Understanding Judgment
In coming into an understanding of the heart of God, I found that judgment is a wonderful
thing. The judgment that we have been taught in traditional Christianity has
given us a false concept of God. One of these false concepts is this:
"There is going to come a day when God is going to pour out His vengeance,
wrath and anger upon humanity because of their rejection of Him, and
disobedience to Him. God is so angry at mankind that He is going to pour out
horrible tortures upon them and then send them to a fiery torment where they
will be tortured in unending agony throughout all of eternity."
We are taught this concept mainly due to two things:
1. Mistranslation of God’s Word.
2. Natural understanding, rather than spiritual interpretation.
A natural, carnal
understanding of the scriptures has caused almost all the conflicts between
believers. You can have a natural understanding of the Bible and still miss
God. Spiritual understanding of the scriptures only comes through seeking God
intimately and spending much time in His presence. The Bible was never meant to
be taken strictly intellectually with the natural understanding and
interpretation. The Apostle Paul said that the gospel is a mystery. The purpose of God is hidden from the natural,
carnal mind of man. The natural mind cannot understand deep spiritual truths.
Natural man can only understand with his natural mind. To be able to understand
the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, you must have a heart that is seeking only
God and His truth. It is very easy to get this heart just by going to God in a
very simple way and asking Him to capture your heart for His purpose and to
open to you the mysteries of the scriptures.
We will see in this
message the way in which judgment takes place. We will see that His judgment is
just and righteous, not vengeful and hateful.
"With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early
for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness" (Isa. 26:9).
"Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations"
(Ps. 82:8).
You can see from the
above verses that judgment is a thing to be desired. When God judges the earth,
the people will learn righteousness and then God shall inherit all nations. God
sends His judgments for correction, to teach you His righteous ways.
Judgment Is to Be Taken Seriously
Judgment is not to be
taken lightly. If you sow to the flesh, you will most certainly reap the flesh.
"For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall
we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" (Heb.
2:2-3).
In these days, we are
hearing the wonderful message of reconciliation and sonship. We can all feel
the nearness of the day of Jubilee for us. There is soon coming a day in which
the firstfruits of God will be loosed from the bondage of corruption and shall
fully reveal and manifest to the world the fullness of God
The writer of Hebrews
tells us that the gospel of the New Testament far transcends the Covenant given
in the Old Testament. The Gospel of grace far surpasses the message of the law
in that in the Gospel of grace is the power to deliver you and to cause you to
walk in the character and nature of God. That is why we are judged. Our judgment
is for correction to cause us to turn back to Him as our source of life.
Judgment is simply reaping what we sow. Our own actions is what brings judgments.
The scriptures basically teach three kinds of Judgment.
1. For past sins.
2. As sons.
3. As servants.
The First Judgment Was for the Sins of the Past
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to(1 Pet. 3:18).
God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit"
"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:19-21).
It is very clear by these verses that God is not imputing sin to us, which means He is not holding
us accountable. In Christ, we are made the righteousness of God.
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24).
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
I often ask this question: Did Jesus really take away the sin of the world? Most Christians
don’t really believe that He did.
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world" (1
John 2:2).
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Rom. 3:23-25).
Romans 3:23 is used repeatedly in gospel messages and normally is read as a standalone verse, but verse 23
should never be read without verse 24. Verse 23 is not the end of the sentence,
but goes on to say that all who sinned have been freely justified by His grace.
This is the good news.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). For every wrong that I have ever done, Jesus took the iniquity on Himself, and not only for my sins but also for the sins of the
whole world.
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his
head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). When Jesus said, "It is finished," the
word "finished" meant the debt had been paid.
Strongs #5055: teleo (tel-eh’-o); from 5056; to end, i.e.
complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt): accomplish, make an
end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform. (Strongs Concordance)
As Jesus was dying, with His last breath, He said, "The debt has been paid."
Oh, how we need to know
the depth of those words "It is finished!" Your debt has been paid.
Do you have things in your life that aggravate you from time to time? Do you
have problems with your temper? Do you have things in your life that just pop
up once in a while that you would rather not be there? I’m telling you
according to the scriptures the debt has been paid. The judgment for your sin
"na has been paid." As I have said so many times before, you need not be condemned
for the nature that Adam gave to you. You need to be transformed by the Spirit
of God growing in you. God has already judged the sin of the world at the
cross. The sin is that carnal nature that the Apostle Paul talks about in
Romans, chapter 7, That is the debt which has been paid in full. Everything
that your carnal nature does was paid for at the cross. Although God is not
condemning us for our carnality, if we sow to the flesh we will still reap to
the flesh.
should never be read without verse 24. Verse 23 is not the end of the sentence,
but goes on to say that all who sinned have been freely justified by His grace.
This is the good news.
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). For every wrong that I have ever done, Jesus took the iniquity on Himself, and not only for my sins but also for the sins of the
whole world.
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his
head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). When Jesus said, "It is finished," the
word "finished" meant the debt had been paid.
Strongs #5055: teleo (tel-eh’-o); from 5056; to end, i.e.
complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt): accomplish, make an
end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform. (Strongs Concordance)
As Jesus was dying, with His last breath, He said, "The debt has been paid."
Oh, how we need to know
the depth of those words "It is finished!" Your debt has been paid.
Do you have things in your life that aggravate you from time to time? Do you
have problems with your temper? Do you have things in your life that just pop
up once in a while that you would rather not be there? I’m telling you
according to the scriptures the debt has been paid. The judgment for your sin
"na has been paid." As I have said so many times before, you need not be condemned
for the nature that Adam gave to you. You need to be transformed by the Spirit
of God growing in you. God has already judged the sin of the world at the
cross. The sin is that carnal nature that the Apostle Paul talks about in
Romans, chapter 7, That is the debt which has been paid in full. Everything
that your carnal nature does was paid for at the cross. Although God is not
condemning us for our carnality, if we sow to the flesh we will still reap to
the flesh.
The Penalty for Sin
If what we have been taught in the past is true about judgment, if the penalty for sin and
unrepentance is eternal torment, then Jesus could not have possibly paid that
price for sin, or He would have to be eternally tormented. There is something
drastically wrong with the concepts we have received from the scriptures due to
translation errors. When Jesus said, "The debt has been paid," it was
like a divine eraser that erased the sin of the world. Oh, how the world needs
to hear the good news of the gospel! They are not going to be judged because walking
around in darkness not knowing the truth of their being a son or daughter of
God.
We have been taught that God is a vengeful God
and that because some have lived many years in disobedience and rejected God,
He is going to pour out His vengeful wrath upon His creation. God is not vengeful
or full of wrath. That is man’s concept.
We are taught that because man has inherited this antichrist nature, and because he does what his nature dictates, that God will torture him forever in unending torment. This
ungodly message, more than anything else, has so distorted the image of our
Father God.
When Jesus said, "It is finished," the
word "finished" meant the debt had been paid.Strongs #5055: teleo (tel-eh’-o); from 5056; to end, i.e.
complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt): accomplish, make an
end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform. (Strongs Concordance)
As Jesus was dying, with His last breath, He said, "The debt has been paid."
It makes the cross of none effect for those who have not thewill power to change and accept the religious traditions of modern day
Pharisees. God does not condemn you for acting out of your human life. It
is natural for you to live a human life of good and evil until Christ is
revealed in you. We experience because God
loves us and His judgment and correction is to get us to turn to Him.To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment