Tag Archive for 'judgement'

The Gentiles

Published by bcg on 20 August 2008 in Bible. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

In Jeremiah, there's a lot of judgement, of Israel and the surrounding nations.  The final few chapters basically comprise a long series of judgements on the surrounding nations.

So I was surprised when I noticed that God promises to restore some of them.  For example, in 49.6 God says, 'But afterwards I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites.'  And in 49.39 he says, 'I will restore the fortunes of Elam.'  And so on.

While the language of judgement is common to all nations (not just Israel), normally the language of restoration is reserved only for Israel.  They are God's chosen people; the surrounding nations are not.  Therefore, although they are judged, they are never completely destroyed.

So what is going on here?

I wonder if we have here a prefiguring of the mission to the Gentiles that comes in the New Testament.  The fact that God doesn't simply punish, but also restores the Gentile nations suggests that his salvation is not limited to (although he may primarily be for) Israel.

Of course, the verses only have this significance once the mission to the Gentiles is made explicit.  But they are maybe one of the reasons why the early disciples accepted Peter's vision and Paul's mission.  For I hope that they used the Scriptures to test the words of prophecy and visions, as Paul tells us to do.  If they did, they would have found verses like these (and of course many others, even more explicit) to support the visions.

Passing Judgement

Published by bcg on 10 November 2007 in Church. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

At the sermon I heard on Sunday the preacher told a story which effectively made two points:

  1. we should derive our sense of self-worth from the fact that God loves us, not from what other people think of us;
  2. judging others is often hurtful, and usually wrong – we should leave it up to God.

After the service I reflected that the reason we often allow other people's judgements to 'stick' to us, is because we actually deserve judgement. It is of course God's judgement that we deserve, however, not other people's – we have no right to judge each other simply because we all equally deserve judgement ourselves. In judging others we demonstrate our hypocrisy.

I would argue that the place of 'accountability', close friends/family telling you where you are going wrong, is not the same as 'passing judgement', because 'accountability' is only that if it works both ways. Passing judgement is a one-way street from one person to another.

That leaves two reasons why other people's judgements shouldn't stick to us:

  1. only God has the right to judge us – when others do (and when we judge others) it is hypocritical;
  2. God doesn't punish us when he judges others, because Jesus took that punishment on himself, and gave us his righteousness – so although we deserve judgement, actually we don't because Jesus has taken that judgement on himself.

So, given that, is it ever right for humans to pass judgement on other humans? Well, yes actually, in two situations I think:

  1. secular authority, law and order, criminal justic;
  2. Church discipline, where we sometimes have to deal with difficult and damaging situations here and now (as opposed to waiting for God's final perfect judgement).

But when we judge others in these situations, it should always be done with humility, acknowledging that the authority to judge comes only from God, and that ultimately we all deserve judgement. These two situations are God exercising his authority through us – which, again, calls for humility.

Judgement and the Old Testament

Published by bcg on 18 October 2007 in Bible. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

One of the problems that some Christians have with the idea of penal substitution is the idea of God's judgement (I know because I've been there myself). This concept of a vengeful, wrathful God seems alien to some. And, after all, in the New Testament although God's judgement is regularly threatened, it only rarely gets carried out.

However, I do wonder if the remedy is a bit more of the Old Testament. Many (most) evangelicals today are closet Marcionites – that is, they don't really use the Old Testament properly, if at all. But judgement is a major theme of the Old Testament, especially in the prophets. I have just been reading the tail-end of Jeremiah, where there are a series of judgement prophecies against the nations surrounding Israel, for idolatrous behaviour.

It is against this backdrop of God punishing nations for their sin that God sent Jesus. Judgement is a real and dangerous threat to us because we really sin – so unless his righteous judgement can be carried out, God is not a righteous judge. The glorious thing is that in Jesus God demonstrates both his judgement and his love at the same time, punishing sin and offering new life all at once.

My point here is: God's judgement is real and needs to be carried out, which the Old Testament makes abundantly clear.

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