GOD AS JUDGE

Often in conversation there is talk of a generous, loving, forgiving and merciful God and in the very next breath we hear, ‘Yeah, but he is also a judge who rules, and one of these days…you know!’ This is not a new or novel comment. It is simply a perception of God that we want because we are convinced it will ensure that we look good, and even better and more deserving of goodness than someone else.

God is not a judge. It is his words that will judge us… now…and forever. The principle of the vineyard workers, the response of the older brother, and the other nine lepers, are all to reveal how we view God. For us to sound off that ‘God is Judge’ is to really hope for someone’s destruction while believing we should pass through any judgment because of some perceived goodness and righteousness we think we possess. We want God as Judge, but really, we want to be the judge and believe that judgment is for someone else.

This only reveals our perception of God and how we have been informed, and deformed, by such information.

“I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” Jesus