Judging ourselves rightly

A month ago I posted some thoughts on truth, lies and deception in Romans. A friend from church who read it asked me if I had any ideas how we can avoid thinking judgement applies to others, but somehow not to us? This was my answer. What would your answer look like?

I suppose that is a question we spend all our life trying to figure out. Ultimately it is not something we can do for ourselves, but only something God can work in us by his Spirit. We could then think about the means he uses to do that. Primarily God works through his word, although that comes in different forms:

1. The Written Word

The Scriptures in a huge diversity of ways tells us what we are really like and what this reaction this provokes from God (c.f. Rom 3:9-20). They tell us that God is real and will act, as he has acted before, to punish the wicked.

2. The Spoken Word

This category includes:

(a) Prophecies (I am a continuationist, believe it or not)

(b) Preaching and teaching

(c) Conversations

Through these we are told directly that we are in the wrong and there are consequences from God for that.

3. The Sacramental Word

Baptism tells us that we need to deserve to be buried for our sins, and will be in one form or another. The Lords Supper speaks to us that blood must be shed for our sins, and reminds us of the greatest sin we ever committed.

4. The Acted Word

Maybe this is poor use of language, but what I mean is that interacting with other people, and particularly the people of God, reminds us of their qualities and our lack of them. Seeing how the church lives lives changed by the gospel is one of the most powerful demonstrations of my failings.

How can these words work their work in our lives?

I think the answer to this question is two-fold:

1. 1. We need to expose ourself to them. Read our bible. Read good teaching. Listen to good preaching. Devote ourself to the Lord's Supper. Spend time with other people, in particular the church. etc. Give time to putting ourselves in the way of the word.
2. 2. We need to receive these words as the word of God and not just the words of men. If these words have no authority over us then they cannot give a true judgment of us. We could just dismiss them as soon as we heard them. Only if they are from God do they carry weight.

Jesus Christ, the Word of God to us

Of huge importance though is that we recognise that these words are not the source of our knowledge about ourselves and our plight. We must through them experience the Word of God, Jesus Christ. He in his perfect obedience showed the impossible standard that we can never meet. He though his death on the cross showed us the magnitude of the sentence that hangs over our disobedience. These other words are secondary as their role is to 'image', 'convey' or 'witness' to the word of God to us. We must always look through and beyond them to him.

This is important firstly because otherwise we strip Christ of the honour due to him. It is important secondarily because otherwise we will not know the true gospel. If we do not look to Jesus Christ we will either:

(a) water down the judgment and embrace self-righteous pride; or

(b) despair as we are destroyed by the overpowering condemnation.

However, if we do look at Jesus we will see the resurrection as well as his death. We will see Heaven's peace and perfect justice meet, and see how both can reach their fulfilment. No watering down, both at full power in one event! As we see the full extent of our sin and the holy judgment of God, at the same time, inseparably, we see the full extent of God's love and mercy. As we seek to find the correct, painful judgment of ourselves through the written word, spoken word, sacramental word, and acted word we find the Word of God who brought our condemnation and our justification in him.

As always then the answer is ultimately Christ. He is our judge and our saviour. It is to him that we should look to know ourselves, and know our future. If we find our judgment of death in him, we will also find our indestructible life in him too. Good news!