The Last Judgment

“In Christ Alone” is one of our congregation’s favorite hymns. It is a powerful and poignant hymn that we have sung regularly at the end of our Reformation and Easter services, for graduation services and Training Camp Sundays, and even for Christian funerals in our church. But did you know that not everybody likes this new hymn? There is a church body in America that has recently rejected this hymn from its new hymnal. Find out this Sunday why the wrath of this particular church body was raised by the wording in this hymn. 
This Sunday we celebrate The Last Judgment. We focus on the wrath of God poured out on unbelievers who have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior. But we also focus on the salvation of God poured out on believers who have received Jesus Christ as Savior. We examine what kind of God does the Bible present to Christians. Is He a just God? Or is He a forgiving God? The answer to both questions is … YES.
 
 
 
The 2nd Sunday in the church season of End Times is The Last Judgment. Yet many people – even Christians – want to shy away from the thought of God as judge? Why?
The answer is that most people do not want God judging their own actions, words and thoughts. For then they will have to admit just how sinful they are and how out of sync they are with God’s righteous rule. In order to give themselves a pass, they create a god of their own making and claim that he is not a judge.
However, if God does not judge, that means that He does not care about the difference between right and wrong. It means that He sees no difference between tyrants and mass murderers or Christian saints who have been put to death by these same tyrants and mass murderers. It means that God is morally indifferent. But that would mean he is an imperfect god.
To not judge means to not care.
But we most certainly have a loving and caring God. He loved humanity enough to judge His only begotten Son as guilty of all of our sins. Through faith, we can either accept His Son’s justice on our behalf and receive forgiveness and salvation, in spite of our sins. Then we are able to witness Jesus as a gracious Judge on the final Day of Judgment. Or we can reject Jesus Christ as Savior and receive God’s wrath and punishment because of our sins. Then we will witness Jesus as a just Judge who must punish the wicked unbelievers.
Either God is imperfect and uncaring for He fails to judge. Or He is loving and just for He comes to judge the wicked and the righteous. The Bible clearly states that God is the latter!
Check out this great cartoon: Only God can judge me
 

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