How will God judge people?
The theme of God’s judgement appears consistently throughout the Bible. Although judgement is an unpopular idea today, it is something we have to face up to. But how will God judge? What standards does he expect?
God’s standard
Some people say that they are reasonably good people – better than some – and that they have done the best they can. But even if that were true, is it enough?
Jesus once gave some teaching about judgement known as the parable of the sheep and the goats. In this teaching, Jesus said that we will not be judged only according to any good or evil that we have done, but on the way we have responded to Jesus himself. The sheep in the parable were different to the goats not only because they did different things, but because they were living out the character of Jesus. They were behaving in the way Jesus himself behaved when he lived on earth.
So Jesus is God’s standard. When we measure ourselves up to the way that Jesus lived, we discover that we fall far short of what God expects of us.
Judgement starts now
But if God is going to compare us with Jesus, who stands a chance? No one does, if that is all there is to it. But because Jesus has made it possible through his death for us to receive God’s forgiveness, those who accept this forgiveness will be judged by God as if they had met the standard he has set.
So as we believe in Jesus and live a life of active obedience to him, we are preparing ourselves to live with him after death. But if we turn from God in this life and refuse to follow Jesus, we are preparing ourselves for a life without him after death. Judgement is not just something that happens to us in the future. Itis something we are involved in now, by the choices we make in the present.
What happens after judgement?
In a court of law, after the judgement comes either release or punishment. So what comes after God’s judgement? Jesus taught very clearly, as in the parable of the sheep and the goats, that at judgement all people will be divided into two groups according to the way they have lived in this life. One group will inherit the kingdom of God, while the other group will be sent out from God’s presence.
How can a God of love do this?
The whole area of judgement is extremely hard for us to accept, as it involves people. But there is a sense in which God, too, finds it hard. Jesus once grieved that God would judge the city of Jerusalem for rejecting his love. He said,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times have I wanted to put my arms round all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!
God is a God of love, and so he is grieved when people reject his love. It is because God loves us that he has given us the freedom to choose the way we should live. God’s love is not like the love of a sleepy grandfather who simply wants everyone to enjoy themselves. He wants us to respond to his love, and make responsible choices in doing so.
When people say that a God of love should not judge us, they overlook not only the quality of his love for us, but also that he is a God of justice too. Again and again the Bible tells us about God’s justice: how he cares for those who are discriminated against, and is angry with those who oppress others. Often we see evil people getting away with the things they do, and we say ‘there’s no justice‘.
But God’s justice will be most perfectly displayed on the day of judgement, when finally justice will be seen to be done. Because God is just, he cannot simply close his eyes to the wrong things people have done in the past, any more than crime can go unpunished in a good society.
It is easy to think of judgement as something that God does to us. We think of God banishing people from heaven, and ask ‘How could he do such a thing?’ But judgement is really something that we do to ourselves. We decide in this life whether or not we are interested in God. So we will include or exclude ourselves from God’s presence. God will simply underline the choices we have made, and confirm our decision.
Some people have said, ‘Well, if my husband has gone to hell, I want to go there to be with him.’ But to say that is to misunderstand what hell means. To be in hell means to be isolated from all that is good and that we value in this life. There are many human qualities we take for granted that are God’s gift to us: laughter, kindness, even our relationships. Hell is where these things are no longer given to us, because we have made it impossible for God to give any more. It is nonsense to think that we shall be reunited with anyone in hell, for hell is the place of separation and isolation. So we cannot talk about going to hell to ‘be with’ someone.
Part of our difficulty in understanding judgement stems from a wrong idea we have about heaven. Many see heaven as the kind of place where all their desires, needs and dreams are fulfilled. It will be a place of continual enjoyment and relaxation. But the teaching of the New Testament is quite different.
Heaven is not a fantasy world arranged to suit our desires, but the place where we become fully human, as God has always intended us to be. It is the place where we serve each other rather than ourselves. We worship and love the God who has rescued us from sin. Heaven would be frightening and unbearable to the selfish, or to those who have no time for God or others.
The difficult belief
Belief in a hell is difficult, and in a sense it should be like that. It is remarkable that Jesus, who showed us more clearly than anyone the love of God, also told us more clearly than anyone about the judgement of God. He did this not to frighten us into believing, but because he loved us and wanted to warn people about the consequences of living without God.
We too must take hell seriously if we are to love people properly. If we love our non-Christian friend or neighbour, our desire will be to tell him or her about the Jesus who has made a way of escape from hell.
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