The Terrors of the Judgment
William Diehl
Truth Number One: All mankind will stand before the Law of God on the Judgment Day and answer for their transgressions of God's Law.
2Cor 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."
Romans 14:10 "for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
Truth Number Two: No one is righteous enough to pass the awesome scrutiny of the Judgment.
Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. {guilty...: or, subject to the judgment of God} 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
Thus, these two frightful truths set the stage for the proclamation of the Everlasting Gospel (Rev 14:6) of Christ. Now God brings to the trembling sinner's view the Good News. Paul, having set this stage of Man's terrible condemnation in Romans 1-3:20, brings to our ears the most beautiful and most important "BUT NOW" in all the Bible:
Romans 3:21 "BUT NOW the righteousness of God WITHOUT the law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of (in) Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For ALL have sinned, and (continually) come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified (DECLARED INNOCENT) freely (WITHOUT WORKS) by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Paul is thus saying that NOW we who repent and believe the gospel message that Jesus died on the cross for our sins have the verdict of AQUITTAL and NOT GUILTY in the judgment. That is to say, we the guilty ones are reckoned to be "innocent" because our Lord Jesus Christ, the Innocent One, was reckoned, as He hung upon the Cross lifted up between Heaven and Earth, to be the Guilty One before the Judgment Bar of God's justice. Those who believe (continually acknowledge their sin and unworthiness of God's grace in Jesus) till He comes shall not come into condemnation in the judgment.
Col 1:21-23 "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard."
Thus the free gift of forgiveness, acceptance and eternal life with God in the Judgment for all begins in unmerited Grace and ends in unmerited Grace at Christ's glorious appearing. Only a justified forgiven believer in Jesus can eagerly look forward to the Day of the Lord because he knows with the eye of faith that his sins are swallowed up in His sinless imputed righteousness.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!!
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