Judgment

Many equate judgment with condemnation, and so are terrified of anything to do with God’s judgment. Indeed, sometimes judgment is synonymous with condemnation, such as when Jesus says that he was not sent to judge the world (John 3:17). James uses it that way when he says that with God “mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Mercy wins over condemnation with God, and it should be this way with us too.

In other passages, God’s judgment is clearly not the same as condemnation. Instead, it is a cause for rejoicing.

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his faithfulness. (Psalm 96:13)

Isaiah foresees the good that will come from God’s judgment.

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

When your judgments come upon the earth,                                                                         the people of the world learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9)

God’s judgment is not intrinsically about condemning people, but restoring all creation. How can we see our foolishness and corruptness, which ruins everything, except through some clarifying judgment? Jesus points to the same need when he says that the Spirit convicts the world of sin and righteousness (John 16:8). The Spirit does not convict in order to condemn, but in order to enlighten us unto salvation.

According to Paul, Jesus came to condemn sin (Romans 8:3). Judgment as condemnation is directed against ungodliness, the behaviors and thinking that are destroying us. The Greek word Paul used is a compound one, meaning “to judge against.” Only by “judging against” our wickedness and unrighteousness, so that we may see it for what it is, will we ultimately be able to be cleansed of sin. The intent of God’s judgment is God telling us the truth, condemning the sins in us, rather than being a condemnation of us. Sometimes the truth hurts, and it is not pleasant to find out where we have done wrong.

This is judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light. (John 3:19)

Jesus is alluding to himself as that Light, but his coming is not a condemnation of humanity. Instead, the incarnation of God constitutes the salvation of humanity and the condemnation of sin. Exposed, we stand self-indicted by our love of darkness rather than light. However, that judgment, having to realize that I do love darkness, can become the very means of my repentance and salvation. The cure for my sickness begins with the identification of the disease in me.

The judgments of God are on-going and necessary for salvation, and we need a full and final telling, knowing the mercy of God which will accompany it. Only by discovering the truth about ourselves are we able to come into eternal life. Without humbling self-knowledge, eternal life, which is knowing God (John 17:3), is impossible. We cannot know God without also knowing ourselves.

Confident that God’s mercy is sufficient to forgive all in us which deserves condemning, like the psalmist, we invite the judgment of God, knowing by it we enter eternal life.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)