Judgment

This page is a resource that we use for Christian bible study. We have developed some of the information on this page and we have borrowed information from other studies which are freely available. Our intent is to provide a study resource that we can access when traveling. We do not disagree with anyone's personal interpretation of scripture and our thoughts are not offered as an argument for the perspective from our understanding of this revelation. Please feel free to read or use the study material if it is of help. Thank you // JL|©

The consideration of judgment seems intrinsic to the conceptualization of God … so many, perhaps most, if not all theologies seek in one way or another to address the dynamic tension between God’s love for us and the justice required by the absolute truth with can only be associated with God. God is all loving and there is also a spiritual need for justice regarding all events on earth ...

Interestingly, in the history of mankind, there are so many examples of conflicting perspectives regarding just what actions are actually "just" as measured by God's absolute truth ... this study does not seek to resolve these differences ... rather ... we feel that over time God's absolute truth and justice prevail ... we seek to understand, a little better, the principles of judgment as associated with God's absolute truth ...  

Psalm 119, 160 ... "... thy word is truth from the beginning and every one of Your righteous judgments endure forever" ...

There seem to be four principles that we can associate with God's judgment:

Classically, the judgment of God seems to operate in two arenas: 

• exemplary judgment - God interacting with individuals during their life
• eternal judgment - God interacting with individuals at the end of time

There are many examples of exemplary judgment in both the old and new testament as well as many interpretations of eternal judgment ... each is an understanding of scripture regarding these truths ... there is no doubt from numerous old and new testament scripture and specific references by Jesus that eternal judgment is a very specific event for each of us ... depending on how you are looking at scriptures regarding eternal judgment, there may be anywhere from one to four separate events ... we find that conceptualizing three distinct eternal judgment events is helpful when we study this thread of revelation ... we define these three eternal judgments is by the "seat" on which the judge of eternal judgment sits:

"judgment seat of Christ" ... judged are the believers in Jesus Christ ... it is sometimes useful to conceptualize this judgment as the judgment of Christians resurrected in the event often termed the rapture by many Christians ... references include: Rom. 14; 10 - 12,  2 Cor. 5; 10

"throne of Christ's glory" ... judged are folks who are non-Christians and non-Jewish ... that is at the end of the event often termed the time of tribulation by many Christians ... references include: Mat. 25; 31 - 33, 1 Cor. 10; 32

"great white throne" ... judged are all the living and dead who are Jewish ... this is the judgment of Israel ... references include: Jer. 30; 3 - 9,  Zech. 12; 3,  Zech. 14; 2 - 4,  Zech. 13; 8 - 9 

Considering spiritual aspects of judgment in our daily life

Ep. 1; 9 … " … He has made known to us in wisdom … the mystery of His will … according to His purpose … set forth in Christ … to unite all things to Him … in heaven and … on earth …"

Col. 1; 17 - 20 ... "... in him ... all things hold together ... the fullness of God is pleased to dwell ... and ... through him ... reconciles all things ... on earth ... or ... in heaven ... making peace ... by the blood of his cross ..."

Scriptures relating to exemplary and eternal judgment help us to remember that God is both absolute love and absolute truth ... we wonder sometimes during these studies if there is not an additional "something" to be learned from the spiritual activity which we term judgment ... for this consideration, we feel that exemplary and eternal judgment can be conceptually combined ... that is we will look at judgment from a slightly different perspective ... the focus for this segment of our study might be termed: "spiritual judgment" ... our context remains the same, that is that God is absolute love and absolute truth ... actions taken by our free will on earth must be measured by absolute truth ... this is the meaning of judgment ...  

Gen 2; 8 ... "... God planted a garden ... "

This is a hedged, that is a protected, place which has both things of earth and things of heaven ... 

Gen 2; 9 ... "... God ... made every tree grow that is pleasant to sight and good for food ... also ... the tree of life ... and ... the tree of knowledge of good and evil ..." ... Gen 2; 19 ..."... every beast of the field ... and ... every bird of the air .."

This scripture is essentially a model of God's intent to unite things of heaven with things on earth ... what happened? ... Adam and Eve each made specific decisions ... judgments ... which were significant for their lives and the lives of all people that followed ... in our daily speech, we often use the term judgment in this context: judgment between, judgment for, judgment against, impaired judgment ...

