Entering the region of judgement

There is a penalty and curse for sin; and Christ consented to enter that region. Christ entered voluntarily into the pain and horror which is sin’s penalty from God. Christ, by the deep intimacy of His sympathy with men, entered deeply into the blight and judgment which was entailed by man’s sin, and which must be entailed by man’s sin if God is a holy and therefore a judging God... To say that Christ was punished by God who was always well pleased with Him is an outrageous thing. Calvin himself repudiates the idea. But we may say that Christ did, at the depth of that great act of self–identification with us when He became man, He did enter the sphere of sin’s penalty and the horror of sin’s curse

(PT Forsyth, The Work of Christ)

This is a famous quotation from Forsyth. I think it is a little too neat, but I think the concept of Christ entering the region or sphere of God's judgement is a helpful one. In the first place that region is Israel, in the second place humanity, and in the third place all of fallen creation.

God's judgement

How can we know that God hates evil? How can we know what hell is like? How can we believe that justice is done in this universe?

• Romans 1:18-32: It is seen in our experience - just look around, and you can see hell.
• Romans 3:1-20: It is declared verbally in the Bible which repeatedly shows that we are in the wrong and the consequences of that.
• Romans 3:21-31: It is executed to the full on Jesus Christ

It is important to see that each is clearer than the one proceeding it.

There is a crescendo as the ugly theme becomes louder and louder, so that it is tempting to cover your ears.

Irreligious folks block their ears early in the crescendo when they suppress the knowledge of God in their experience.

Religious folks hear what their experience says, but when things become sharper and more personal when God addresses them in the Bible they put a different kind of ear-plug in. They say the Bible isn't really addressed to them because it was for a different era, or that it was for the younger son living immorally far from home.

But Christians listen to the full crescendo despite the unpleasantness. This is not because they rejoice in the oppressive noise but because they want to have their ears utterly unblocked for the crash at the end which ends that discordant note and marks the beginning of a new and beautiful melody.

One reason no judgment is no good

Jason Goroncy has already quoted this this week, but it is so good I wanted to post it here. This is why I like PT Forsyth and Lutheranism...

If a message of grace tell us there was and is no judgment any more, and that God has simply put judgment on one side and has not exercised it, that cannot be the true grace of God. Surely the grace of God cannot stultify our human conscience like that! So we are haunted by mistrust, unless conscience be drowned in a haze of heart. We have always the feeling and fear that there is judgment to follow. How may I be sure that I may take the grace of God seriously and finally, how be sure that I have complete salvation, that I may entirely trust it through the worst my conscience may say? Only thus, that God is the Reconciler, that He reconciles in Christ's Cross that the judgment of sin was there for good and all. We are judged now by the Cross, and by the Cross we stand or fall. The great sin is not something we do, but it is refusing to make ourselves right with God in Christ's Cross. We are judged in the end by our relation to the Cross of Christ. It is the principle of our moral world. All judgment is committed to that Son. We stand before God at last according as we are owned by Christ. We are confessed by Him according to our confession of Him. Nemesis on us is hallowed as a part of the judgment on Him to whose death we are joined. There is no such thorough assertion of God's holy, loving law anywhere as there, where in the Cross it was given its own, and was perfected in judgment in Him who became a curse for us. His prayer for His murderers, or the closing sigh of victory in the midst of that judgment, vouches for ever to this, that it is the same holy will which judges man's wickedness and also loves us and gives His Son for a propitiation for us. Only that holiness which is changeless in its judgment could be changeless also in grace. His grace was so little to be foiled that He graciously took His own judgment.

(pp. 167-9, PT Forsyth, The Work of Christ)

God's righteous judgment is revealed

I have a theory, which could probably be shot down by someone who knows Greek and has read more books than me. Nevertheless I will be bold and share it.

I think the 'Righteousness of God' in Romans means something like 'God's righteous judgment' (ala Romans 2:5). I think this combines many of the strengths of the other interpretations being debated.

In what sense then is the the righteousness of God revealed? I think it is revealed in three ways (the colours tie into the senses in which God's righteous judgment is revealed in Romans 1-3 in the quotations below):

1. Present/visible
2. Future/final
3. In Christ's death and resurrection

When reading the OT you often feel that Israel is not the only party to the covenant who fails to keep to it. God says do this and you will live, fail to do this and you will destroyed (Deuteronomy 28; Galatians 3:10-12). However, Israel never fails to fail and yet God does not destroy them. He does reveal the righteous judgment and is not mocked but he always only partially reveals his judgment. This leads to Habakkuk, the Psalmists, Qoheleth, Job etc to be endlessly confused. Where is God's judgment?

Naturally this leads to a hope for a final judgment in which the law is fulfilled and God shows that he is righteous in judgment by punishing the wicked and acquitting the righteous (c.f. Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:16).

Both of these judgments are according to the law, one is just the completion of the other. Paul in Romans 1 explains how God has been judging by 'giving over' people to their sinful desires. In Romans 2 he reminds everyone that this is only a partial judgment and there will be a final judgment at which everyone will be fully judged. But the law has shown (in its execution as well as its legislation) that all will be judged unfavourably on that day.

Thankfully though the final judgment has been brought forward and revealed for us in Jesus Christ. The curse of the law has been exhausted and displayed early in the public death of Jesus Christ. The law then has been fulfilled (fully executed) but apart from itself (in that it wasn't executed on who it was meant to be executed). But the judgment on Christ is two-fold: of condemnation in the cross; but also of justification in the resurrection. If we don't accept that condemnation as ours but instead look forward to being judged by ourselves, then we will not receive that justification which is joined to it.

Sorry that is not very polished, but I'm lacking in time. And although it is a conclusion that has been gradually forming in my mind it is still fairly nebulous and I'm aware that I probably need to make some serious changes. But I thought it was time I threw it out there for some comment.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [...]

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity [...]

For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions [...]

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done [...]

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? [...] you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek [...]

on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus [...]

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The crowded judgment seat

If you were to imagine Judgment day you may imagine God the Father on the judgment seat meeting out our just deserts and Jesus jumping in at certain points to shout 'this one is mine'. Perhaps you haven't been reading the Apostles' Creed, or your Bible because it will be Christ in the judgment seat.

"Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness." (Psalm 96:12-13)

"The Lord has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples." (Isaiah 3:13)

"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22)

"And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that [Jesus] is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead." (Acts 10:42)

"he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31)

"Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead" (2 Timothy 4:1)

But wait a moment! Perhaps it is still not that simple. For if you really were reading your bible you would find out that the Church will be occupying the judgment seat too!

"the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom." (Daniel 7:22)

"Jesus said to them, 'Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'" (Matthew 19:28)

"do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!" (1 Corinthians 6:2-3)

"Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4)

• How do you fit these passages into your understanding of Judgment day?
• How do you fit these passage into your understanding of your justification?
• How do you fit these passages into your understanding of the Trinity?
• How do you fit these passages into your understanding of what you are saved too?
• How do you fit these passages into your understanding of passages such as 'Judge not, that you be not judged' (Matthew 7:1; cf. Romans 14:13)? (perhaps 1 Corinthians 4:5 offers a clue)