What does the Bible say about judgment? Will God actually judge all of us one day? If so, what will that be like? After all, how can a loving God pass judgment on someone else? Isn't that a contradiction? Those are the kinds of questions that many people ask about Christianity. They are extremely important questions, because if all of us will be held accountable for our actions by God someday that has huge implications. If we are not ever going to be held accountable for our actions on earth, then there is not really anything keeping us from doing whatever we want - or at least whatever we can get away with. However, if the God of the universe is going to hold us accountable for what we do on earth, then that puts an entirely different spin on things. But would it be fair for God to judge us like that?
That is a good question. After all, why doesn't God just "accept" everyone just the way they are instead of judging them?
Let's explore that for a moment.
Imagine a society where the law enforcement authorities caught the criminals every single time. However, after apprehending the criminals, the justice system of that society never punished them and immediately released those criminals back into society.
What kind of society would that be?
Would that be a just society?
Would that be fair?
The truth is that it would be horribly unjust.
The rapists, the child molesters, the murderers and the thieves would run rampant in society not having to worry about any kind of punishment. After all, if they did get caught they would just be immediately released anyway.
Would you want to live in such a society?
What would you call a justice system that produced those kinds of results?
Of course you would say that such a justice system and such a society are unjust and do not deserve to continue.
But the sad thing is that a very large percentage of Christians believe that God is just like that justice system that never, ever punished the criminals.
It is a fact that many Christians today believe that God would never punish anyone for anything.
But they are completely and totally wrong according to the Bible.
The truth is that God is a God of perfect love AND of perfect justice, and according to the Bible the judgment of God is very real.
In 2 Timothy 4:1, the apostle Paul tells us that God will indeed judge us all....
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead
In 1 Peter 4:5, the apostle Peter also tells us that we will have to give an account of what we have done to God....
But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Romans 14:10 tells us that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God one day....
You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
Hebrews 13:4 explains that God will judge all those who have sinned sexually....
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
In Revelation 11:18 we are told that God will judge and destroy those who destroy the earth....
The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
In Hebrews 9:27 we are instructed that we only get one life (no reincarnation) and after this life we will face the judgment of God....
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment
At this point many would be tempted to argue that the message of Jesus was all about peace and love.
That is true.
Jesus loves all of us so much that He was willing to die on the cross for us.
But that does not make Him unjust.
The truth is that there was NOBODY in the Scriptures who talked about hell more than Jesus did. Just consider the following examples....
Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Luke 12:5
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Matthew 5:29
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 23:33
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
There is no getting around the fact that the Bible says that we will all face judgment someday.
Are you ready for that day?
In John 3:36 it tells us this....
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
Without Jesus, you will be facing the judgment of God by yourself.
You will be fully accountable for your own unrighteous acts.
In fact, in 2 Peter 2:9, the Scriptures tells us that the unrighteous are experiencing punishment in hell right now as they continue to be held for the day of final judgment....
if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
The Bible says that without Jesus to pay for our sins, we remain under the wrath of God.
God loves us very much, but he is also completely and perfectly just.
Nothing is going to change that.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, we see both the perfect love and the perfect justice of God on display....
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
The truth is that most people do not want to hear about the justice of God.
Most people simply do not want to hear that judgment is coming.
In fact, most people today sound very much like the people that the apostle Paul was describing in Romans 2:5.....
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
But we will be held accountable.
If you go out and murder someone and the authorities catch you, what is going to happen?
They are going to hold you accountable.
What will happen if you break God's laws?
He will hold you accountable.
The people who foolishly think that God would never judge them are in for a very rude surprise according to the Bible.
At the very end of the Bible we read about the final judgment of humanity, and it is a very sobering message for us all....
Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
That is a very heavy piece of Scripture, but it is the stone cold truth.
So is there any good news?
Yes - in fact there is some great news.
While it is very true that we have all broken God's laws, the truth is that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for OUR sins.
In 1 John 5:11-13, we read that whoever receives Jesus as Savior and Lord will not face an eternity away from God. God wants to give us eternal life, and it is free for whoever has the Son....
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
The article above does not have to be bad news for you.
Yes, we are all guilty before God, but the love of God is so great that He willingly paid for our lawbreaking.
Jesus paid for the sins of all mankind when He died on the cross.
Jesus made His sacrifice so that you could be forgiven and could have eternal life.
If you will ask Jesus into your life today, your sins will be forgiven and you will be given eternal life.
To learn much more about this good news, please read our article entitled "What Does The Bible Say About Salvation?"
That article will explain exactly what the Bible says about salvation.
If you ask Jesus into your life today, then when the day of judgment comes you can have confidence knowing that your sins are forgiven.
Those who do not have Jesus will be held accountable for their own sins. That is why we must get the message of the gospel to as many people as possible while there is still time.
WHO judges? Bible seems to be contradictory: John 3:16+, John 5:22, John 8:15, John 12:47
Can you reply please?
My daughter has taken up with a voodoo women and now my daughter does not trust me has turned on me and the grand kids hear her and seem to follow at times. Hopeless for me Hopeless!
Pamela, panic not, it will achieve not a thing.
