It is a clear teaching of scripture that men are individually responsible for their deeds and must face a day of judgment before a holy and righteous God. "It is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27).
Jesus clearly taught a judgment of all men. It will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Tyre and Sidon, on the day of judgment than for those who heard the gospel on the lips of Jesus and rejected it (Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24). The men of Nineveh and the queen of the south will arise at the judgment to condemn the blind generation of Jesus. At the close of the age, the wicked and the righteous are to be separated (Matt. 13: 40f., 49f.), and all nations will be gathered before the Son of Man (Matt. 25:32) to be judged.
Paul taught that "every man will receive his commendation from God" when the Lord comes (I Cor. 4:5) and that God judges those that are outside (I Cor. 5: 13). The saints will judge the world (I Cor. 6:2), but they are to examine themselves lest they be condemned along with the world (I Cor. 11:32). Paul clearly makes no distinction between the judgment of God and the judgment of Christ, for "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom. 14:10) and "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body" (II Cor. 5:10).
One of Paul's most important statements about judgment is found in Romans 2:5-10:
But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and praise for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
Read superficially, this serves to contradict Paul's statement often made that man cannot be justified by his works (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; 5:4). The solution is found in what is meant by "works." In the latter case, Paul means works according to an external code -- the Jewish law -- which provided a ground for a sense of human merit and boasting. This does not mean that all works are unimportant. Paul clearly says, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do; sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3-4). What the external law could not do was to change the heart of man, to turn him from sinful pride, to make him love God with all his being and his neighbor as himself. This the Spirit has done. Another Pauline term for the good works of Romans 2:5-11 is "the fruit of the Spirit." This does not mean that the believer puts God in his debt and receives the gift of salvation because he merits it. It does mean, however, that man, even Christian man, remains responsible to God, and there must be the evidence of good works to demonstrate that he is indeed seeking "glory and honor and immortality." If I may quote a modern commentator, "The reward of eternal life is promised to those who do not regard their good works as an end in themselves, but see them as works not of human achievement but of hope in God" (C.K. Barrett, Romans, 1957, p. 117).In connection with judgment we must look at the biblical concept of the wrath of God, which is the most vivid term we find which designates the relation of God to sinners. Wrath is primarily an eschatological concept. The day of judgment will be a day of wrath for the lost (Rom. 2:5; I Thess. 1:10). The Lord Jesus is to be "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God, and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord" (II Thess. 1: 7-9). Probably Ephesians 5: 6 and Colossians 3:6 refer to the impending wrath in the day of judgment.
However, the wrath is not only eschatological; it characterizes the present relationship between God and man. In the present evil age, outside of Christ, men are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and wickedness of men (Rom. 1:18).
The New Testament concept of the wrath of God is not to be understood in terms of the anger of pagan deities, whose anger could be turned to benevolence by suitable offerings. God's wrath is the implacable divine hostility to everything that is evil, and it is sheer folly to overlook it or try to explain it away. In the New Testament the wrath of God is not an emotion telling us how God feels; it tells us rather how a holy God reacts toward sin and sinners. Wrath is God's personal reaction against sin. Sin is no trivial matter, and the plight of men is one from which they cannot rescue themselves. Wrath expresses what God is doing and what he will do with sin.There will be a two-fold issue in the day of judgment: acquittal or condemnation. The usual New Testament word for acquittal is justification. Jesus said, "I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter: for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matt. 12:36 37). "Careless words," words spoken spontaneously when one's guard is down, reveal the true character of a man's heart. In this saying, all men will appear before God's judgment, and the issue will be justification or acquittal, or its opposite -- condemnation.
Paul has the same situation in mind when he writes, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yea, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?" (Rom. 8:33-34). Here Paul pictures the Christian as standing before the eschatological judgment seat of God; his sins and iniquities condemn him. But he has an intercessor: God himself in the person of Christ has justified him; no one or no thing can condemn him.
