their judge on the last day!”

Jesus didn’t come to judge but to save, to free from darkness all who believe in Him. God doesn’t want to judge us. He wants to save and spare us.

But this is only half the story. This was Jesus’ first coming. Our Ephesians reading continues it. “[God] … raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world. Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next. God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things. The church is Christ's body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere” (Ephesians 1:19-23).

No longer suffering Saviour, He rules over all. Every knee will bow and tongue confess He is Lord. He “will come again to judge the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1). Revelation 1 presents a stunning picture of Christ with “a sharp two-edged sword [coming] out of His mouth”. Remember the Last Day, when those who don’t believe Jesus will be judged by His words. And those who’ve believed? Jesus said (in John 6:40), “For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.” The Second Coming differs radically from the first.

Last month, Naeem preached from Habbakuk (1:2-4): “O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence? Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere. The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.”

This cry has sounded throughout history. Justice has its victories, but violence, trouble, fighting, quarreling, the triumph of evil, the perversion of justice continue. 

Revelation 6:9-11: “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. They shouted in a loud voice, “Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it be until you judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us?” Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the complete number of other servants and believers were killed, as they had been.” Martyred believers, from Abel onwards, including St Stephen and St Paul, still cry out. How long, O Lord? Wait. Until The Last Day. Here is an abridged version of Revelation 19:11-21:

“Then I saw heaven open, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True; it is with justice that he judges and fights his battles. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and he wore many crowns on his head. He had a name written on him, but no one except himself knows what it is. The robe he wore was covered with blood. His name is “The Word of God.” The armies of heaven followed him, riding on white horses and dressed in clean white linen. Out of his mouth came a sharp sword, with which he will defeat the nations. He will rule over them with a rod of iron, and he will trample out the wine in the wine press of the furious anger of the Almighty God. On his robe and on his thigh was written the name: “King of kings and Lord of lords.” … The beast and the false prophet were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. Their armies were killed by the sword that comes out of the mouth of the one who was riding the horse; and all the birds ate all they could of their flesh.”

Paul stated the church will judge the world and the angels. Is that the time?

Judgement and Justice, Part 2

The Church - To Judge or not to Judge?

You Bible-bashing, hypocritical do-gooders! You think you’re better than me, with your child-abusing priests, your Crusades, your expensive churches! What gives you the right?

Is Israel as a pattern for the Church? Israel punished the wicked sword in hand, so should the Church? We must look to the New Testament. Again, let’s look at this externally and internally.

Externally. Are we to punish unbelievers? What did the Lord Jesus say? Our Luke 6 reading shows we’re not to judge, but to forgive. Love your enemies, do them good. This makes you like God, who is good to the ungrateful and wicked. Jesus refers to injustices done to us, not injustices done to others. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). This is hard! The instinct to retaliate is so natural! We cry, “it’s not fair!” and it isn’t! It’s really not fair, but Jesus says do it. He put His money where His mouth was. Isaiah 53:7-9: “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. He was placed in a grave with those who are evil, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”

Does Jesus mean we’re never ever ever to judge? Jesus often judged the Pharisees. Their hearts and actions. As the sinless one, He had the right. As God, He knew their hearts. We can judge actions. We know the difference between right and wrong. God doesn’t want us to treat good and bad deeds as equal, but as far as our “enemies” go, we’re to show a better way, seeking to save rather than condemn.

Our knowledge of right and wrong comes not from common sense, or the trends of society, or what we feel, but the word of God, which “is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword… It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). We only condemn what God condemns.

Internally. When outsiders wrong us, Jesus says accept injustice, don’t take revenge. Let God do that. What about when fellow Christians wrong us? Matthew 18:15-17 is instructive. Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. But if he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses,’ as the scripture says. And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.” This is a stunning teaching. The motive isn’t revenge, demanding forgiveness or seeking recompense. It’s not to condemn, but lead to repentance. Whether the offender wants to repent is another matter! In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses this issue using real life cases. He is livid about it!