The consequence which we most often associate with Adam and Eve's decision is their sudden knowledge of nakedness ... perhaps as significant for this study on spiritual judgment ... they became afraid and hid from God when He walked in the garden (Gen 3; 8 - 10) ... also ... God did not destroy the garden ... rather ... he closed it (Gen 3; 24) ...

We often term this scriptural account original sin ... perhaps it is also the original judgment ... though the judgment at the core of the story is not God's action ... rather it is the judgments, poor though they may be in retrospect, of Adam and Eve ... the outcome of their judgments include the separation of things of heaven from things on earth ... a pretty significant milestone in the history of mankind ... perhaps an appropriate place to begin this segment of our study ...

In addition to our daily use of judgment as a verb (e.g. judgment between, judgment for, judgment against, bad act of judgment, impaired act of  judgment, good act of judgment, etc.) ... judgment is also used as a noun ... no matter who defines judgment as a noun and whatever the context ... judgment as a noun represents a reference to some standard ... there is something or some action which is measured (e.g. judged) with reference to an agreed upon standard ... judgments in both criminal and civil law are good examples of judgment used as a noun ... in a spiritual context ... judgment seems intrinsic to the conceptualization of God because a fundamental understanding of God is that God is all loving and the absolute standard for what is "right" ... perhaps more often expressed as "absolute truth" ... some may argue against this fundamental understanding of God as many theologies throughout history have left us with a record which does not necessarily resemble our revelation of God through Jesus Christ (that of an all loving God and the source of absolute truth) ... perhaps what is left in the historical accounts of some theologies is just the shell of a well developed liturgy which in many examples may have represented the migration of a culture from the fundamental faith of individuals in God to a contrived social tool for the management of society ... historical records may not always represent the actual reality which originally would have been centered in individual people and their efforts to seek God ... note:

Rom. 1; 20 ... "... since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen ... understood ... by the things that are made ... His eternal power ... Godhead ..."

Rom. 2; 13 - 15: ... "... doers of the law ... will be justified ... who do not have the law ... by nature ... do the things in the law ... who show the work of the law written in their hearts ..."

We are considering spiritual aspects of judgment in our daily life ... this is not an argument against the exemplary or eternal judgments of God as detailed in so many scriptures of both the old and new testaments ... these verses leave no doubt about the spiritual meaning of judgment when we use this word in the context of a noun ... however ... while there is no doubt about what judgment means there are so many interpretations of both exemplary and eternal judgment that we can conclude an understand the details will always be elusive  ... so ... our current thread of inquiry concerning "spiritual aspects of judgment in our daily life" represents a review of judgment used as a verb ... our context in this study could be God's act of judgment ... though ... we seem drawn to the other side ... a context in which we look at "our" acts of judgment ... the "our" being us as an individual and perhaps the "our" will accommodate the spiritual activity of the local church. 

People of faith are seeking relationship with God ... in our daily experience one does not just establish relationship with another ... there is an ongoing need to maintain and grow in a relationship ... as a relationship matures it also develops multiple dimensions ... within this context ... our daily acts of judgment must be measured against God's absolute truth and the maturity of our relationship with God ... as our personal relationship with God matures, our understanding of absolute truth becomes clearer, more refined, perhaps of more use to us as individuals and a local church because the intent of God's will begins to live within us ... so ... our acts of judgment have different meaning and also different ramifications depending on the maturity and dimension of our relationship with God ... this is a view of our efforts to seek, establish, maintain and grow in relationship with God over the time period in our life ... hopefully ... we move from initial relationship with God through progressive stages of maturity ... some harmonics-of-3 which are helpful for this conceptualization:

1 Cor. 13; 11 -12 ... "... when I was a child ... I spoke as a child ... understood as a child ... thought as a child ... when I became a man ... I put away childish things ... now we see in a mirror ... dimly ... then ... face to face ... now ... I know in part ... then ... I shall know just as I am known ..."

