|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Salvation
Through Judgment Many
segments of today's western church teach more on what they call
"practical issues", instead of what I call "Biblical
truth". Practical
issues could include, financial success, marital success, raising
children, self analysis, and more. For
the most part, there's nothing wrong with teaching about these things,
although some of them are too self serving in my thinking.
The
problem arises when we replace timeless theological truths with not so
timeless practical issues. I believe we've done just that, with a
weakened church as a result. In
many cases the church has become a self-help group when we should be a
body of people doing the Lord's work.
One
such "not so practical teaching" that doesn't get much press
these days is "the judgment of God".
Besides supposedly not being practical, it sounds too scary to
think about. If God's
judgment is real, as I'm sure it is, we should understand how it affects
us. I think that's
practical.
Understanding
God's judgment is also important because it is directly linked to our
salvation. There is no
salvation apart from God's judgment.
This is a fundamental truth that many Christians miss.
God's
judgment is the process by which He evaluates people, nations, and
situations; determines if they meet His righteous standards; and
responds with a reward or with punishment.
God's judgment is based on His standard of justice, not ours.
I
believe "salvation rises out of God's judgment".
Therefore, you cannot disassociate God's judgment from salvation.
Salvation is not salvation without God's judgment being involved.
So, if we preach salvation and ignore God's judgment, we haven't
preached the New Testament gospel. That's
a serious offense. Exodus
6:6 helps explain this. God
told We
see the first hint of salvation rising out of judgment as far back as
Genesis 3:15. God pronounced
judgment on Adam, Eve, the serpent, and all of creation.
In the midst of this pronouncement of judgment, He spoke about a
future salvation, when Eve's seed would crush the head of the serpent
who deceived her. We
see salvation rising from judgment in the flood of Genesis 6.
God judged mankind with a flood that killed everyone, except for
Noah and his family. Salvation
rose out of judgment for Noah and his family.
The
death of Jesus is the most important example of salvation rising out of
judgment. When Jesus died on
the cross, He experienced God's wrath and judgment.
Our salvation rose out of God's judgment upon Jesus.
God's
mighty act of judgment that was demonstrated on the cross was based on
God's sense of justice. God evaluated man's condition and saw that it
failed miserably to meet His righteous standards.
Because He is just, He had no other choice than to pronounce
judgment and execute due punishment.
How God executed His judgment and subsequent punishment is
incredibly amazing. He
became human in order to be the recipient of His own wrath, judgment,
and punishment, so we could be the recipients of salvation.
Our salvation did rise out of judgment.
God forbid that we continue to ignore the severity of God's
judgment. Another
example of salvation rising out of judgment will take place in the Great
Tribulation, as seen in the book of Revelation.
All nations of the world will be judged and punished for their
sins and for their treatment of So
there you have it. Salvation
does rise out of God's judgment. I
don't believe we can appreciate salvation without understanding God's
judgment. This is a timeless
theological truth of Scripture. And
by the way, don't let the word "theological" frighten you.
It's not a bad word as some suggest.
We should never exchange any timeless truth of Scripture for a
temporary teaching on an
issue that will soon pass away. God's
eternal truths can't be ignored, and if they are, it's to our peril.
|