HOW DOES GOD JUDGE JUSTLY?

Atheists place the worst possible interpretation on the Scriptures. Consequently, they often charge that God is a cosmic dictator who continually scrutinizes our every behavior so that he can condemn us to the fires of hell, which he joyfully stokes.

Contrary to this, God informs us that He takes no pleasure in judging and destroying us:

·       …”As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11 ESV)

But yet God does judge, and His judgment is eternal. Isn’t this unjust in light of the fact that our sins were only temporary? Instead, it seems that although God does judge, He only judges indirectly. Rather, He defers to our own judgment of ourselves:

·       …all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law…For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:12-16)

Although the final verse states that “God judges,” it doesn’t say how He judges. Instead, it seems that our conscience does the judging. Our “conflicting thoughts accuse or…excuse” us. More specifically, it is the law which judges us, according to verse 12.

How does the law judge? First of all, it is written on the hearts or conscience of all of us. Consequently, we know right from wrong. While the Christian believes that God has done the moral wiring, the evolutionist credits it to a blind purposeless process. In either case, we are wired to know moral truth and are walking legal code books. Consequently, no one can claim ignorance of right and wrong.

But there are many more verses that claim that God judges rather than our conscience. Even if this is so, Jesus explicitly told us that He didn’t come into the world to judge us:

·       I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. (John 12:46-48)

Jesus insisted that “the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day,” but how does a word or a set of teachings judge? This is reminiscent of what Paul had written that the law will judge (Romans 2:12). However, this still leaves us with the original question: “How does the word or the law judge?” Let’s add to this mystery the fact that Jesus said, “I have come into the world as light.” Whether we are talking about the word, the law, or the light, we are talking about the same thing – the moral truths know to the conscience.

It is our response to this word, law, or light that condemns us, as Jesus had taught:

·       For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:17-21)

The Son didn’t come into the world to condemn the world (verse 17). However, the unbeliever stands “condemned already” (verse 18). Well who condemned him if Jesus and the Father haven’t condemned him?

He is self-condemned. The judgment or condemnation is a matter of our response to the light (verse 19). Those who believe and seek to please God come to the Light, those who don’t run from the Light and find refuge in the darkness of lies and denials regarding their sins. The darkness is more comforting for them because it doesn’t expose them. They find the Light intolerable in this life. How much more in the next life when the Light is more intense! If they rejected the Light here, they will certainly reject Him there!

Once again, God need not judge proactively. Instead, it is the word that is able to penetrate to the depths of our being to judge our heart and conscience:

·       For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Is God unjust? What can be more just than to allow us to judge and condemn ourselves! Will God allow us to repent post-condemnation? Perhaps, but it seems that no one wants to. Why? God allows the rebellious to go their own way after wrestling with them for a while:

·       And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. (Romans 1:28-29; also verses 24 and 26)

We see this very thing in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:18-31). In torment, the rich man never once confesses his sins or asks to be in paradise. Instead, he simply asks for a little relief from his discomforts.

It is said that God gives us what we want – heaven for the believer and hell for the unrepentant. What is unjust about this?