The Final Judgment and Christian Life
October 17, 2021
I wonder if we don’t do ourselves, our neighbors, and God a disservice by focusing so much on the final judgment. I believe in the final judgment, the final day of reckoning, where the book of life will be opened and we will be judged based on our deeds, sheep to one side, goats to the other. But focusing on it hasn’t seemed to help us much.
For one, “the day” anticipated by the Old Testament seems to be the reign of the messiah, which has already begun. So if their hope has been at least partially realized, perhaps we should be living as if we are already in the long-anticipated day, rather than focusing on some day still in the future.
Anyway. I was thinking about a family I grew up around this week. They were a bunch of smoking, drinking bikers. Most of them probably had a record. They were nice people, but rougher around the edges than most. One of their kids had down syndrome, and they took really good care of him. Two of their kids played baseball with me.
One was a catcher, the other a pitcher. They were good enough apart, but when you put them together things went south in a hurry! The pitcher would be fine, but he was a bit high strung to begin with, and he’d get in his own head and throw a wild pitch. The catcher would immediately take matters into his own hands by charging the mound to give him a piece of his mind. It wasn’t a recipe for success.
But what do you do? They’re two boys right on the cusp of danger. If they play ball and stay engaged with a community of peers, they just might turn out all right. If they’re kicked off the team, judged and ostracized, there’s little hope, little keeping them back from decisions that lead to juvie and worse.
It’s easy enough to ignore the consequences, judge them, and move on with a more unified team. Judgment is easy. Mercy is messy. Compassion is painful. “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” God has had plenty of time to judge us and condemn us, but he has held off. He has put off the day of judgment, because he is the God of mercy and compassion. He isn’t the God of judgment (though judgment is coming, just keep reading how he describes himself in Ex. 34.6-7). He’s the God of setting things right, of reconciliation, of redemption.
Matthew 5.48 calls us to be perfect, as our heavenly father is perfect. Verses 43-47 make it abundantly clear exactly what that entails—love your enemy, for God sends the sun and the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Why does God hold off on judgment? Because he cares more about setting things to rights than he does about condemnation, and so should we.
—John Coffey
