Judgment

[Kansasdad]

Through out the Bible God talks about his judgment. God will judge all man. What is God judging us about? Is it simply to judge whether we believed in Jesus or not? I.e.: John you believed in Jesus go here, Paul you didn

[Guest Zayit]

According to the L-RD's brother in the flesh, Ya'akov, we will be judged by our works. Yeshua said, to whom much is given, much is required. What did you do with the blessings and gifts you were given.

Salvation is not dependant on this for Yeshua said those who believe he is who said and has risen from the dead shall be saved.

There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.

Those who have given up worldly things for his sake are promised a hundredfold and everlasting life.

In John Yeshua says Truely I tell you, He who hears my words and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death into life.

Edited June 14, 2005 by Zayit

[Christ's Free Servant]

Through out the Bible God talks about his judgment.  God will judge all man.  What is God judging us about?  Is it simply to judge whether we believed in Jesus or not?  I.e.: John you believed in Jesus go here, Paul you didn

[Pax]

Scripture makes it very clear, we are judged by our faith, plus what we do with that faith, which would be works. Jesus taught us this through the many good works he did throughtout the Bible. It is not enough just to say, "I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save me from my sins," and then assume that I am going right to heaven when I die.

Check out these scriptures:

James 2:24 ""A man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

James 2:26 "Faith without works is dead."

Galatians 5:6 "Only thing that counts is faith working in love."

1 Corinthians 13:2 "Faith without love is nothing."

John 14:15 "If you love me keep my commandments."

Mark 19:16-17 "If you wish to enter into life, keep commandments."

A person has to read the Bible and keep each scripture in context. A mistake many make, is reading one verse that says we are saved by faith alone, and then wrongly assume that this is all it takes to get to heaven. Yes, the foundation of salvation is faith, but all throughout the Bible is says to keep Gods commandments. How does one keep a commandment? This can only be done through faith and good works. It also makes it crystal clear in James: "Faith without works is dead." So a person can prosfess that they love Jesus and know that he died on the cross to save us from our sins, but that isn't all Jesus told us to do in the Bible. He also called us to put our faith into works. I always tell people this statement when talking about faith and works. Satan and all the demons know that Jesus died on the cross, they believe in him, are they going to heaven? No, they believed but did they listen to God and keep his commandments?No, in other words they didn't do good works. Really stop and think about it, we all believe that heaven is the greatest thing imaginable. Words can not describe what it will be like to be in the presenence of of God. Now do you really think we can get to heaven without putting no effort into this. If you want to be the best football player, you have to spend hours and years practicing, if you want to be the best doctor you have to spend years in med school. If you want to be the best pilot you have to spend years practicing flying. Logically speaking don't you think it will take many good works to prepare oneself to be in the presence of Christ? Yes, it definantly will. I often have people write back to me on this board and say Pax, nothing you can do will get you to heaven. We can only saved by the grace of God. Those people are exactly right in the fact that we are only saved by the grace of God, but he calls us to not only have faith, but also to work for our salvation.

[Trust & Obey]

KD, great question. I just praise the LORD that our sin was judged at Calvary. Jesus Christ, Who knew no sin became sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. What a miracle this was.

One thing I like to point out to people is the magnitude of this sacrifice that Jesus made. Pre-incarnation, Jesus was Spirit. At the incarnation He took upon Himself a body of flesh and bones like we have. Then, after paying the price of our sin, He was resurrected into a glorified body like unto the one we shall receive!

Jesus is forever a Man. The glorified God-Man, but still a Man. His body still bears the scars of our redemption, and I believe along with others, that the only man-made things in heaven will be the scars on the body of Jesus.

We will be judged according to our works, but not according to our sin. For, our sin has already been judged at the cross. We will be judged according to how faithful we were with what God entrusted to us.