The acquitted are not justified by their own works, but by the justification wrought by Christ on his cross. "For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Cor. 5:21). Christ was himself free from all stain of sin; but he bore our sins -- he became sin for us that we sinners might have the righteousness (acquittal) of God reckoned to us. Here is the glory of the Pauline gospel: the judgment which must be rendered in the day of judgment has already been rendered in history by the sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ. Christ has died on his cross, an innocent victim. But in his death he bore the sins of men, he suffered the punishment and the doom which their sins deserve, so that atonement has been made; and this atonement includes justification by faith. Through faith in the atoning work of Christ the believer is justified -- here and now -- from all the guilt of his sin. He is acquitted.The essential question is: what is justification? In Pauline thought justification is the pronouncement of acquittal by the Law-giver and Judge of the universe. Justification, acquittal, is not a subjective ethical quality. It is an objective relationship in which God decreed that the believer stands in a right relationship to the Judge of all men. Relationships are real, objective facts.
This is reflected even in our modern concepts of legal justice. A man is accused of a crime. His case is tried before a court. The verdict is either guilty or acquitted. The basic question is not: is he guilty or innocent? The basic question is: what evidence can be provided on the basis of which a decision may be made? If he is pronounced "acquitted," he goes free, even though he may have actually committed the crime. If he is pronounced "guilty," he is punished, even though in some cases he may not have committed the crime. It matters not how he or anyone feels about it. The question is: what is the verdict of the court?
So it is with God. God is the universal Law-giver and Judge, and the question is: what is the decision of the heavenly court? Here is a fact that frustrated the Jews: God acquits the guilty. In Jewish thought the sinner must be condemned, the righteous man acquitted. However Paul proclaimed that in the death of Christ sinners are acquitted of their guilt before God. The death of Christ proves "that at the present time . . . he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). The death of Christ is both an act of righteousness and an act of love. As an act of righteousness, God in Christ treated sin as it deserved to be treated. "This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins" (Rom. 3:25). Before Christ, God had not dealt with sin as it deserved to be treated. He seemed to be blinking at man's sin. But in Christ's death he displayed his righteousness. He dealt with sin as it deserved to be dealt with.Here is mystery. What happened on the cross? I do not know; it extends beyond the bounds of human imagination. But in his death Jesus suffered my death; he chose my doom. We might even say he went to hell in my stead.
All I need to do to avail myself of Christ's acquittal is to accept it by faith. "God justified him who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). This is the theme of the Roman epistle: "He who through faith is righteous shall live" (Rom. 1:17). In other words, the man of faith who trusts in the justifying work of Christ on his cross is already justified. A cross has become a seat of judgment. The believer is in one sense of the word already on the heavenward side of the eschatological judgment. This is why Paul can write, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
However, this does not except the believer from the eschatological judgment. "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom. 14:10). The reason for this is to demonstrate that the justification of the believer in history has been confirmed by the works of love he has performed. In other words, justification is by no means a purely legalistic matter so that the justified man can say, "I have been acquitted, so from henceforth, it does not matter how I live." It matters greatly, for the man who has been justified by faith has also by that same faith been joined together with Christ. "How can we who have died to sin still live in it? . . . We were buried with him by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:2-4). The eschatological judgment of the believer is not to decide whether he is saved or not; it is to confirm his salvation in terms of good words done in the body -- in other words, the fruits of the Spirit.Another passage which deals with the judgment of Christians is Corinthians 3:10-17. However, here Paul is not dealing the everyday Christian life as such, but with the work of Christian leaders. We know that the Corinthian church was divided by party spirit, some claiming to be Paul's disciples, others the disciples of Peter, others of Apollos, still others disdained human leaders and claimed to be followers of Christ alone (I Cor. 1:12) . Now Paul deals with the responsibility of Christian leadership in the church. He grants that all are building on the only possible foundation -- Jesus Christ (3:11) . However, different kinds of structures can be erected on the proper foundation: some of precious materials -- gold, silver, precious stone; others on comparatively worthless materials -- wood, hay, stubble. In the day of eschatological judgment, the eschatological fire will test all things (see Matt. 3:12). Some buildings will prove to be permanent; others will prove to be worthless and temporary -- they will be consumed. Now Paul says something very significant. Some, who have built on Christ and have built enduring structures, will receive a reward (3:14). This is not the reward of salvation or justification, which is always a gift and never a reward. What these rewards are is a matter of fruitless speculation. On the other hand, some have built on the foundation of Christ worthless structures, which will be consumed in the apocalyptic fire. However, since he has built on Christ, "he himself will be saved, but only as through a fire" (3:15) . Again, we must note that this passage does not apply directly to the ordinary Christian life, but to Christian leaders. "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (3:6). Therefore this passage does not contradict what has already been written about all Christians appearing before the judgment seat of God. It only adds this fact: there will be a special ground for the judgment of Christian leaders.
