Eternal Judgment: Introduction - GraceLife Church of Pineville

Introduction

We come now to a topic in God’s Word that will reveal a discrepancy.

The discrepancy is not in the text (even though our topic—eternal judgment—has and will continue to be the source of debate). The discrepancy will be in your attitude about this topic.

“Discrepancy,” honestly, might be a nice way of putting it.

What I want to say about eternal judgment might reveal spiritual immaturity. But addressing immaturity might be apropos given that we are tackling this concluding topic in our Oracles of God series.¹ This has been a study of elementary principles that we are supposed to progress past, on our way to maturity.

Here’s the discrepancy: If I were to say, “We’re going to study eternal judgment and talk about the end times, the millennium, Bible prophecy, Armageddon, and the book of Revelation,” it might evoke a curiosity, an excitement.

On the other hand, if I announce that we’re going to be studying eternal judgment—and what I mean by that is a judgment of your life and how well you’re living right now—then few are likely to say, “Well, I’m very interested in that!”

Being judged isn’t a topic people feel warm and fuzzy about.

Being judged isn’t a topic people feel warm and fuzzy about.

The Bible speaks of several different judgments.² We’ll touch on all of these in upcoming sermons.

Questions for Your Heart

With this topic, there’s no pre-quiz to test your intellectual grasp of the topic—e.g., who’s at the “great white throne” (Revelation 20:11), who’s going to be raptured, and is there even going to be a rapture. We’ll get to those things and more. But here are some initial questions for your heart:

How does the prospect of being judged make you feel?

Does it make you feel nervous? Scared? Excited? Anxious? Indifferent?

A related question:

How do you feel about the prospect of other people being judged?

Is your response, “Good!… Get ’em God!”?

We tend to be eager for others to be judged—we’re excited that justice is finally getting served. We should be careful about such an attitude, knowing that even our attitudes, and not only our actions, might incur judgment.

Or perhaps you don’t like the prospect of anyone being judged at all, especially if the judgment is as permanent as it sounds. Eternal judgment? That sounds very final, and potentially unfair. So what is the difference between eternal judgment and judgment that’s not eternal? What gets erased? What goes on the permanent record? What say or responsibility do you have in such matters?

Another question to ask yourself:

How often do you think about the fact that you will be judged in the eternal judgment?

Is your concern over the judgment of this world greater (in quantity and frequency) than your concern over eternal judgment?

Another related question:

Does the frequency or infrequency of how much you think about being judged eternally affect your behavior for better or for worse?

Some may have an unhealthy view of judgment that causes them to live a restricted life. On the other hand, contemplating that we will face judgment may encourage some to live rightly.

How often do you think about the fact that you might be rewarded (a positive form of judgment)?

Some scoff at the idea that future rewards might (or should) influence behavior. (“If we’re really spiritual, we won’t need rewards!”) And yet, the Scripture often encourages right living not just as a spiritual duty, but also because Christ’s return is imminent. Many would do well to think about that more often!

The Scripture often encourages right living not just as a spiritual duty, but also because Christ’s return is imminent. Many would do well to think about that more often!

My instinct tells me that we should all think about it more. And my hope is that this sermon series will spur you to not only think about it more but also to think about it correctly.

My prayer is that in thinking about it more and in thinking about it correctly, we will adjust our lives accordingly.

So, let’s begin to close this series in the same book that it began: Hebrews.

Eagerly Awaiting Him

Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”

There’s a stark finality to that statement. Death, then judgment. But the next verse (and how we understand it) means everything: “So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (Hebrews 9:28).

This pair of verses, in some sense, convey everything we need to know about eternal judgment—namely, that:

There is already an existing judgment in place against mankind: an appointment with death.
Judgment of death propels us toward a final judgment.
Christ has taken upon Himself the judgment against mankind.
Christ will return; He will appear again. And as the author of Hebrews points out, the focus will be salvation. The question becomes, then, who will be focused on Him? Who will, as the Scripture says, “eagerly await [Jesus]”?

