Today, all around the world, Christians are yearning for Christ to return; many of us expect that He soon will. Our hopeful expectation causes lively discussions. However, few of us are eager to discuss a vital topic that is closely connected. This other topic is an elephant in the room because it is difficult, controversial, and makes us uncomfortable. We try to avoid it. It is the Judgment of the living.
Before Christ returns every person in the world will be judged. Christ’s return distinguishes those, who receive an everlasting life that Christ provided through His sacrifice on the cross. Three groups will be manifest at His coming.
First, the dead in Christ will rise; faithful believers who died before Christ’s second coming will be resurrected. Second, faithful believers alive at His coming will be “caught up”; they will escape death and, with those resurrected, they will “put on” immortality as they are rescued by Jesus[1]. These first two groups will rise to meet Christ in the air and will forever be with the Lord[2]. The third group revealed will be comprised of people who are alive until Christ returns, but they do not receive the everlasting life that Christ secured by His atoning sacrifice; they have forfeited eternal life and are destroyed at His return[3]. The cases of all are decided before Christ is seen in the clouds; there are no second chances.
We must ask, How are those who are saved at Christ’s coming different from those who are lost? When are the distinctions manifest? What might be the experience of those living through this imminent judgment?
We will begin to answer these questions by looking at something the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to Titus.
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:3-7 ESV).
Several things to notice:
Paul acknowledges that he was once a different person, but he was saved. A change occurred. Vs 4,5.
Saving change is God’s work, not ours; He saves us according to His own mercy. Vs 5. See (Eph 2:8-10).
God saves us by an act of regeneration and renewal, through Jesus our Savior. Vs 5,6. See (Jn 3:3-6).
These acts of God make us Jesus’s heirs having a confident expectation of eternal life. Vs 7.
Considering this text and the other references listed above, we can state - the judgment of the living will distinguish between those who are regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit, who are justified by his grace, and those who are not. Those born from above are fundamentally different from those who are not. [4]Dear reader, have you been born from above? Have you experienced regeneration and renewal? There is not a more important question to ask yourself and settle in your own mind. Do you have a new heart, with its new desires, purposes, and motives? Those who are resurrected and those caught up to meet Jesus when He returns have been born again, a spiritual birth from above. This is the requisite qualification to be in God’s kingdom. Without the new birth we cannot even see God’s kingdom. See (Jn 3:3).
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV). See (2 Cor. 5:17,18).
The implications of Paul’s statements and experience are far reaching. The results of his regeneration and renewal (his New Birth) were not shallow, hidden, and transitory. Paul’s experience changed immediately and was not only a flight of feelings, rapturous emotions freeing him from guilt and allowing him to feel good about himself and his relationship with God. His experience was transformative. In Titus, and elsewhere, Paul puts his foolishness, disobedience, being led astray, slavery to various passions and pleasures, malice and envy, hatred, etc., all in the past. As the result of the new birth, he no longer practiced these things. The new birth produced a new life, new ways of thinking and living. Regarding the grace of God, Paul wrote that the “grace of God” (vs 11)... “trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:11-13 NET). A Christian‘s life is changed when he or she is born again from above.
Paul had received a new heart where God’s love had been poured (Rom 5:5). As the apostle John wrote, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 ESV). Dear reader, do you love God? I am not asking if you are fearful and want to escape destruction; those are selfish considerations. This is a wholly different question — do you love God? If you will consent, God will cause you to love; He will write His law in your heart[5]. You will love because you understand that He first loved us; Christ will have your heart.
The precious love of God changes us. Jesus said - “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” ...Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:15,21 ESV). Notice that Jesus does not say “you can” keep My Commandments, but he says “you will” keep My commandments.
Peter, writing to the scattered Christians wrote this,
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You once were not a people, but now you are God's people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul, and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears” (1 Peter 2:9-12 NET).
Christians will love and live for God. We will aim at perfect conformity to the will of God. Unselfishness will distinguish the abiding Christian’s daily experience; we will have a burden for the salvation of others, loving our neighbor as ourselves. When Christ returns there are no further appeals. God‘s righteous verdict is revealed at the resurrection. The pre-advent/investigative judgment will have discerned all things.
“He [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:6-11 ESV).[6]
Solomon wrote these wise words,
“Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. For God will evaluate every deed, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NET).
These texts, and many others, point us toward the final warning given in Scripture to the inhabitants of earth. We could refer to it as the last call. It is a threefold warning given to prepare earth’s inhabitants for Christ’s return; a first Angel declares, "...Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!" (Revelation 14:7 NET).
If we think Christ’s return could be imminent, in the next five to twenty years, then this message is for us. It is truth for today, truth for this generation, an essential, urgent, warning for every nation and tribe and tongue and people. If correct, we are the ones living through this judgment time! We are the ones who will be selected by these messages. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches (See Jn 15). He will take away every branch that does not bear fruit in Him. God’s people are called to proclaim these messages. The Judgment will be understood, proclaimed, and experienced before Christ returns. When Jesus arrives everyone who could have been saved will have been. Let us strive to faithfully reflect Christ’s character and warn others of his soon return.
Jesus concluded His sermon on the mount with these words,
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven - only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!' "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!" (Matthew 7:21-27 NET).
A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. It will beat on every house and test every foundation. Let us plead with God for a renewed experience, loving and obeying God and loving our neighbor.
As Jude’s letter says,
“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, maintain yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. And have mercy on those who waver; save others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy on others, coupled with a fear of God, hating even the clothes stained by the flesh. Jude 1:20-23 (NET)
“In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth. The heart that receives the word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden” (COL 130).
“We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead .... on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God!" (2 Corinthians 5:20 NET).
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Kenneth Ray is a Seventh-day Adventist layman who lives with his wife Susie in northwest Montana.
[1] 1 Cor 15:51-57.
[2] 1 Thes. 4:13-18.
[3] 2 Thes. 2 1-12; 2 Pet. 3:1-13
[4] (Rom 8:9).
[5] (Jer. 31:31-34).(Heb. 8:8-12;9:15).(Rom. 2:28,29).
[6] See also (Rom 14:12).(Job 34:11).(Ps 62:12).(Pr 24:12).(Isa 3:10,11).(Jer 17:10;32:19).(Eze 18:30).(Matt 16:27;25:34)(1 Cor 3:8;4:5)(2 Cor 5:10).(Gal 6:7,8). (Rev 2:23;20:12).(Matt 25:15).(1 Pet 1:17).