Another passage from the gospels reflects a judgment determined on the basis of Christian service. Jesus told a parable about a man going on a journey who summoned three of his servants and distributed to one five talents (a talent was probably worth about $1000), to another two talents, and to another one talent, "to each according to his ability" (Matt 25:15) . The five talent man earned five talents more; the two talent man earned two talents more; the one talent man was unwilling to risk anything, so he simply laid aside his talent and saved it.
When the Master returned for an accounting, he said to the five talent man, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master" (Matt. 25:21). The two talent man received exactly the same reward.Here is a glorious truth. God measures the Christian's service not alone by what he accomplishes but by the faithfulness with which he has served.
To the one talent man who had gained nothing Jesus uttered harsh words: "So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents . . . and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth" (Matt. 25:28-30) .If we interpret this strictly according to the letter, it teaches that the faithless disciple will lose his salvation. However, it was Jesus' teaching method to use radical illustrations (see Matt. 18:34), and the thought may well be that a do-nothing disciple is a contradiction in terms. If a professed disciple completely wastes his life so that he counts for nothing in the mission Jesus has given his own, he in effect denies his profession and proves that it is hollow and empty.
The New Testament has a great deal to say about the final condemnation of the wicked. This idea, however, is obscured in the Authorized Version. There are two Greek words which designate the fate of the wicked at death: Hades and Gehenna. Unfortunately, the Authorized Version translates both of these with the word "Hell." However, Hades is the equivalent of the Old Testament Sheol and should be translated, as the Revised Standard Version does, as either "death" or "the grave" (see Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14) . The RSV correctly reserved the word "hell" for the Greek word Gehenna. This word is a transliterated Hebrew word which means ge hinnom -- the Valley of Hinnom. It was a valley south of Jerusalem where children had been sacrificed in fire to Molech (II Chron. 28:3; 33:6). It became a prophetic symbol for judgment (Jer. 7:31, 32) and later for final punishment. Jesus warned that God has the power to cast both body and soul into hell (Luke 12:5; Matt. 10:28; cf. Matt. 5:29, 30). It is pictured as a place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43) or eternal fire (Matt. 18:8). The Revelation pictures the final punishment as a lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10) . Jesus said that the wicked will be sent away into "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25: 41) . This lake of fire will be the fate of the beast, the devil, and all whose names are not written in the book of life (Rev. 20:15) . The fact that this language cannot be interpreted in terms of physical fire is shown by the fact that death and Hades are also cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death (Rev. 20:14) . Our Lord spoke of final punishment in terms of fire (Matt. 13:42, 50; 25:41) or of darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; cf. II Pet. 2:17; Jude 13) . While both fire and darkness are picturesque ways of speaking of final punishment, they describe the fearful punishment of banishment from the presence and blessings of God in Christ (Matt. 7:23; 25:41).
