Translate

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Jesus - Judge and Savior

One of the reasons we tolerate, accommodate, and even celebrate depravity is that we don’t know what it means to fear the Lord. If we think of Jesus at all, we think of His gentleness, kindness, tenderness, mercy, and love. These are all true characteristics of Jesus, no doubt.

But do we ever stop for even a moment to consider that He is also the holy and righteous and great and mighty Judge of all the earth?

“At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity…I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’ I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists! Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance” (Psalm 75:2, 4-5).

“For the Lord holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs” (Psalm 75:8). 

We are so full of ourselves. We are consumed with self-righteousness. We parade our pride and flaunt our immorality. We do whatever is right in our own eyes. 

But we have forgotten God. We have disobeyed His commands, disregarded His ways, and dismissed Him altogether. 

Do we not know that He is the righteous and just Judge of the living and the dead? Have we forgotten that God destroyed the wicked of the world through the great flood? Do we remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? The army of Pharaoh at the Red Sea? The destruction of the Canaanite nations? The punishments against disobedient Israel? 

God does not take sin lightly. And try as we may to suppress such thoughts, we will be held accountable to God on the Day of judgment. Is that not a sobering truth? Is there any hope of being spared, since we know that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God?

Indeed, there is! While the wicked will be condemned to eternal punishment, the righteous will be saved unto eternal life. 

Who, then, are the righteous and who are the wicked? 

The righteous are those who have been made righteous only by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection life. Truly, no one is righteous by his own deeds. Not even one. But Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, so that whoever believes in Him may not remain in darkness, will not perish, but will be saved. It is by the grace of God we are saved through faith. 

The wicked are those who refuse to come to Jesus for salvation. Since the wages of sin is death, we are all in need of a Savior to rescue us from the just wrath of God. Those who arrogantly, stubbornly, willfully, and foolishly reject the only means of salvation – the cross of Christ – remain under His wrath. 

“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). 

So let us walk in the fear of the Lord! That is, let us believe in Christ, living in reverential awe of His holiness and majesty, His power and His glory, His righteousness and justice, while clinging humbly to His mercy and His grace. And let us learn to dread His displeasure, seeking to gladly obey His Word and not to pridefully reject His truth and thus face His judgment. 

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

No comments: