Jesus Is Judge
**These weekly devotionals are sponsored by S.A.L.T (formally known as the Fisherman’s Club) in order to help cultivate passionate hearts for Christ and a desire to make Him famous**
Jeremiah 9:24
“but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice……….
Jesus Is Judge
In last week’s devotion we discussed the Love of Jesus. God’s will is action oriented and He delights to love, to do justice and to do righteousness. Today we are going to focus on the justice of God.
There are a few different variations of the word justice in the bible. Basically it comes down to making a decision or judgment. We make judgment calls all day. Do I take a left turn or a right turn? We do this by having a conversation within ourselves to help determine the right way to go.
This works in the moral sense as well. We make decisions on how we are going to treat others. Are we going to think well of them and want their best or not. We have standards that help us make those decisions. Decisions like these are developed within our thought process and are impossible to be judged by another human. I can’t see what you are thinking. However, God can and He judges your thought process.
The justice of God is tied into His holiness. In a sense He is holy because He is different from us. His incommunicable attribute of holiness says that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere at all times and outside of time. He is separate from us in ways we cannot comprehend. His moral judgments are based on His own moral holiness. Whatever He thinks, says and does is done with a pure motive 100% of the time. He always does what is right and good. God can never do wrong or, be tempted to do wrong (James 1:13). The standard God uses to judge is Himself. God says in Leviticus 20:26, “‘thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy.”
Our Lord not only determines what is right and wrong based on Himself but He determines the consequences for our actions. God’s law is His expectations of how we should live. Disobeying God’s law is Sin and the consequence of Sin is death (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23). Death reigns because we have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
The Lord will also reward those who do right. Unfortunately we cannot please God by following His law but we can please God when we obey the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). John 3:16-18 reads, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” This is great news! The Lord came not to judge but to save in His first visit. When He comes again it will be a different story.
Acts 17:30-31 reads, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Jesus is this Man and when He returns it will be to judge everyone who has ever lived. He will be giving rewards to those who have repented and believed in Him. For those who have not repented and believed in His authority they will receive the consequence of eternal torment. God’s desire is that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Let’s praise God that He is a gracious and kind judge who doesn’t leave us to our sin and its consequence. Jesus is just and the justifier of those who will repent and put their trust in Him. Praise God!
