Who Will Judge the World?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:06.280 | We are gonna start this new week off

00:00:08.080 | with a solid Bible question

00:00:10.000 | from a listener by the name of Andrew.

00:00:12.200 | Pastor John, hello to you.

00:00:14.040 | My question is about who will judge the world finally?

00:00:19.040 | Is it Jesus, the Father, or the Word of Christ?

00:00:25.300 | Of course, John 3:17 and John 12:47

00:00:28.720 | tell us that Jesus did not come into the world

00:00:31.160 | the first time to play the role of judge.

00:00:34.180 | I understand that, that comes later.

00:00:36.860 | And as John 5:22 says it,

00:00:38.840 | "It's not the Father who judges in the end, but Christ."

00:00:43.620 | But then other passages like 1 Peter 1:17

00:00:45.940 | seem to actually say, no, the Father judges in the end.

00:00:50.540 | And then John 12, 48 and 49 says,

00:00:53.660 | "Final judgment comes from the Word of Christ

00:00:56.620 | "under the authority of the Father."

00:00:59.420 | Can you help me understand all of this?

00:01:01.320 | And in the end, who judges the world?

00:01:06.320 | - I think if you put all the pieces

00:01:09.760 | of the New Testament together,

00:01:12.460 | the answer goes something like this.

00:01:14.840 | It's kind of a complicated answer, but I'll unpack it.

00:01:19.040 | God the Father judges the world

00:01:24.040 | through Jesus Christ, the God-man,

00:01:28.400 | sharing that judgment in appropriate ways

00:01:32.360 | with apostles and Christians

00:01:35.440 | and with the confirming indictments of sin and truth.

00:01:41.440 | So that's the sentence that answers the question

00:01:45.540 | as I see all the pieces going together.

00:01:47.320 | But before I give the building blocks

00:01:49.480 | and unpack those pieces,

00:01:51.920 | let me say why I think this is worth talking about.

00:01:56.920 | I mean, I think this is really important.

00:02:01.320 | And the reason is because every single human being,

00:02:06.120 | I just think of the listeners right now,

00:02:08.620 | every single individual listening to our voices

00:02:13.620 | will be held personally accountable

00:02:18.020 | before the maker of the universe

00:02:20.720 | for the way each of us has responded

00:02:24.520 | to the measure of revelation

00:02:26.680 | that each of us has concerning God,

00:02:29.680 | concerning His ways in the world.

00:02:33.560 | And for the way we have lived our lives,

00:02:37.080 | including our attitudes and our words and our actions,

00:02:40.740 | in response to the witness of God in nature,

00:02:44.520 | in scripture, in our own conscience,

00:02:47.120 | which is just another witness to God's reality,

00:02:49.960 | we will all stand before the judgment seat of God,

00:02:54.960 | Paul says in Romans 14.10.

00:02:59.720 | So that's why it matters.

00:03:02.800 | And I think there should be a kind of trembling seriousness

00:03:07.680 | about it over against the superficiality

00:03:11.480 | of most of what happens in the world.

00:03:16.240 | Now, here are the building blocks of that complex answer

00:03:19.000 | that I summed up in that sentence,

00:03:21.960 | who judges the world.

00:03:23.720 | First, there are biblical passages that say plainly

00:03:28.720 | that God judges the world, the Father judges the world.

00:03:34.200 | 1 Peter 1.17, if you call on Him as Father,

00:03:38.600 | who judges impartially according to each one's deeds,

00:03:43.600 | conduct yourselves in fear

00:03:44.960 | throughout the time of your exile.

00:03:46.840 | So there it is, clear.

00:03:48.480 | The Father judges impartially all of us.

00:03:51.480 | Or Romans 3.5, what should we say?

00:03:55.680 | That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us by no means,

00:04:00.680 | for how then could God judge the world?

00:04:05.200 | So that's the first building block,

00:04:08.120 | the Father judges the world.

00:04:11.160 | Here's the second one, you have biblical passages

00:04:13.920 | about Christ judging the world.

00:04:17.920 | So 2 Timothy 4.1, Jesus Christ is the judge

00:04:22.920 | of the living and the dead,

00:04:25.200 | and by His appearing and His kingdom, He judges the world.

00:04:30.200 | So you have Christ at His second coming

00:04:33.600 | described as the judge of the living and the dead.

00:04:36.560 | And then if you ask how these two threads

00:04:39.760 | of scriptures that talk about Christ

00:04:42.040 | and talk about the Father judging the world,

00:04:44.560 | how they fit together, how those threads are woven

00:04:47.840 | together, the clearest answer is that God the Father

00:04:52.840 | judges through God the Son, the God-Man, Christ Jesus.

00:04:59.040 | And the New Testament expresses that relationship

00:05:04.240 | between the Father and Son in different ways.