I suspect that the problem is social and the religous aspect is simptamatic only (not to beley it’s seriousness)The problem here may be your daughters prefrence for closness to her friend than her mother. Voodoo, as distastefull as you may find it is not your problem. Research it. much of the hype is stuff of Hollwood..Do not let Voodoo and all the rubish distract you from the point. Talk, listen, be patient & forgiving, be her Mum, her friend can never be that ! Good Luck
Re your take on Judgement.. To explain this subject you use this analogy..
But we will be held accountable.
If you go out and murder someone and the authorities catch you, what is going to happen?
They are going to hold you accountable.
What will happen if you break God’s laws?
He will hold you accountable.
Fortunatley for us mere mortals this does not hold water. You see the fundemental difference here, again is free will. We as memebers of a free society do elect to be governed & policed. In effect we are the law makers. Democracy give individuals the power to be instrumental in this process. This is Truly glorious!
However we were not given any choice wheather or not be bound by the alledged laws of the almighty nor were we instrumental in the choosing of whom & how they should be enforced. If your passage were to be true, we as free men would have been denied free will and would effectivley be living in a police state governed by a dictator! something the whole free world fights tooth & nail against.
I hold this is NOT the way of the Lord…
Kindest Regards GB36
what about all the people who died before Christ’s death and resuraection? don’t the people before get the benefit of Jesus dying on the cross???
All of the believers before the time of Jesus were looking forward to the Messiah just as we are looking back on the coming of the Messiah.
Jesus died for their sins and He died for our sins as well – past, present and future.
And we are all saved by faith.
“Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”
Michael
@ Glen: God is Sovereign, therefore, we don’t get to choose His Lordship by democratic vote. You cannot apply those man-made governing principles to His Kingdom. You may balk at that idea, but NO ONE gets to choose their life span. God promises no one tomorrow, so you best heed the warning and accept Jesus Christ before it’s too late!
Also, you’re very wrong! Voodoo IS something to panic about. There are very real spiritual forces behind those evil practices. God bless you Pamela, and may the Lord Jesus Christ save your daughter from the evil influences she’s entangled in.
The main difference here being the crimes judged worthy of punishment. The examples you give; rapists, child molestors, murderers and thieves are all examples of crimes worthy of punishment. But what about god? What atrocious crimes would be deemed worthy of punishment by his standards? If we take his word, as written in the Bible, and compare it to your analogy, things start to fall apart; working on the sabbath; death sentence. Being cheeky to your parents; death sentence. Adultery; death sentence. Even thinking about adultory, thought crime!; death sentence. No, thank you. You can keep you heaven and your hell. I for one don’t need the threat of either eternal damnation or eternal supplication to help me be a decent human being.
Adam:
Not that I am an expert, but my understanding is that it is not the degree of the crime, but the act of sin itself (whether major or minor) separates us from God. Because everyone sins at some point, in so doing, we create a gap between Him and us that we cannot cross on our own. It’s because of the sacrifice of Jesus that we are reconciled back to him, something we cannot do on our own.
So to your point–it’s not so much the degree of the sin, it’s that any sin separates us from God and we can’t be saved on our own.
What sickens me are the so called Christians who, because they have accepted Jesus into their lives and therefore believe their sins will be forgiven, knowingly commit sins without a second thought. My husbands family are all like that. None of them care for each other, they all lie about each other to make themselves look good, they steal from each other, and on, and on. Yet each and every one of them has found Jesus and drone on endlessly about how they are saved and their sins are forgiven.
What justice is there in that?
Hey Dan they are wrong…..if no repentance and renouncing of sins then they will too pay a prize… There is justice.No one is perfect BUT if they keep on sinning willfully then its adios time for them sadly.God is not mocked.
I have to be careful when I ask this cause I cannot ask you to judge me…I have been a backslider /struggling with sin and give in to sin and then turn around asking for forgivenss of it..without mentioning it…its a common sin that a lot of men face/give into….and yet asim typing this I’m reminded if your hand causes yu to sin..cutoff throw it away..please pray for me..I know god is bigger than any temptation I face…but I think I’m wearing out my welcome/afaraid he is going to stop forgiving me….thanku for reading his…sorry if I have caused more har than good
What if a sin isn’t as cut and dry as ‘do not steal’? (i can’t give more detail)
If the bible says something is a sin but you knowingly commit the sin, will God still forgive you and allow you to enter heaven if you acknowledge the sin and ask for forgiveness?
I guess my bottom line is this: if you are saved, know Jesus as your only rescue from hell, and ask God for forgiveness of your sins, will you survive judgement even if you continue to carry out your sins knowingly?
Sorry if that’s not clear enough…
I want to know if I will be judged for the things I’ve done, even if I have accepted the Lord and Salvation? I’ve done terrible things, that make me sick to my stomach and stricken with infinite sadness. I asked reluctantly for forgiveness but I don’t deserve it. I have been truly terrible and destructive not only in my life, but others as well. Am I forgiven per Gods word? And if so, will I still be judged of these things? Please respond with Scripture if you can. Thank you and good day.
In 1 John 1:9 it says the following….
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
The truth is that none of us deserves to have our sins forgiven.
But Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, and if we will ask for forgiveness, God will give it to us.
I would encourage you to seek God in prayer and to ask God to let you feel his love.
God loves you very much and He has forgiven you.
Michael