"And if you call on him as Father who judges ..."1 Peter 1:17
Do you you live as if God will one day be your judge who may or may not condemn you and perhaps bring you to a second-class heaven? God cannot condemn the Christian. He will not slam the gavel of wrath and peer down from the Judgment Seat with angry eyes. The gavel of full wrath was slammed squarely upon Christ. Yes, we will be judged but ONLY by a loving Father and friend. God cannot judge sin twice.
In 1 Peter 1:17 the word “judges” in the Greek means “to find out what is good.” God will bring to account all that was done good in His name and for His glory and weigh it in divine scales. The scales will never tip in favor of Hell, condemnation, and wrath. Our works will go through a furnance, a sifter, a grader, or a refining moment to determine what is for reward. The pure works of faith will be honored/crowned, and given to us as true works of righteousness. This, in some way, this pure and pristine crown, is a gift to give back to Christ as a memorial of His work in us.
When I was a little kid, my parents would give me money to buy them gifts at Wilson Elementary Christmas bizarre. I would spend hours seeking the best candy cane deer with bobble eyes or the Santa Claus made of pipe cleaners and a cotton beard. I was so excited for them to open each gift since I had spent many serious hours scouring the best at the bizarre for the parents I loved. Likewise, God has given us spiritual abilities to invest in the kingdom. In the end, we will take what our Father has given us and present it back to His Son as a glorious memorial present of praise and honor, joy and celebration. Christian judgment will be an event to extract and burn up all the “humanness” from our works to there most godly essence, as a distilled crown/s. Then, back to God it goes as a most celebrated gift.
We will present our pipe cleaners and our candycane reindeer back to God, who gave us the ability to work it. It will be a great event to watch our God & all of heaven rejoice at the gift returned!
3 comments:
Hey Max,
Loved your blog. It was termendously helpful to understand the Greek behind the word "judge" in 1 Peter.
So do you think God will despise how we have used our gift? It is my heart's desire to be pleasing and holy to God.
God seems ticked at sin in the Bible, if we screw up on a daily basis... and my heart is exceedingly wicked... how can we be sure He is transforming us, when in our days what manifests is an all out war against two natures?
Will God despise us when we aren't strong enough to be great contenders of the faith like Paul or Silas?
Your sincere friend,
~DD
I am warmed by your response because it reveals the thoughts we all have about God's final response to our works and ways we accomplished in Christ. God hates sin. So much he killed Christ for it. Your sin and all believers sin has been dealt with at the cross.
Yet practically, we sin daily. The New Testament appears to display God not as "ticked" when we sin, but grieved because we loose the sense of His intimacy, nearness, soveriengty, and promises.
The "all out war" against our two natures daily shows the reality in our lives that regeneration has taken place and that sanctification is taking place.
God will never despise His people since it is God who grants all the grace and power to be what we are and it was God who made Paul and Silas be what they were.
Sincerly in return, MS
Nice message. Throughout most of my spiritual life I thought passages such as this were speaking of condemnation and judgement. As I look at this at this passage though I think why would Peter ask us call on a Father who judges with wrath rather than love. As I rememember,It is freeing thing for the sinner to realize that his bad deeds are not held against him, but have dealt with on the cross. Still, i think of these works going through the sifter, and it reminds of how many of my good works were not done out of true love and glory for the Father, but to serve self in some way. We really must be constantly examining our hearts as we serve the Lord. Thanks for sharing, bro. miss ya.
Post a Comment