Paul describes the final state of those who have not obeyed the gospel of Christ by saying, they "shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (II Thess. 1:9; see I Thess. 5:3). The rebellious and impenitent store up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom. 2:5, 8; see 5:9; I Thess. 1:10; 5:9). Paul also describes the fate of the unsaved by the concept of perishing. This is both a present condition (I Cor. 1:18; II Cor. 2:15; 4:3) and a future doom (Rom. 2:12; II Thess. 2:10). This eschatological doom is also destruction (Phil. 3:19; Rom. 9:22). A companion idea is that of death. Death, in the full meaning of the term, is the penalty of sin (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). While this death is the death of the body (Rom. 8:38; I Cor. 3:22), the term includes much more. This is shown by the fact that it is the opposite of eternal life (Rom. 6:23; 7:10; 8:6; II Cor. 2:16). It is both a present fact (Rom. 7:10f.; Eph. 2:9) and a future fact (Rom. 1:32; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:5). We are reminded of the "second death" in the lake of fire of Revelation 20:14. The central idea is exclusion from the presence of the Lord in his consummated kingdom (II Thess. 1: 9) and the subsequent loss of the blessings of life that come with the enjoyment of his presence. However, the terms Paul uses make it clear that it is the just desert of sin and unbelief; but he nowhere describes what this doom involves.In the picture of final judgment after the millennium, called the "great white throne" judgment (Rev. 20:4), there is a two-fold standard of judgment. First, the books were opened, "And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done" (Rev. 20:12) . As Paul had said, men will be judged by their works. In Romans 2, Paul says that different men will be judged by the different standards. "All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law" (Rom. 2:12). The Gentiles who do not have the law of Moses will be judged by the light God has given them in his creation. "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" for failing to worship God (Rom. 1:19-20).
Gentiles also have an inner light -- the light of conscience:
When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also hears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom. 2:14-16)
This suggests, although it does not make it plain, that there will be degrees of punishment, which will be rendered in terms of the way a man has responded to the light he has.The final norm, however, will be the gospel of Jesus Christ. "Also another book was opened, which is the book of life . . . . and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:12,15).
The judgment of the wicked is not an end in itself, but only a necessary act in the establishing of God's reign in the world. God has done all things possible to bring men to himself: if they reject his grace, they must face his judgment, for in the end God can brook no opposition to his holy will.
Some interpreters have deduced from certain sayings of Paul that Paul expected a final reconciliation to occur which would mean "a universal home-coming" interpreted in terms of a universal salvation of all creatures, both human and angelic. Such an interpretation can indeed be read into several Pauline sayings if they are lifted out of the Pauline context. In Colossians 1:20 Paul speaks of Christ's reconciling all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven. In Philippians 2:9-11 Paul says that because Jesus has humbled himself in incarnation and death, "God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." However, the universal reconciliation spoken of in such passages means that peace is everywhere restored. The universal confession of the lordship of Jesus is not synonymous with universal salvation. There is a stern element in Paul's eschatology that cannot be avoided. There remain recalcitrant wills that must be subdued and which must finally bow before Christ's rule, even though it be unwillingly, that in the end Christ may turn over his kingdom to the Father, that "God may be everything to every one" (I Cor. 15:28).
There remains one passage of scripture which must be dealt with: our Lord's parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. The Son of Man will come and all the angels with him, and he will sit upon his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations of the earth, and he will separate them as a Palestinian shepherd separates the sheep from the goats every evening. To the righteous -- the sheep on his right hand -- he will say, "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (25: 34) . Their blessed fate is that they will go away into eternal life (25:46) . To the wicked -- the goats on his left hand -- he will say, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (25: 41), and their doom will be to go away into eternal punishment.
What makes this dramatic parable difficult is the basis of judgment. The righteous go into eternal life because, "I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me" (25:3536) . The righteous answer in surprise that they have never seen Jesus hungry and thirsty, a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, that they might minister to him. The judge replies, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (25:40) . The wicked are equally surprised at their judgment, saying they had never seen Jesus in such a state to minister to him. To them Jesus says the same thing: "As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did it not to me" (25:45).This is a crucial passage to Dispensationalists, for they make it a separate judgment from the final judgment of men. In the final judgment God is seated upon a great white throne (Rev. 20:11), whereas in Matthew 25 men are gathered before the throne of the Son of Man. Therefore, Dispensationalists see in this parable a judgment of the nations to decide which of them will be granted admission into Christ's millennial kingdom and which will be excluded. "My brethren" are Jesus' Jewish brethren who will be converted during the Great Tribulation and who will go among the Gentiles proclaiming an imminent coming of Christ's millennial kingdom. The Gentile nations who treat Jesus' Jewish brethren kindly, who receive them and accept their message, will be granted admission into the millennial kingdom, and those who abuse them, reject them and their message, will be excluded from the millennial kingdom.