00:05:06.240 | For example, Luke in the book of Acts expresses it

00:05:10.400 | by saying God appointed Christ to be the judge of the world.

00:05:16.840 | Acts 10.42, Christ is the one appointed by God

00:05:21.840 | to be the judge of the living and the dead.

00:05:25.920 | Same thing in Acts 17, verse 31, God has fixed a day

00:05:30.920 | on which He will judge the world in righteousness

00:05:37.080 | by a man whom He has appointed,

00:05:42.400 | and of this He has given assurance

00:05:45.320 | by raising Him from the dead.

00:05:46.520 | That's about the clearest statement you could get

00:05:48.320 | of God judges by a man, Christ Jesus.

00:05:51.200 | So God through Jesus Christ.

00:05:54.880 | Then Jesus expresses this relationship

00:05:59.120 | between the Father and the Son in judgment

00:06:01.680 | with the same kind of emphasis,

00:06:03.480 | with focus on the God-Man.

00:06:06.960 | God intends to do His judging through a man,

00:06:11.720 | an incarnate Son, John 5.27.

00:06:16.720 | The Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment

00:06:23.440 | because He is the Son of Man.

00:06:30.080 | So I think when Jesus says in John 5.22,

00:06:34.000 | which is just a few verses earlier,

00:06:37.120 | the Father judges no one but has given all judgment

00:06:42.120 | to the Son that all may honor the Son

00:06:45.520 | just as they honor the Father.

00:06:46.800 | I think when He says that, He doesn't mean

00:06:50.960 | that the Father is not involved at all in judgment,

00:06:55.960 | but that He's not involved in judgment without the Son.

00:07:00.760 | The Father judges no one, I think means

00:07:04.480 | the Father judges no one apart from the Son.

00:07:08.200 | And I say that because eight verses later,

00:07:11.400 | this is John 5.30, Jesus says,

00:07:14.960 | "I can do nothing on my own.

00:07:18.440 | As I hear, I judge.

00:07:21.680 | And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will,

00:07:26.680 | but the will of Him who sent me."

00:07:30.280 | In other words, both God the Father

00:07:34.400 | and God the Son say, "I don't judge anyone

00:07:39.400 | without perfect harmony between my will

00:07:45.080 | and my Father's will or my will and my Son's will."

00:07:50.080 | Now, besides the judgment of the world

00:07:54.560 | through the Father and the Son,

00:07:55.800 | the New Testament also speaks of the involvement

00:08:00.400 | of the apostles and the saints

00:08:03.520 | in the judgment of the world.

00:08:04.960 | This is really amazing.

00:08:07.160 | For example, Jesus says to the 12 apostles in Matthew 19.28,

00:08:12.160 | "Truly I say to you, in the new world,

00:08:18.440 | when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne,

00:08:22.880 | you who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones

00:08:27.880 | judging the 12 tribes of Israel."

00:08:32.440 | And then Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, verses two and three,

00:08:35.920 | to the church, the whole church, he says,

00:08:38.680 | "Do you not know that the saints, that is all Christians,

00:08:43.400 | will judge the world?

00:08:46.240 | And if the world is to be judged by you,

00:08:48.520 | are you incompetent to try trivial cases here now?

00:08:52.600 | Do you not know that we are to judge angels?

00:08:58.000 | How much more than matters pertaining to this life?"

00:09:02.760 | Now, if that sounds incredible, which it does,

00:09:08.280 | it gets even more incredible in Revelation 3.21

00:09:12.120 | where Jesus says, "The one who conquers,"

00:09:14.920 | that is the one who triumphs over persecution

00:09:18.840 | and temptation by keeping the faith,

00:09:21.560 | the one who triumphs, the one who conquers by faith,

00:09:24.280 | "I will grant him to sit with me on my throne

00:09:29.280 | as I also conquered and sat down with my Father

00:09:35.480 | on His throne."

00:09:37.640 | That's just breathtaking.

00:09:40.040 | In other words, to be part of Christ's people by faith,

00:09:45.680 | simple, childlike trust in the infinitely worthy Christ,

00:09:51.240 | to be part of Christ's people, part of His body,

00:09:55.680 | bride, is to be part of His rule.

00:10:00.560 | That's what He said, part of His rule,

00:10:02.960 | which includes part of His judgment.

00:10:05.320 | So if we sit with Him on His throne,

00:10:08.600 | in some sense sharing in His rule,

00:10:11.560 | we then share in His judgment, just like Paul said.

00:10:16.560 | Now, there are two more building blocks in that sentence

00:10:20.480 | that I gave.

00:10:21.320 | So besides God, Christ, apostles, Christians,

00:10:25.520 | listen to the way Jesus describes the judgment

00:10:28.360 | in John 3:19.

