God as Judge

Do you believe in Divine judgment? By which I mean, do you believe in a God who acts as our Judge? Many, it seems, do not. Speak to them of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weaknesses and folly and sin, and their faces light up; you are on their wavelength at once. But speak to them of God as Judge and they frown and shake their heads. Their minds recoil from such an idea. They find it repellent and unworthy. But there are few things stressed more strongly in the Bible than the reality of God’s work as Judge. Paul refers to the fact that we must all appear before Christ’s judgment seat as “the terror of the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:11), and well he might. Jesus the Lord, like His Father, is holy and pure; we are neither. We live under his eye, He knows our secrets, and on judgment day the whole of our past life will be brought under review. If we know ourselves at all, we know we are not fit to face Him. What then are we to do? The New Testament answer is: Call on the coming Judge to be your Savior. As Judge, He is the law, but as Savior He is the gospel. Run from Him now, and you will meet Him as Judge then – and without hope. Seek Him now, and you will find Him, and you will then discover that you are looking forward to that future meeting with joy, knowing that there is now “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). - Dr. J. I. Packer, Knowing God