The Core of Judgment

Jesus was not sent into this world to judge the world but to save it.

Jesus said that He was given the job of judge.

Jesus said that He never judges anyone, but that what would judge everyone in the end would be His words.

What is the difference between Jesus' judging, which He apparently did not do, and His words judging which is what will happen on the last day? How can the words of a person judge without the person themselves judging?

When we better understand this difference, which I am sure we do not understand very well yet, then it will affect the way we think and treat others around us. It may prevent us from judging and criticizing others and simply allow the Word of God to produce the judgment that is inevitable when it is clearly understood.

As I look at Romans 4 again in relation to this, I can see better that belief is really about God's words and how we choose to relate to them. If I believe that God can and will do what He promises to do in and through me from His Word, then I have entered into belief about the goodness and faithfulness of His character, His name. If I refuse to believe that God really has saved me or that my sins may be too hard for Him to forgive or that He really doesn't love me like His Word says that He does, then I will cut myself off from the life-giving Word, the promises that connect me with the only Source of life. Being cut off from life, the only other option is eternal death.

Unbelief creates fear, doubts, apprehension, apathy and every other fruit of sin. Unbelief can easily be disguised as rational thinking or realism. But the problem is that “realistic thinking” starts with a false assumption about what version of reality is true. It bases our decisions and premises on the counterfeit reality that is so familiar to us living in a sinful world instead of believing in the declarations about the real reality that is foreign to our way of thinking but that is revealed in the Word of God.

Jesus came to more clearly enunciate this true reality in the words that He spoke and the ways that He related to sinners and lost religious people. If we use our own measurements and assumptions about reality as the standard to which we compare the words of Jesus instead of making His words the standard of what is real, then we are living in unbelief and cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.

To be born again is to enter into a real heart-level belief in the words of Jesus that conflict with our assumptions about reality. When we choose to believe God's words instead of what feels normal or right, then we will start thinking in harmony with God's view of reality and will not be judged. This is described as loving light in John 3.

If I insist that the way I have seen things from my perspective is more real than the way God says things, then I am loving darkness rather than light. For the words of God in Jesus are the light by which I am going to be judged or vindicated.

In the end, everyone will be measured against the words that they received from God to see what they chose to do about it. Judgment is the time of exposure when it becomes unavoidably clear to everyone around whether we really believe the things that God has said or whether we simply have used them to reinforce our own preconceptions and false ideas about God. For it is possible to use the words of God to keep in place many traditions and lies about Him and perpetuate false ideas about His attitude towards us.

Judgment, according to everything that I am starting to see here, is not what God decides about us as most people assume. Judgment is what happens as a result of the decision we make about whether God is really merciful, kind, compassionate, loving and doesn't resort to force to get His way. If we choose to follow on to believe the real truth about God as revealed in the words of Jesus, we will have to come to believe in a God who is radically different than the god that religion has taught us. And on the final day of judgment the natural consequences of sin will be supreme agony as our lies about God are exposed in contrast to the incredible truth about God's perfect love for us.

In the final day of judgment, as the lost begin to become aware that it is not God who is going to punish them, the agony of having lost their ability to respond to love will overwhelm them with anger, bitterness and rage against all who have misled them into believing that God was angry at them. The lies about God as arbitrary, angry and manipulative causes all who believe these ideas to rebel against such a deity, and rightfully so. But unless we come to embrace the real truth about God as a truly merciful God instead of a vengeful, arbitrary God who resorts to force and fear to control His subjects, we will never be able to come into that relationship of love and trust necessary for all those who will live for eternity in His presence.

The judgment then is simply the times when our real beliefs about God come out into the open and cause us to act out whatever comes naturally as a result. If we have come to know God as it is presently our privilege to know Him, then in the final judgment we will find that we can respond to Him and have His character ignited to its full potential in us. If we have rejected believing that God really loves us and does not hold our sins against us, if we reject the pleadings of His mercy and refuse to let His compassion and grace transform our thinking and our souls and our theology, then we will lose the capacity to interact with that love and too late we will face the fire of internal anguish as we realize that we have disqualified ourselves to survive in the fiery passion of His heart that is the essence of His presence.

Veil

A veil over our faces keeps us from knowing the truth of God's glory. But it also prevents us from appreciating or even comprehending the reality which surrounds us as heaven sees it. Having this veil is loving darkness rather than light. Indeed, the very purpose of a veil is to produce darkness, to obscure a face from the revealing light. Having a veil is refusing to be exposed, to have our faces seen by those around us because we are afraid or ashamed.

The people of Israel complained about the shining face of Moses and insisted that he put a veil over his face so they would not have to be exposed to the glory of God even second-hand. Paul puts a different spin on this story when he says that Moses put the veil over his face so that the people would not notice that the glory was fading away. Then he goes on to say that it is this same veil that still covers the faces of those who study the Scriptures diligently but fail to view them through the lenses of a real relationship with Jesus. Because of this darkening veil it is still impossible to truly perceive the real glory of God.