In the Gospels, Jesus is recorded as telling a parable about a judge who poses this question: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”³ Who will be focused on Him? Who will eagerly await Him?

Last of the 6 Elementary Principles

Let’s turn back to Hebrews 5 and read the verses that this sermon series is based on. (If you’ve been following the entire series, you’ll start to see how all six elementary principles mentioned in these verses fit together.)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings [baptisms] and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. (Hebrew 5:12–6:2, bold added to highlight the six elementary principles)

As noted in past sermons, this list in Hebrews 6:1–2 is not just an unorganized list; we’ve talked about arrangement before (i.e., how the principles can be thought about in pairs). Here’s how they create a cohesive whole.

#1: Repentance from Dead Works

We are forced from the start to ask, “Is there anything wrong with the world?” Is there something from which we should repent?

The answer seems to be yes, we should repent from useless human effort. We’re to repent from dead works, from useless works, from religious busyness that amounts to nothing.

#2: Faith Toward God

If we are not to look to ourselves, then the question becomes, “To where will we turn?” More precisely, “To whom will we turn?”

The answer is that we are to turn to God. How do we turn to Him—with more works? No. It’s not works toward God but faith toward God. We turn to Him by faith. (This is how repentance from dead works becomes faith toward God.)

What will faith toward God gain us? Over and over in Scripture, the story is that it will gain us a new identity. Having run from something we are now plunged into something else. The Bible speaks of it as baptism …

#3: Baptisms

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.”⁴ Again, this is the language of new identity.

“All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been … united with Him in the likeness of His death … [and] in the likeness of His resurrection [life].”⁵

Thus, we have been freed to walk in the newness of life. We have been freed to live in joint service of God and in joint service of one another. That’s why the Scripture speaks of the next elementary principle, laying on of hands.

#4: Laying on of Hands

Laying on of hands speaks of the activity and authority of God’s church. This identity in Christ leads to a life of service. We begin to act out of who we really are—a child of God, a member of His body; we therefore serve fellow members of His body.

All of life up to this point is represented in those first four elementary principles: there’s a problem, a solution, a new identity, and a result of living out of that new identity.

These four foundational principles that move from death to identity with—and service of—the people of God on earth then move us into these last two principles, which complete the foundation by calling us back to what we’ve learned.

#5 and #6: Resurrection from the Dead and Eternal Judgment

Resurrection from the dead will be our entrance into final, eternal judgment. Judgment about what? Well, in many ways, the judgment is about the extent to which you succeeded in the first sets of principles:

Given the choice between useless works and faith toward God, which did you choose?
When it comes to identity and service, how well did you live out your new identity in Christ?

Living Out of Our New Identity

Before we go further, I’ll point out that this new identity means something. It changes something. And that, I think, is the meaning of Hebrews 9:27–28 (the verses we first looked at).

The way of things has been declared: it is appointed unto men to die once and then face judgment (v. 27). But verse 28 then relates this to Jesus: In becoming a man, Jesus died once, but the judgment that followed ushered in a judgment that put away sin; He bore it in His death. So, Christ is to die no more, and sin is to be paid for no more. Next, the Scripture says, Jesus will appear a second time for salvation, without reference to sin, to those who have trusted Him for eternal life.

Christ is to die no more, and sin is to be paid for no more.

What does all this mean for you and me who have believed in Jesus—that is, what does it mean for our daily living? It means that we are free to live not in fear of judgment, but in the hope of salvation. It means that we are free to eagerly await Him.

We are free to live not in fear of judgment, but in the hope of salvation. … We are free to eagerly await Him.

This is the privilege of the believer. If you have not trusted Christ for eternal life, I recommend it. You cannot work your way toward it. It’s why we repent from useless, dead works—we place our trust in the living Christ, who saves us for all eternity. What happens between now and eternity shapes both this life and the next.

What happens between now and eternity shapes both this life and the next.

It would seem, then, that there are those who won’t and don’t eagerly await Him. Or perhaps they don’t know what it means to eagerly await or how to eagerly await. That’s why we study eternal judgment.

