Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Yesterday, I preached briefly about a tricky doctrine: final judgment. Not final judgment for unbelievers, but for believers. As Paul makes clear in yesterday’s text, 2 Corinthians 5:6-21, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” He also discusses this issue in Romans 14:10-12 and 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.
Despite these scriptures (and others, including Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46), which describe universal judgment based on works, I never gave final judgment for Christians serious thought—at least before seminary. If we’re saved by grace, not by works, and we can’t earn salvation, a judgment based on works didn’t make sense to me. Maybe I thought judgment would be something of a formality: I would be taken before the throne of Christ, only to have Jesus tell me, “Because you believe in me, we can skip this. You’re in. You’re O.K.”
That seems silly in retrospect, I know. Among other things, how could God be perfectly just if he simply ignored the sins of believers? In the interest of judgment, don’t we need to be held accountable for what do in this life? Someone might push back: “Yes, but didn’t Jesus die for our sins so that we believers don’t have to be judged?”
No. He died for our sins so that we could avoid the punishment that our sins otherwise deserve: which is eternal separation from God in hell. Finding forgiveness for our sins, as we will surely do through faith in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, doesn’t preclude the necessity of judgment. To illustrate this, I talked in my sermon about an old friend who owed me money and moved to the West Coast without paying it back. I’m happy to forgive him the debt (I’d much rather have his friendship than his money!), but if we’re ever going to have a healthy relationship again, we need to talk about the harm that he caused—even though the debt is canceled.
My friend needs to face this kind of “judgment” for his own good, if not mine. I imagine that he feels deeply embarrassed and ashamed about it. I don’t want him to feel that way anymore.
Here’s a more powerful illustration: To the surprise of many pessimists in the world, South Africa moved peacefully from its evil apartheid system of racial separation to a full-fledged democracy in large part because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the brainchild of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other Christian thinkers. Every person in South Africa, white or black, who committed human rights violations under apartheid could find full amnesty for their crimes on one condition: they come to court and confess to them.
To me, that’s a beautiful and deeply Christian way of dealing with injustice. I believe that the judgment that we face as believers is like that.
A friend of mine in the congregation was relieved that I preached this message. He grew up in a church tradition that taught final judgment very differently. He said that his pastors always said that we can’t know for sure until final judgment whether we “made it” into heaven or not. Only then would we find out whether we truly had saving faith. Prior to that time, we live very fearfully, I suppose.
Needless to say, I thoroughly reject that interpretation of final judgment—as would the apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 3, he uses the metaphor of a refining fire, which tests the life’s work of a believer. It’s possible, Paul says, for a believer’s entire work to go up in flames, but all is not lost: “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:15). For a believer, isn’t this the worst-case scenario? He will still be saved.
Final judgment for believers as I’ve described also avoids the oft-stated problem of “cheap grace.” I get what Bonhoeffer meant in using that phrase, but every recipient of God’s amazing grace will still have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And I imagine that if we Christians have received God’s grace too cheaply, then final judgment will be very painful to us—even if, on the other side of this judgment, we will still find heaven.
What do you think? Do you think about final judgment for believers in these terms, or do you have another way of understanding it?
During the month of December, I’ve prepared a series of daily devotionals to help my church get ready for and celebrate Christmas. I created a booklet (if you’d like a copy, let me know), but I’ll also post devotionals each day on my blog.