But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:15-18)

I see a correlation between this issue of a veil over our hearts and loving darkness discussed in John 3. In some way the person themselves is responsible as to whether the veil will remain or whether they will permit the Spirit of God to remove it so that they can really experience liberty. Nicodemus was covered with this veil when he came to talk with Jesus and this is the issue that Jesus was addressing in this passage of John 3.

When a person chooses to live without a veil to darken their heart, they become a person who loves the light, who comes to the light and who uses that light to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. As they keep coming to the light and keep on being willing to be exposed by the Spirit of the Lord, they are in the process transformed in the image of God and increasingly reflect His glory. This is all part of being born again, of being born of the Spirit and giving the Spirit full access to continue the work of transformation.

The children of Israel under Moses resisted the light they saw on Moses' face so they insisted on the use of a veil instead of allowing that light to transform their own hearts. As a result we have the tragic history of their unbelief and resultant rebellion along with all its consequences throughout the 40 years of wandering around in the Arabian desert.

But Moses himself did not refuse the light of God and the Spirit of God kept using him and transforming him from one level of glory to another. And even though he also made a fatal mistake near the end of his life, God was so closely in touch with him and Moses was so humble and responsive to the discipline of God that God chose to elevate Moses after his punishment to even greater glory by honoring him as the first resurrected human ever to enter the gates of heaven.

Judgment Equations

This is the judgment... (John 3:19)

I feel like I need to take a completely fresh look at this word judgment as it is used in this passage in John 3. I keep running into seeming discrepancies that I keep circling around and I don't want to confuse or maybe deceive myself in order to maintain preconceived ideas that may not be in line with what is really true. I want God to unpack this more plainly for me which sometimes requires that I have to suspend everything I assume, even those things I am sure God has shown me in the past to some extent, and take another look at the basics again.

That can appear on the face to be a dangerous proposition at first and may feel a little scary. But truth itself is never afraid of close examination and re-examination and it will always come out to be consistent with all other truth. So if I need to change something I have believed about this it will not conflict with anything else that I have learned as long as it is true as well.

I'm not even sure how to go about this re-examination except to pray for an open mind and wisdom and insight that I seem to be missing at this point. I start by trying to compare these verses and also to see how they coordinate with other things I have been learning from various sources about this subject from the Bible. I realize that I am influenced by several teachers whom I have come to deeply respect that have shared their views of judgment from the Word. But I need to know for myself what this really means so I will not be ashamed when cross-examined about this at some point. I can freely admit that I do not fully understand it, but that does not excuse me from trying to understand it much more than I do no matter how much I have already learned.

So I come to approach this somewhat as a problem solving process like might be used to solve for an unknown in an algebraic equation. I realize that using formulas and logic alone is hazardous at best when coming to know real truth, but it is also legitimate and useful at times as long as it is not the sole consideration and is guided by keeping the ears and heart open to the Spirit. Math was also designed and invented by God so it is not wrong to use logic in our process of coming to know truth, it just cannot be the sole source of the basis for what we believe.

I have for some time been operating on the premise that this word judgment is primarily being used along the line of condemnation more than exposing. But then at other times I may have said that it means exposing rather than condemnation in the same passage. In the Greek it is using the same word throughout this passage so it is not usually safe to assume that an author is mixing meanings for the same word in the same passage. Another consideration that was brought to my attention recently was that there is clearly a different Greek word used for condemnation and that word is not used in this passage. This is the problem that seems to be emerging causing me the need to go back and carefully reconsider.

There are negatives and positives in these verses in relation to this word used for judgment. The first time it says that God did not send Jesus to judge this world. Then it says that anyone who believes in Him is not judged – a second and reinforcing negative. Actually there is more than this going on as is often the case in an equation. Verse 17 couples a negative and a positive with each other as a pair as does verse 18 with two of these pairs but reversed. This might be an important clue for me.

Then verse 19 seems to offer a clue as to the identity or value of this new factor that has been introduced into the equation. 17 and 18 have used the word judgment without defining its value and 19 seems to address at least part of that missing information – This is the judgment... Then in defining this unknown factor in the equation the definition itself introduces yet more ingredients – love, hate and fear, though love has already been mentioned in 16.

I am still not seeing this all clearly but something seems about to emerge if my mind and heart can just grasp it and if God will increase my understanding. Just like solving math equations was sometimes frustratingly difficult at times, this seems to have a complexity that as yet continues to elude my clear understanding and comprehension. But I am not satisfied to close the issue with stock answers from others who claim to have already figured it out. I want to know for myself what this really means, for part of God's intent for me I believe is to experience the deeper bonding with Him that takes place when I have to grapple with unknowns for a period of time while trying to make sense of things. By causing me to exercise my mind and heart beyond what is normal or comfortable means that I am forced to challenge assumptions and to deepen my connection with Him in the process.

If I take the position that judgment means condemnation in this passage, then it doesn't seem to fit very well in 19 though it can to an extent. I guess what has brought up this question is that I was listening to a favorite teacher of mine a few days ago say that this word here translated judgment is not the same Greek word used for condemnation. In my own research I found that there is clearly another Greek word that is translated condemnation that is different than this word used for judgment. This is what brings up my uneasiness that maybe I am trying to push this in the direction that I want instead of letting the Word and the Spirit explain themselves.

