THE representation of the Last Judgment with respect to those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, is not altogether clear.
It is certain, that also the redeemed and the blessed shall appear before Christ as Judge. Jesus’ own portrayal shows this. His apostle declares it in so many words in Rom. 14, 10, where he exhorts the Christians at Rome to tenderness in their association with the brethren, and urges this upon them for the reason: That we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
It must therefore not be taken, as though in the Last Judgment the blessed shall stand merely as spectators or witnesses. “To be placed before the judgment seat” surely means, that oneself is subjected to the judgment.
In what Jesus said about the sheep and goats, is indeed a twofold sort of sentence. A sentence of acquittal for the blessed, and a sentence of condemnation for those who have not sought peace through the blood of the Cross.
More or less divergent from this, on the other hand, is the other representation, which is equally positively given in Holy Scripture, that they, who belong to Jesus, shall themselves sit with Jesus as Judges.
So spake Jesus, that they, who had followed Him, presently, when the hour strikes for the regeneration of the whole world, shall sit with Him upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The holy Apostle testifies, that we shall judge the angels. And on Patmos St. John sees, how they, that had been beheaded, for the witness of Jesus, sat on thrones, and how “judgment was given them.”
So these two stand side by side. From one side it is revealed unto us, that not only unbelievers, but also believers, shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, as accused and indited, who shall receive their sentence of acquittal and their glorious reward. But also from the other side, that believers with Christ shall sit as judges, and themselves will take part in the pronouncement of sentence.
To reconcile this twofold representation is only possible in this way, that, as Jesus emphatically teaches, first the sentence of acquittal shall be passed upon believers, and that, after their acquittal is announced, they shall sit with Him as judges, to pass Judgment upon those who died without Jesus.
It has indeed been said: “You must not take all this literally, and it is enough when you read from it, that he who fell asleep in Jesus, as child of God, one with Christ, judges the sinner, but himself also as past sinner has need of open acquittal.” But we doubt whether Holy Scripture justifies this. For with respect to the Last Judgment itself the prophetic description in Holy Scripture is so sharply outlined and so ample in detail, that every metaphorical interpretation is excluded.
There shall be a Last Judgment. Judges shall sit in judgment. And sentences shall be passed.
He who weakens all this and glosses it over in spiritual perceptions, does very positive wrong to the revelation of Holy Scripture.
STILL we should be on our guard, by inventions of our imagination on our part not to analyze the portrayal more closely. Artists of song and pencil may have endeavored to do this, our faith must needs keep itself far distant from this.
To ask how those numberless and numberless millions shall find standing room before the tribunal; how it is thinkable that every one’s whole life shall be revealed; how endlessly long such pronouncements of justice must last; how there can be mention of a public sentence pronouncement, audible to all; and so much more, is no right of ours. Guesswork here is of no avail. All that is good for us and necessary to know, is revealed unto us. And we shall not therefore step across the boundaries of this revelation. In the conditions which shall then ensue, every relation shall become so altogether different from what it is now; observation and fellowship shall bear such an altogether different character; that every conception, indeed, of what it then shall be, fails us anyhow. What Jesus says, that even of idle words that we have spoken, we shall have to give account, very far transcends all our understanding. And yet here stands the question: Would Jesus have declared this so positively, if actually it were to end in nothing?
The very spiritualization of everything that pertains to the Last Judgment, has brought about, that the larger majority of people have ceased to count with that Last Judgment as with an actual event, while Jesus and the apostles, on the other hand, have left no means untried, to place it before us as actually and really as can possibly be imagined.
WHETHER then they who fell asleep in Jesus, are not already justified? How then is it possible, that he who already received the acquittal, still comes into the judgment? To this objection there is a ready answer.
The acquittal here runs through several stages. First the acquittal in the mind of the Judge. This is the intention to declare one free. That therefore, which from all eternity has been called justification. It is not later on that God for the first comes to the discovery, that you must be declared free. The facts on which the acquittal shall have to rest, do not only later on become known to Him. On the contrary, all the grounds of the sentence of your acquittal are present in the eternal purpose. You, as one that shall be declared free, are known of your God from all eternity.
An entirely other stage in your justification is, when in conversion the sentence of condemnation casts you down, and now in faith the sentence of acquittal is testified to your soul and is accepted by you with everlasting jubilation. This is the subjective justification by faith.
Then God knows it, and you know it. But even so it has not yet become a public acquittal, and with every sentence this is absolutely indispensable. A secret sentence of acquittal or condemnation can never be other than provisional.
And therefore follows at length justification in its highest development, which is not in the hidden knowledge of God, nor in the equally hidden knowledge of faith, but in the hearing of all ears, in public, in full sight of the whole world and of all the angels.
Only that acquittal, that justification in its highest stage at the Last Judgment decides and closes the case.
When in His eternal purpose God counted you just there stood over against it, that you were nevertheless to be conceived and born in sin. When you were justified by faith, there stood over against it, that indwelling sin was not as yet taken away from you. And only in the Last Judgment, before all ears, you will be pronounced just after it has convincingly become evident in the sight of all, that you are just.
Just, because then there will be no more sin in you, and because the price of the redemption of your soul for your original sin and your “actual” sins shall be ready in the finished work of Christ, and the perfect fulfilling of the law by Christ shall be counted as your own.
First made just in the purpose of God, after that made just by faith, you will only then stand as a just person in public sight.
AND what else shall be glorified therein, than the work of God’s eternal compassions to your soul and to your whole person?
Satan accuses you, the world accuses you, your own conscience witnesses against you. How then can you be justified and obtain acquittal, except as God closes His eye to your sin, and thus really pronounces just contrary to justice?
Well, the Last Judgment shall make answer to this. It shall then appear, in such a way, that neither Satan nor the world can make their denial heard, that God’s compassions have operated so wondrously in grace, that according to strictest justice you can no more be condemned and that your acquittal does not darken God’s justice, but brings it out in clearest light.
The loss, therefore, is so pitiful to the spiritual life, that also among Christians the all-dominating confession of justification is darkened.
It is nothing but spiritual egoism. It is mere asking, how do I become holy, and no more asking, how does God come into His own also with respect to my person. It is being more concerned about one’s own salvation, than about the honor of God’s right.
And do you ask, whether the public revelation of our life will not bring pain, be it answered: Yes, if this were to take place upon earth. But positively no, when the wondrous power of God’s compassion will be manifest in this, that it has not merely forgiven and reconciled such sinful persons, as we ourselves were, but also after sternest justice in His judgment has made us just.
They who have fallen asleep in Jesus, long for that Judgment and do not fear it. For only that Last Judgment shall prove the full triumph of God’s grace, and at the same time the full triumph of our own struggle with Satan, sin and the world.
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