00:10:29.840 | "This is the judgment.

00:10:34.160 | The light has come into the world

00:10:39.440 | and people loved darkness rather than the light

00:10:44.440 | because their works were evil."

00:10:47.000 | In other words, it is our own sin,

00:10:51.040 | our own love of darkness,

00:10:53.320 | which will be our judge at the last day.

00:10:58.320 | And then He says in John 12, 48,

00:11:01.160 | "The one who rejects me," Jesus says,

00:11:05.020 | "The one who rejects me and does not receive my words

00:11:10.020 | has a judge.

00:11:13.280 | The word that I have spoken will judge him

00:11:18.160 | on the last day."

00:11:20.320 | In other words, at the last judgment,

00:11:23.480 | the truth that Jesus spoke

00:11:26.680 | and that we knew and did not follow

00:11:30.220 | will rise up as our judge.

00:11:34.040 | So the truth and our sin will also be our judges.

00:11:42.000 | Now, let me draw in one last cluster

00:11:45.320 | of a different kind of building block

00:11:49.520 | to use when we're building our biblical theology

00:11:53.040 | of divine judgment.

00:11:54.680 | There are not only six judges, so to speak,

00:11:59.680 | God, Christ, apostles, Christians, truth, sin.

00:12:05.400 | There are at least six meanings of the word judgment.

00:12:10.800 | And we should ask each time we're talking about it,

00:12:13.240 | which one are we talking about?

00:12:15.520 | So judgment is an expression of the highest

00:12:19.480 | and final authoritative decision about our destiny

00:12:24.200 | by God, Romans 3, 6.

00:12:26.640 | Judgment is an expression of the immediate execution

00:12:31.120 | of the act of judgment, Acts 17, 31.

00:12:35.860 | Judgment is an act of final and decisive separation

00:12:40.860 | from God for non-Christians, that's Matthew 25, 32.

00:12:47.460 | And judgment is an act of meeting out various rewards

00:12:52.460 | to Christians, 1 Corinthians 3, 15.

00:12:56.060 | And judgment is an effect of truth

00:13:01.020 | that has been believed or rejected, John 12, 48.

00:13:04.740 | And judgment is an effect of sin

00:13:07.420 | in response to truth, John 3, 19.

00:13:09.860 | So we should always clarify what we're talking about

00:13:14.860 | when we ask about particular texts

00:13:19.640 | concerning God's judgment.

00:13:21.860 | So to give the summary answer once more,

00:13:26.860 | who will judge the world?

00:13:29.140 | Answer, trying to put all the pieces together

00:13:31.980 | in one sentence.

00:13:33.640 | God the Father judges the world

00:13:37.620 | through Jesus Christ, the God, man,

00:13:42.080 | sharing that judgment in appropriate ways

00:13:45.460 | with apostles and Christians

00:13:48.380 | and with the confirming indictments of sin and truth.

00:13:54.260 | And I think, Tony, that the note we should end on

00:13:59.820 | is that the distinctive Christian reality,

00:14:04.820 | since lots of religions believe in the final judgment of God,

00:14:08.040 | nothing distinctively Christian about final judgment.

00:14:11.000 | The distinctive Christian reality

00:14:15.560 | is that God's Son came into the world

00:14:19.680 | in order to take on Himself the judgment

00:14:23.720 | that we deserve when He died on the cross

00:14:27.720 | so that these words from Jesus in John

00:14:32.720 | would be gloriously true.

00:14:35.880 | He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you,

00:14:39.520 | whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me

00:14:44.200 | has eternal life.

00:14:46.920 | He does not come in to judgment

00:14:51.760 | but has passed from death to life."

00:14:55.160 | That's the distinctive Christian message.

00:14:59.280 | - Yeah, very distinct.

00:15:00.240 | Thank you, Pastor John, for this gospel reminder.

00:15:03.240 | And thank you for joining us today.

00:15:04.560 | You can ask a question of your own,

00:15:05.960 | search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast,

00:15:08.360 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:15:12.360 | And that mention of John 3:19 strikes me.

00:15:16.360 | And this, and this is the judgment, Jesus said.

00:15:20.680 | The light has come into the world

00:15:22.560 | and people loved the darkness rather than the light

00:15:26.960 | because their works were evil.

00:15:29.420 | That's the judgment on sin.

00:15:32.880 | Sinners love sin.

00:15:33.960 | And I wanna press into that key point,

00:15:35.880 | and we will next time.

00:15:37.120 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:15:38.040 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.

00:15:40.040 | Thanks for listening.

00:15:41.080 | (upbeat music)

00:15:43.660 | (upbeat music)

00:15:46.240 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Who Will Judge the World?

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