On the other hand, to accept that this is not referring to condemnation seems to push me to old models of thinking about God that are clearly untenable for me at this point, ideas about God that always led to fear and condemnation which have darkened my heart for most of my life. That is something I cannot go back to at any cost for it is to embrace a view of God and reality that only leads to legalism and lies about God that I have been coming away from. I cannot give up the light of truth about God in favor of trying to justify one passage which means that the larger truth must help me to understand more clearly the seeming confusion about this word in this passage.

This word judgment is not as simple to understand as many would make it out to be. I have been learning a lot about it from various places in the Bible which has definitely broadened my perception of its meaning but it is still somewhat confusing to me. Quite likely if I could read and clearly understand the original Hebrew and Greek myself it might add much more clarity to this. But I can't so I have to rely more on comments from others who do as well as listening to the One who inspired the Bible originally to explain it to me over time.

Possible meanings for the word judgment:

• Making a decision or determination about who is to blame for something bad that happened. Deciding who is guilty or innocent without their consent. Assembling evidence, witnesses and evaluators to conduct a legal process to create a label or identity to attach to a person accused of wrong-doing.

• Blaming, criticizing, condemning people for doing things we don't like in order to make them feel bad, guilty, afraid, worthless or to attempt to control their behavior.

• Love of deception, lies and counterfeit systems of life in contrast with loving truth no matter how inconvenient it might feel.

• Creating opportunity in seemingly passive ways for people to act out what their true motives are inside. Creating situations where their inhibitions might be reduced in order for it to be seen publicly what they will do when they feel there may be no consequences to inhibit them from carrying out the imaginations of their heart.

Before being able to reasonably come up with an understanding of the purpose of judgment it might be well to first of all understand which judgment we are referring to in our assumptions. Depending on which one of these versions of judgment we are talking about, the reasons for judgment will vary dramatically. And the kind of judgment we assume we are talking about will have a great deal to do with our beliefs about the motives of those who are assumed to be doing the judging.

I am struggling to discern in this passage why it starts with God saying He did not send His Son into the world to judge it but then turns around and says that this is judgment two verses later. That is the intriguing part that keeps me looking deeper to find what is really being said here. So I find it quite useful to at least temporarily suspend all my assumptions and beliefs about what I think judgment is in order for me to consider that it actually might be something possibly different if I would just be open-minded enough to consider it.

Of course, this passage alone may or may not have all the necessary information to determine the real meaning and purpose of judgment, but it certainly looks like it may be a significant part of the definition by the way it is worded. Other passages will certainly play into amplifying or altering the assumptions that may be drawn from this passage, but I do not want to overlook anything in these words right here by rushing off to bring in something else too soon. That might tend to be done in order to justify preconceptions rather than to necessarily add light to the subject. I believe other passages will greatly enhance the truth contained in these verses, but I want to be sure that I have given this passage enough opportunity to unpack itself and challenge my preconceptions to start with before bringing in more passages that will need to be carefully analyzed the same way.

Manifesting Deeds

"But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:21)

So that it may be seen to others that the choices I made about my externals (my deeds) were motivated from a heart that is seeking to submit and synchronize with God's heart.

Does this mean that all the deeds are going to be right, perfect, good? Not necessarily. In fact, it is this very point that becomes a source of fear or contention. It is very easy for people to point out my errors, mistakes and failures and use them to claim that my heart is false, the my motives are evil, that I am a bad person that is not being honest about what is inside. They can easily claim based on my track record that I cannot possibly be practicing the truth because of all the mistakes they can see in my life. In short, they believe that the most important things about figuring out my identity are my faults and mistakes.

And this logic is very powerful in affecting my own thinking and perception about myself as well. Satan, the accuser, is always eager to reinforce this kind of shame and doubt about my connection and desire to follow God, to be in God, to abide in Him. And that is precisely why it is so important for me to keep coming to the light instead of trying to figure out my own motives or to justify myself against accusations.

This text does not say that it is my job to prove that what I am doing is motivated by a desire to follow God. It says that coming to the light will result in that being manifested. I am not the one responsible for manifesting to others what God is doing inside of me. I must rest in God and trust Him to manifest His work in and through me in the ways He chooses, not in order to justify myself. In fact, any time I try to justify myself or my actions I prevent Him the opportunity to justify me Himself. And that is certainly not a very good place to find myself.

But there seems to also be multiple layers of this. Parts of me are eager to come to the light to find that my motives are truly to know and follow God. But then I sense that there also may be deeper, darker areas inside of me that resist coming to the light even for me to see. Some would say that this indicates that my real self is much worse than I believe it to be. Others would say that it is simply an awareness of the sinful flesh that resides in every one of us. There is always debate going on about this and the motives of those debating this also have a great deal to do with the real meaning and truthfulness of the conclusions that they draw.

Then there are likely those who would say that all this introspection itself is the real problem. Is it? Sometimes I wonder myself. Am I trying to figure myself out and becoming more and more frustrated or am I really trying to understand God's word and how it applies to me personally? I have to conclude that in the end only God really knows the answer to these questions and that maybe He has other different questions or statements He is more interested in me dwelling on.