[Kansasdad]

Ok so what is the punishment, We have our sins forgiven by grace through faith, we die, we are judged by our works, we go to heaven. Is there a part of heaven that is less wonderful than other parts? or conversely is there punishment (hell) that is less horrible than other parts of hell, or maybe only temporary, Is this part of the whole purgatory concept. ( And please no Chatholic bashing here )

God Bless

Kansas Dad

[Guest Zayit]

Christ's Free Servant said:

Now, I've never been one to win things (rarely), so rewards don't mean a whole lot to me, meaning getting a prize or a trophy for doing something is not what motivates me. A desire to obey God and my love for him are what motivate me to do what he says. My rewards are seeing the difference my actions make in the lives of others, but we don't always see those results.

That is a good and humble approuch and I understand what you're saying , I used to believe as such myself, until I realized that I should be desiring these rewards, for they are promised to me, crowns, and I need them, why? to throw at the feet of my L-RD and my King.

[Pax]

We will be judged according to our works, but not according to our sin. For, our sin has already been judged at the cross. We will be judged according to how faithful we were with what God entrusted to us.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Trust & Obey,

You got the first part right, but I have to disagree on the second. You stated that we won't be judged on our sins. Then why would anyone worry about committing a sin.

1 John 5:16 states "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that."

Scripture even talks of deadly sins and non deadly sins. As Catholics we would call this mortal (Deadly sin), and venial (non-deadly) sins. So it is incorrect to assume that we won't be judged according to our sins.

Kansasdad, you also bring up a very good point called purgatory. I don't have time to really get into this, but purgatory is very much real and is a doctrine of the Catholic Church. I will approach this later.

[Trust & Obey]

Ok so what is the punishment,  We have our sins forgiven by grace through faith, we die, we are judged by our works, we go to heaven.  Is there a part of heaven that is less wonderful than other parts?  or conversely is there punishment (hell) that is less horrible than other parts of hell, or maybe only temporary,  Is this part of the whole purgatory concept.  ( And please no Chatholic bashing here )

God Bless

Kansas Dad

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Believers who are unfaithful are not "punished," per se. But, they will lose out on rewards.

1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The issue isn't "are you going to heaven or not." The question is "what type of entry into heaven will you receive?"

I heard a great analogy of how it might play out.

There will be fullness of joy in heaven for every believer. But, not every believer will have the capacity to enjoy heaven to the same extent as some believers who are highly rewarded.

For example, a 3 year old might sit in the kitchen and bang pots and pans together and really get a kick out of it. The 3 year-old might sit there laughing and giggling as he bangs the pots and pans and makes a loud ruckus.

Meanwhile, the parent walks into the kitchen and says, "My, oh, my. Isn't that sweet? Isn't it cute how fun it is for that 3 year-old to bang those pots and pans."

But, the parent receives no pleasure or joy from the pot-banging.

Similarly, in heaven there will be belivers who are "banging pots and pans" together, and there will be those that walk by and say "my, oh, my, isn't that cute?"

Just a funny story, but I think it is a good explanation of how believers can be rewarded to dramatically different levels, yet all still experience fullness of joy.

We will not be punished in heaven, but some believers will suffer loss of reward as the passage above states.

God bless.

[Trust & Obey]

We will be judged according to our works, but not according to our sin. For, our sin has already been judged at the cross. We will be judged according to how faithful we were with what God entrusted to us.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Trust & Obey,

You got the first part right, but I have to disagree on the second. You stated that we won't be judged on our sins. Then why would anyone worry about committing a sin.

1 John 5:16 states "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that."

Scripture even talks of deadly sins and non deadly sins. As Catholics we would call this mortal (Deadly sin), and venial (non-deadly) sins. So it is incorrect to assume that we won't be judged according to our sins.

Kansasdad, you also bring up a very good point called purgatory. I don't have time to really get into this, but purgatory is very much real and is a doctrine of the Catholic Church. I will approach this later.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pax, I never said that we "do not sin," or that we shouldn't grieve and repent of our sin. My point was that even though we do sin, God does not hold it against us.

Rom 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Rom 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Why will God not impute sin to those who believe and trust in Christ? Because Christ took our sin upon Himself. To say that our faith in Christ is not enough, is to say that Christ's sacrifice was incomplete.