Jesus, the Coming Judge

It seems odd to speak of Jesus as the Coming Judge at Christmas but it shouldn’t. We prefer to see Jesus as a gentle babe, lying in a manger. A cute and cuddly baby we can handle, not a Judge whose judgment will be executed on those who refuse to believe? But judgment fits biblically in the context of the Christmas story. It goes with the darker sides of the Christmas story, like Herod’s arrogant dishonesty and his slaughter of the innocents. Simeon saying that the child born in Bethlehem was appointed for the fall and rise in many in Israel. God’s judgments are reserved for those who reject righteousness when it stares them in the face, whose unbelief puts them in line for God’s just wrath against their sin.

According to Matt. 11:20-24 Jesus is the Coming Judge. What He wants is for people to turn to Him so that they would survive the Day of Judgment. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He wants us to take Him seriously, to love Him more than life itself, to believe the truth and be saved. There is a logical sequence of events that get set in motion depending on our response to Jesus.

1. The Tragedy of Unbelief. In Matthew 11:20-21 Jesus began to scold, reproach, rebuke...the cities where most of His miracles had been done. Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. Tyre and Sidon were large Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean, not far away, often denounced by the prophets for their Baal worship. Sackcloth and ashes were a familiar way to signify mourning. Sackcloth rough fabric made from camels hair, worn close to the skin to express sorrow & grief. Ashes expressed deep emotion, put on the head, sat on, lain on, even rolled in. Jesus uses the familiar practice of pronouncing Woe, an exclamation meaning your suffering will be huge. Warnings had been given, now woes were pronounced. Jesus did most of the miracles recorded in Matthew in Capernaum, nearby Korazin, 2 miles away and Bethsaida. But the people refused to turn from their sin & believe in Jesus. Their lack of repentance revealed unbelief. They were indifferent, they ignored Him. They disregarded God as an issue not worth thinking of, didn’t take Him seriously.

Those who will not believe in Jesus refuse to...
Believe God's Word. 2 Pet. 3:1-7.
Acknowledge Jesus. Jude 3-4.
Turn from sin. Jude 10-16.

2. The Reality of Judgment. As Matthew 11:22 says “It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment. than for you.”
We need to understand that there will be 2 distinct judgments. Believers will be judged at the Judgment seat of Christ, Rom. 14:10-12, we will give account of our actions. Unbelievers will be judged at the Great White Throne of judgment Rev. 20:11-15. Neither determines salvation. Believers are already saved by faith Eph. 2:8-9, unbelievers rejected due to unbelief.

The day of judgment here is the judgment on unbelievers. It is the final judgment Matt 10:15, 12:36, 41-42; Acts 17:31. It refers to the day when Jesus, who has power over life and death, will make a final separation between those who believe and those who do not. Sodom was proverbial for wickedness, the sin city of Bible times. Capernaum had almost made the phrase lifted up to heaven their town motto Capernaum, home of Jesus, they figured they were in, they had Jesus living there. Those in the favored city Capernaum who did not believe, like self-exalting Babylon, will be brought down to Hades – to spend eternity in the torments of hell.

This is one of the most helpful passages for understanding judgment. It reveals several things.
It will happen. It is certain. He will say depart from Me I never knew you. He will separate the sheep from the goats. There will be unmerciful Judgment for those who do not turn from their sin.

There are levels or degrees of judgment in hell, just as there are degrees of blessing in heaven. Jesus is saying that punishment on the day of Judgment takes into account opportunity. The guilt of those who have great opportunity to hear the gospel is intensified. It is better to have heard nothing of Christ than to hear the truth and yet reject Him. The worst sin is unbelief.

God will be fair. His judgment is just. He does not owe anyone anything. An umpire named Babe Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. The crowd booed with disapproval. Ruth turned to the umpire & said, "There’s 40,000 people here who know that last pitch was ball, tomato head." The umpire said, "Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts." We need to realize that God’s judgment is the only one that counts.

Jesus’ message of judgment is not for the contrite, brokenhearted, repentant ones, those who mourn over their sin. It is for the proud and arrogant who refuse to turn to Him and be saved. What the repentant need, want and get is the grace of Jesus. The last thing the brokenhearted need is to be scolded by Jesus or any of His representatives, be it a preacher or a neighbor. Scolding depresses those who are tenderhearted and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The hard-hearted that need the message of judgment.

3. The Necessity of Repentance. Jesus spoke of those who did not repent. If His miracles of grace and the faith it produces do not lead to repentance, there is judgment. The purpose of Jesus works is changed lives. Lives left unchanged after coming in contact with Jesus the Messiah will give account at the court of Jesus the Judge.

We seem to reserve repentance for special occasions, but God wants us to live a life of repentance, confessing our sins, receiving assurance of forgiveness. In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes of an integrity problem in the church that comes from the faulty idea “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior. It is revival without reformation, without repentance.” It’s like Dietrich Bonheoffer said, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross.” True repentance is when, by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, a person has a sense of revulsion and Godly sorrow for the condition of sin in his or her heart, and comes, empty-handed and un-defensive, in the most personal and submissive posture he’s ever taken, and from a sincere heart says “I’m sorry”, to the only One who can truly offer forgiveness.

4. The Joy of Life with Jesus. Jesus said that even Sodom, if they had witnessed His mighty works, would have remained. They would have repented of thier sin. There are untold blessings for those who will repent and believe. No one should ever rejoice that others receive judgment; but all who receive blessing in Christ should rejoice that they’ve been spared from judgment. God did not spare His own Son so that we might be spared and receive the adoption as sons.