“Vengeance is Mine …sayeth the Lord.” [Romans 12:19] Judgment Part II

The Third Viewpoint

Last week, we examined the issue of Judgment, what its attributes are, and explored a couple of slightly different variations of what our personal Judgment Day could involve.  I also promised that in this week’s Post, I’d give you some of my own thoughts about what our eventual Judgment might be like.  Again, I remind you that these are my own musings and that they are not to be read for any reason other than to stir thought about how we each might face our own day of Judgment.  I warn you, my version is pretty “dark”, but I encourage you to stick with it because there IS a happy ending.

In my imagination, my physical life has ended, and I am standing in God’s presence to have my life judged and my eternal fate determined.  But before God passes His judgment, He puts me to a test.  That test is that He replays my life for me, not from my perspective but from the perspective of all the people who I’ve met during my life.  He shows me all my interactions with them and how they perceived that I’d treated them.  That in and of itself would probably be a little bit scary.

Then, He then brings all those people together around me and shows those same interactions to them from my perspective.  In other words, He shows them what my true heart was feeling and what I was thinking when I was having those interactions with them.  As that happens I am made to watch as each of them realizes the hypocrisy, the duplicity, the anger, the sense of self-superiority, and my judgment of them that I felt at each of those moments.  And, as the multitude of faces that I’d presented to them are stripped away, I must see their reaction as my true feelings are made known to them.  The people who thought I liked them will see that I really didn’t.  The people who thought that I’d valued their opinion would see that I really didn’t.  The people who felt that I’d been a friend would realize that I really hadn’t been. And in that moment, I must endure seeing their disappointment, their disillusionment, and their resulting hurt reflected on their faces and in their hearts.  I must endure it as they see me for who and what I truly was.  ALL my hypocrisy is revealed.  Then, God asks, “So, Richard, what would you have me do with your soul?  If you were Me, how would you “judge” you?”

For me, this is much more intimidating than either of the two scenarios I presented in last week’s Post.  In the first, whatever decision God makes is His decision, not mine, and I am absolved from any responsibility for it.  In the second, I may not like the result, but the “fate” is visited on me and me alone.  No one is affected by my actions but me.

But in this one, not only am I responsible for my fate and must decide what it is to be, but I must make that determination with the knowledge of all the suffering the revelation of my true self to all those that I’ve known has or would have caused.  That’s about as bleak a picture of Judgment as I can imagine. I don’t know about you, but I know that there is no way I could go through that, see those faces and the hurt that I’d caused, and still say to God that I deserved to stay with Him in Heaven.   My “judgment” on ME would be that I would have to go to Hell (or at least exist forever without God, which would probably be just as bad).

I pray that my version of Judgment really is imaginary and is NOT the correct one, or that if it is, it is for me alone.  It may be that each of our Judgment experiences are unique to each of us.  Many of the people who have been deemed clinically deceased but who have returned to life give much more joyous and hopeful versions of their “after-life” experiences and the judgments they received while they were “dead”.  Others who have similarly returned have horrific stories of their experience, and frequently determine to take the rest of their life on Earth in a completely different direction to avoid such a terrible fate when they truly die.  None of us will really know what to expect until we’re there, but one thing is, I believe, certain. We all WILL be there at some point in the future.

But the Good News is that even if my hypothetical version turns out to be the correct one for me, I will not feel lost.  As bad as my life may have been and however much I may (will) deserve to be “cast into the outer darkness”, it is my personal certainty that I will have a Comforter and an Advocate in that time and in that place … Jesus the Christ whose purpose it was to make a true relationship with God and everlasting life possible for me will be there to do exactly that!

If you lean toward the ‘orthodox’ version of judgment I presented in the previous post, you may see Christ’s presence more as an Advocate.  Someone who speaks for or on behalf of someone else.  In this version, there is only one judgment that God could possibly make of me.  I sinned and was therefore not perfect and became intolerable to God (and He to me).  My “just” punishment would be to go to Hell (or the eternal darkness if that description makes you feel better, either way I would not be able to stay with God).  However, since Jesus had sacrificed Himself for my sins, God’s requirement that I be perfect to remain in His presence would have been fulfilled. My sins would have been “washed away” by Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection and I would be sanctified … able to remain in God’s presence for evermore.

In both the ‘Alternate’ and ‘Third’ versions, you may see Christ more as a Comforter.  If we are forced to consider our life choices from God’s perspective, we will perceive that we sinned and are therefore “unworthy” (and even “unable”) to remain in His presence.  In these versions our judgment is self-imposed/realized.  We might want very much to stay with Him, but our guilt over our realization of our sin would not allow us to do so.  We need some Comfort.

Fortunately, with Jesus there that’s exactly what we will receive.  He will be able to say, “Fear not!  For I am with you, and if that is true who else could you need?” I manifested on Earth and allowed myself to be sacrificed to show you how much God loves you.  I’ve told you that when you’ve recognized your sin and sincerely asked for forgiveness of it, that you need do no more than to believe in Me.  I tell you that your sins are forgiven, so accept the gift and rejoice because of what God has done for you. You ARE worthy to stand in My Father’s presence, and to be with us forever.”

Here we see and can understand the meaning of the phrase I used a couple of posts ago: “Mercy is not getting what you deserve.  Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.”  In all these versions of judgment we first receive Mercy; because we deserve eternal death/hell/separation from God and that is not what we receive.  We receive Mercy when our sins are not held against us.  We then receive Grace.  None of us will of our own actions and efforts ‘deserve’ to be in perfect communion with God or to live in His divine presence forever.  What we will have ‘deserved’ is death/hell/separation from God.  What we will receive is to be allowed to stay in His wonderful presence, for eternity.  This is the ultimate actualization of the phrase.  We’re gong to receive Mercy because we’re not going to “get what’s coming to us”, and we’re going to be the recipients of Grace, because we’re going to receive something immeasurably priceless that we don’t deserve – eternity.  All thanks to Jesus, His life, His redeeming sacrifice, and His wonderful resurrection.

So, in a way it really doesn’t matter which ‘version’ of your Judgment Day you chose to believe.  The truly repentant Christian who accepts Jesus Christ’s life, sacrifice and resurrection IS going to receive Mercy and Grace.

Okay, that’s most of what I have to say on Judgment.  I hope this has helped those of us who are confused about it to move a little closer to understanding what it means.  But, I have one final point to make.

In the final analysis, none of us are really going to know how our own personal Judgment day is going to be until we experience it.  Scripture really doesn’t say much about it other that it’s going to happen, and that there will be two possible courses for our souls to take.  We may gain some insight from those who have had death or near-death experiences, but because those have so much variability, the only inference that I personally can draw is that each of us will have our own unique experience.  And that regardless of what I may think, or you might decide to believe, whatever or however that experience unfolds, it will be “right.”  It will be “just.” And if we are Christians who believe in His Son and the promises that He made we should all know that we’ll be O.K.  And, as my Granddaddy might have said, “Ain’t that somethin’?”

God’s blessing on each of you.

Richard

August 10, 2018

P.S.  Please remember that these are my musings.  If you agree with the points I’ve made, it is still up to you to decide these matters for yourself.  So, think, pray, and discuss with others as you process this information.  And, as always, feel free to react to these ideas as public or private Replies or Comments!  You never know who your idea, thought or comment might be important to.

RC