The Good News of Jesus Christ

The Final Judgment

Two things are sure in life: "...it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment". [43]

Some day in the future, every man, woman, boy, and girl who ever lived will be raised up from the dead to stand before God and Jesus Christ in judgment:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him [God] who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away.... And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.... And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. [44]

Nobody will escape the Day of Judgment. For the genuine Christian, that Day will be the dawning of everlasting life and joy; for the non-Christian, it will be the Day of condemnation to eternal punishment. [45]

Some have contended with God: "How can a God of love send people to hell forever?" These people don't understand how pure God is or how bad we are.

For the sake of illustration, imagine that there were a man who had never sinned prior to his twenty-fifth birthday and that he sinned thereafter only three times a day, every day, until his seventieth birthday. On the Day of Judgment, that man would have to stand before God and give account for more than forty-nine thousand personal sins!

When we realize that God's law reaches to the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts, we must admit that we sin far more often than three times a day. It is not an exaggeration to say that our sinful attitudes, thoughts, and ways pollute everything we do.

Yes, God is the God of love, but He is also the God of justice. God desires to rescue people from their sins, [46] but He is also angry with them, and His wrath even now burns against them. [47] God must punish sinners even though He desires to forgive them.

Were the Bible to end with this message of judgment, we wouldn't have any hope. But the Bible doesn't end this way. It also reveals how God satisfied His love and His justice at the cross of Jesus Christ so as to forgive people of their sins: there is good news for us if we're willing to receive it, the good news of Jesus Christ!

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Footnotes

[43] Hebrews 9:27. Of course, Christians living when Jesus returns will not die; their bodies, which are now subject to corruption, will be transformed into incorruptible and glorious bodies, and they will live forever with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

[44] Revelation 20:11a, 12, 13a, 15

[45] Daniel 12:2 - Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these [the righteous] to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

[46] 1 Timothy 2:3-4 - This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[47] Romans 1:18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

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