Not Losing Heart as We Wait

It’s fascinating to think about the cataclysmic shaking of this world and all its systems and the battle and defeat of demonic forces. And it’s good to be curious about the timing and details of such things.

If you are curious, you’re in good company. The disciples—having finished that 40-day intensive seminary with Jesus post-resurrection had one question: “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). But Jesus’s response was, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:8).

So I caution you, as you wait, to understand that you’re not just waiting on the revelation of facts. You’re not just sitting and waiting to try to figure out when it might happen that Jesus returns, or hoping someone else might figure it out. Please do not view eager waiting as a view from bleachers—just waiting to see how it all shakes out.

The eager wait for the new world that Christ will usher in means the active rejection of the world that is.

The eager wait for the new world that Christ will usher in means the active rejection of the world that is.

If this world were meant for us, then there would be no need of Christ’s salvation, no need for Him to come a second time. But that we await Christ’s salvation, Christ’s deliverance, means that there is something He wants to deliver us from. It probably means that our time in this world is not a time of deliverance.

We wait, and waiting can cause us to “lose heart,” to become discouraged. How long, oh Lord, will it be this way for the brave among us? How long?

What are some ways we lose heart? We might give ourselves over to temporary pleasures. We might give in to apathy. We might lose heart that our great promise seems too far on the horizon (after all, so far, we’ve been waiting 2,000 years).

Eager waiting means we understand that there is a great difference between our current condition and the future condition that awaits us.

Eager waiting means we understand that there is a great difference between our current condition and the future condition that awaits us.

Conclusion: Choose What Counts

I close with two passages about waiting to guide your understanding of eternal judgment and to serve as an encouragement for present living. The first comes from Peter:

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.⁶ Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things,⁷ be diligent⁸ to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand,⁹ which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.¹⁰ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:13–18)

These are Peter’s last words to us. Our focus is now and to … eternity. He tells us that some things Paul writes are hard—and we’ll go over some of those hard things in this study—but be not discouraged, because some things Paul writes are clear and easy to understand. I’ll close with one of those things—from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.

This passage precedes Paul’s discussion (in 2 Corinthians 5) about our “earthly tent” being torn down as we await a new body. The passage follows Paul’s earlier discussion about his own ministry and the suffering he’s undergone. As he navigates life between suffering and waiting for the new body, he is encouraging others to press on to live well and not lose heart:

Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

The things to come are beyond all comparison. That doesn’t mean “Don’t compare them”; it means, “Compare them, and see the disparity. See the gap. See the difference between this world and that one.”

If I were teaching this sermon in a class, I’d ask you as a student to write out a little chart here. Make a comparison between what you observe about this world versus the next world. Here’s what such a chart would look like:

Our current condition is momentary, afflicting, and light. Most of us get the “afflicting” part, but often (because of affliction) it doesn’t feel so momentary or light. But compare our condition to eternity, and it’s momentary. And even though Paul himself was suffering unto death, he still says his suffering was light. It was light in two ways. First, it’s light in comparison to the glory that is to follow. It’s worth the wait. It’s a “nothing” compared to the glory that is coming. Even our sufferings He will turn for the good.

I think Paul is also saying that his suffering is light in the sense that the things of this world are light in their value or worth compared to the heavy value or worth of the next life. There’s silver and gold in the next life—heavy, precious metals; the wheat, or chaff, of this life will blow away by comparison.

The next life is where there is real living.

How, then, should we live?

Choose, every day, what counts in the end. As Psalm 90 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (v. 12). May we choose the weightier things. May we suffer the momentary things. May we fix our eyes upon the unseen eternal.

We will choose every day to pursue:

That which lasts, or that which decays
That which will lead to our glory, or that which will add to our affliction
That which in the end will be measured and found to be light, or that which will be of substance—the weighty things of the new life to come, the weightier things of eternal judgment

I look forward to studying this with you, and to living well with you until our Savior appears.

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