Trusting God with Judgment

This is something I wrote a long time ago and I opened it up today and thought, "Hey, that's not bad." I might expound on it more later but I'll just publish it as it is today.

Judgment is a word our culture doesn’t like to hear except maybe in the context of a courtroom drama. Ideas like a harsh judge, an angry parent, or an angry God may come into our minds when we try to understand judgment. A lot of our ideas of judgment come from our misinterpretations and misunderstandings of the Old Testament ideas of judgment. Many times we see ourselves as the ones at the end of God’s wrath and thus shy away from this concept.

First, I want to discuss this idea of being objects of wrath. The Bible says that “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses wrath everyday” (Psalm 7:11. NIV), so yes, it is something we need to understand. What we commonly misunderstand is who God’s wrath is against. God is a judge but he is also our advocate. God hates anything that gets in our way of getting to Him. God desires to strip away those things in the world and in our lives that block us from Him. God does judge our sin, but it is more out of desire to free us from sin than to condemn us for it.
Ephesians 2:3-5, says,
“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying our sinful nature and following judge, desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
It’s clear that though we were objects of wrath, Jesus had covered our sins. Therefore, we can look at Jesus as our advocate and ask him to judge areas in our lives that are keeping us from the fullness of knowing God and bring them into alignment with His word and heart.

Our idea of God also influences the way we view judgment. If we do view God as anything less than He is, basically anything human, than we reduce his obligation and desire to judge. If God is righteous, loving, holy, and is good then He must judge. If He is righteous He will not stand that which is sinful. If He loves He will not allow the world to be consumed and ravaged by sin and the suffering that accompanies it. If He is holy He will not stand for that which profanes the good things He has created. Judgment is necessary for restoration and reconciliation. If we do not believe that these things motivate all of God’s actions then we cannot trust him.

So why else can we trust God to judge? The answer is Jesus. Jesus is our judge. In Revelation 5, a search goes out to find one worthy to open the scrolls that will release God’s judgments on the earth. But no one was found worthy, not “in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look at it” (Rev. 5:3). Finally the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, Jesus, was found to be worthy. What makes Jesus worthy? Isaiah 53 provides an answer. Jesus the man knew our sorrows and suffering as well as taking upon himself our transgression and iniquities. Jesus suffered under the wrath of God and understands the depths of God’s judgments. Also, Jesus, the Son of God, knows better than anyone the heart of the father. He too, desires that none would perish, but would know God (2 Peter 3:9).

Think what would happen if we were responsible for judging our own or others wrong doing. When it comes to human nature the idea of Occum’s Razor applies here, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The one who is fully man and fully God is perfectly suited to unleash God’s judgments. He is the truth and can be trusted with the rod of justice.