There are three exegetical questions to be considered here. ls this a different judgment from the judgment of the Great White Throne? Does the reward of inheriting the kingdom mean entering the millennium? Are Jesus' brethren his "kinsmen according to the flesh," that is, the Jews?It se s clear that this judgment cannot be differentiated from the Great White Throne judgment only because the nations appear before the throne of the Son of Man instead of before the throne of God. We have already seen that these two are regarded as the same. It is obvious from the two sayings, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (II Cor. 5:10) and "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom. 14:10), that the two judgment seats are interchangeable.
Second, the text itself makes it clear that it is not the millennium into which the blessed enter, nor is exclusion from the millennium the fate of the others. The text itself says: "and they [the wicked] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (25:46) . Eternal punishment and eternal life. This text speaks not of admission to or exclusion from a temporal earthly kingdom but of the state of final, everlasting punishment and reward.Third, there is no exegetical reason to understand the brethren of Jesus as his Jewish brethren. On the contrary, we have exegetical evidence that Jesus considered his disciples to be his spiritual brethren. On one occasion Jesus' mother and brothers were seeking opportunity to speak to Jesus, and he replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother!" (Matt. 12:48-50). By this he meant to say that spiritual relationships transcend natural human relationships.
If then the brethren are Jesus' disciples and the judgment a picture of the final eschatological judgment, how may we interpret the passage? The parable pictures the experience of Jesus' disciples as they were to go about preaching the gospel. Not everyone would receive them. Many of their hearers would reject and maltreat them. We must remind ourselves of the character of the earliest disciples' ministry:Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road. Whatever home you enter, first say, "Peace be to this house!" and if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, "Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you!" (Luke 10: 3?11)
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves:
so be wise as serpents but innocent as doves. Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them and the Gentiles. (Matt. 10: 16-18)
In other words, Jesus' disciples as they went about preaching the good news about the Kingdom of God could expect to be hungry and thirsty and naked and imprisoned. But then Jesus said, "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him that sent me" (Matt. 10:40). In other words, when men and women who had never seen or heard Jesus in person welcomed his emissaries, gave them food and drink, ministered to them when they were flogged or imprisoned, they were doing it as though to Jesus himself. But when men rejected them, turned a deaf ear to them, excluded them from their towns, or even saw them flogged and imprisoned and offered no aid, they were in reality rejecting Jesus himself.A final question remains to be asked. If this is the final judgment, what do we do about the millennium? There seems to be no room for it. The author is frank to admit that if we had to follow this passage as our program of prophecy, there would be no room for a millennium. I would have to be an amillennialist.
However, this is not intended to be a program of prophecy. It is a dramatic parable. Jesus knows that he is about to leave his disciples in the world with a commission to take the gospel to all nations. He is in effect saying to them, "I am entrusting the destiny of the Gentiles into your hands. Those who welcome and receive you welcome and receive me, and they will be blessed in the day of judgment. Those who reject and exclude and punish you do so to me, and it will go ill with them in the day of judgment."
There is a very different interpretation of the parable which is espoused by many evangelicals. The brethren of Jesus represent all the poor and hungry and naked and disenfranchised of the world. The blessed who inherit the Kingdom are those who have lived out the life of love which is the essential proof of discipleship to Jesus. Such are indeed saved by their works -- but not works of legalistic performance but works (or fruits of the Spirit) which flow from a life devoted to Jesus Christ.There is no theological objection to this interpretation, for we have seen earlier in the chapter that good works in the Christian are to be the outward and visible confirmation of his faith in Jesus Christ. However, there is no other exegetical support for interpreting Jesus' brethren as all unfortunate people; there we prefer the former interpretation.
The Last Things (An Eschatology For Laymen). George Eldon Ladd. Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. Grand Rapids, MI 49503. 1978. Pages 87-102.