1 Corinthians 6:1-6

“If any of you have a dispute with another Christian, how dare you go before heathen judges instead of letting God's people settle the matter? Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? Well, then, if you are to judge the world, aren't you capable of judging small matters? Do you not know that we shall judge the angels? How much more, then, the things of this life! If such matters come up, are you going to take them to be settled by people who have no standing in the church? Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians. Instead, one Christian goes to court against another and lets unbelievers judge the case!” As Jesus says to accept injustice from unbelievers, Paul goes on to suggest it’s better to let yourself be wronged by a fellow believer than go to court. I want to stress that we should certainly not allow this teaching to become an excuse to cover up abuse. Paul is referring to “small matters”.

Paul states the church will judge the world and the angels. Fascinating! Especially as, just before this, he wrote it’s none of his business to judge unbelievers! Is Paul contradicting himself in his anger? Here’s a possibility. Now, he had no interest in judging the world but saving it. But in the future, that will change. The church will execute judgement. I’ll come back to that.

Judgement and Justice, Part 1

This is the text of a sermon I gave on November 3rd, 2019

Readings:

Psalm 149

Ephesians 1:11-23

Luke 6:27-42

INTRODUCTION

“Who are you to judge me?” Has anyone ever said that to you? Maybe you’ve said it? It’s a question of outrage, a defensive question. How dare you! What gives you the right? Who do you think you are? It’s the opposite of humility. It avoids scrutiny. It deflects attention.

Psalm 149. How great if this ended at verse 5! A simple exhortation to praise God. We’d all get behind that, apart from the dancing. We’d see victory as victory over circumstances: triumph over the world, the flesh, the Devil. So why, oh why, did the psalmist spoil it by adding:

Let them shout aloud as they praise God,

    with their sharp swords in their hands

 to defeat the nations

    and to punish the peoples;

 to bind their kings in chains,

    their leaders in chains of iron;

to punish the nations as God has commanded.

This is the victory of God's people.

Praise the Lord!

We rightly hate war. We want peace, not war. So should we cringe as Israel praises God while fighting, taking rulers captive, punishing the nations with God leading the way? 

I want to briefly address the issue of judgement and justice.

Israel - God’s Instrument of Justice

Israel, how dare you? Who do you think you are? What gives you the right? Israel was many things; one of them was God’s instrument of justice, internally and externally.

Internally. God set a standard for what is right and just, which expresses who He is. His character is the benchmark of holiness. He expressed His character in human-sized bites when the Law was given to Moses. Directly or indirectly, the Law shows what God would or wouldn’t do (dare I say, if He were human?). He expected Israel to be like Him. Some things are easy to understand. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. Some sounds weird. You may eat any land animal that has divided hoofs and also chews the cud, but you mustn’t eat camels, rock badgers, or rabbits. Don’t cut the hair on the sides of your head to mourn for the dead. Don’t wear clothes made of two kinds of material.

These laws would keep Israel holy. There were penalties for breaking them, as with any law. Those penalties were the means of executing justice, just as there are penalties for breaking UK laws.

Externally. Israel was to be holy, keeping God’s laws, a light to the nations, showing what Yahweh was like. A holy people executing His judgments on the nations. As a holy people, God would be with them, leading them. God, the judge and jury. Israel, the executioner. When He told them “destroy the Canaanites”, He was telling them to punish people who practised every sexual immorality and sacrificed their children to their idol. Leviticus 18 has the details. 

We must be clear: Israel didn’t decide what behaviour they disagreed with and look for nations to punish, like moral vigilantes. They didn’t make up the rules. God gave rules to reflect His character. Indeed, Israel often worshipped pagan gods, slept with temple prostitutes, sacrificed their own children, practised witchcraft… Rather than a light to the nations, they often joined the darkness. Rather than execute God’s justice against wickedness, they ended up on the receiving end. Israel’s history is a toing and froing between following, then abandoning God.