Philippians 3; 12 ... "... not ... that I have ... already ... attained ... or ... am perfected ... but ... I press on ... that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has ... also ... laid hold of me ...:

This concept of depth in relationship with God's seems to follow us through many studies ... we keep coming across scripture related to four spiritual attributes which in one way or another are essential to maintaining and growing in our relationship with God ... these four spiritual attributes are: wisdom, knowledge of God's will, knowledge of God and understanding ... originally we thought there were three ... however ... our study has lead us to the conclusion that knowledge of God's will and knowledge of God are distinct though certainly related ... it appears that this current study of judgment as a verb ... or ... if you prefer ... spiritual aspects of judgment in our daily life ... is related to the grow of the spiritual attribute: knowledge of God's will ... in our life ... as we grow in our relationship with God, our daily judgments (big and small) slowly become more and more aligned with absolute truth ... the alignment of our daily judgments with absolute truth increases our knowledge of God's will ... and ... our growth in a knowledge of God's will also increase the alignment of our daily judgments with absolute truth ... one modulates the other ... this alignment of our daily judgments with absolute truth becomes increasingly important as our relationship with God grows, matures and continually extends itself into new spiritual dimensions which involve other spiritual attributes ... certainly there may be many more spiritual attributes of relationship with God beyond these four we have been dealing with ... though for us ... at this point in time ... we are pleased and thankful ...

Scripture deals with this principle some times in a positive image and some times with a negative allegory ... both are helpful to understand the interaction of our daily judgments with absolute truth ... note a few verses which have a negative overtone:

Heb. 10; 26 - 27 ... "... if we sin ... willfully ... after we have received the ... knowledge of truth ... there no longer remains ... a sacrifice for sins ... but ... a ... certain ... fearful ... expectation of judgment ..."

1 John 1; 8 - 9 ... "... if we say that we have no sin ... we deceive ourselves ... and ... the truth is not in us ... if we confess our sins ... He is faithful ... and ... just ... to forgive us ... to cleanse us ..."

Prov 1; 20, 29 ... "... .. wisdom cries aloud in the street ... "how long ... will you love being simple ... how long ... scoffing ... fools hate knowledge ... because they hate knowledge ... and ... did not choose to have reverence for the Lord ... they shall eat the fruit of their way ..."

You get the idea from such verses that knowledge within the context of God's absolute truth is important ... note a few positive verses:

Ep. 4; 15 ... "... speaking the truth in love ... may grow up ... in all things ... into Him ... who is the head ... Christ ... from whom ... the whole body ... knit together ... effectively working ... so that ... every part does its share ... causing ... growth of the body ... edifying ... itself ... in love ..."

John 3; 20 - 21 ... "... everyone ... practicing  evil ... hates ... light ... and ... does not come to the light ... he who does ... truth ... comes to the light ... that his deeds may be clearly seen ... they have been done by God ..."

John 16; 13 ... "... when ... the Spirit of truth ... has come ... He will guide you in all truth ..."

John 17; 15 - 23 ... a prayer of Jesus ... "... I do not pray that You should take them out of the world ... keep them from the evil one ... sanctify them by Your truth ... Your word is truth ... I sanctify myself ... that ... they may be sanctified by the truth ... that they may all be one ... one in us ... one as we are one ... that they may be made perfect in one ..."

We find in these two sets of verses an invitation to seek growth and depth in our relationship with God ... the frame which holds this image of absolute truth as the modulator of our daily judgments is Christ ... both judgment and truth are given to Jesus Christ by the Father and we can note from John 16; 13 that the Spirit is our guide in all levels of truth ... note these references to Jesus:

John 18; 36 ... "... I have come into the world ... that ... I should bear witness to the truth ... everyone who is of the truth ... hears my voice ..."

John 5; 22 ... "... the Father judges no one ... (He) ... has given all judgment to the Son ..."

John 5; 27 ... "... given Him authority to execute judgment ..."

John 1; 17 ... "... grace ... and ... truth ... come through Jesus Christ ..."

John 5; 30 ... "... my judgment is righteousness ... because ... I do not seek my own will ... but ... the will of the Father who sent me ..."

John 8; 31 - 32 ... "... if you abide in my word ... you shall know the truth ... and ... the truth shall set you free ..."

Knowledge of God's will ... is ... in itself a modulator of the spiritual attributes: wisdom and understanding ... Prov 3; 19 - 20 … " … by wisdom the Lord founded the earth … by understanding established the heavens … by His knowledge the deeps broke forth and the clouds drop down dew …"  

It's interesting to note the sequential position of knowledge and truth in some harmonics-of-3 ...

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