THE LAW OF THE JUDGMENT SEAT
As
nothing is more certain than that all believers must stand before
the Lord’s Judgment Seat, so nothing can surpass in importance the discovery of
the principle on which that judgment
will be conducted. It is the
judge Himself who, beyond all others, states and restates, enforces and
reinforces the searching, satisfying, sublime law of the Judgment Seat. It is a principle divinely simple and
sufficient. It is the quintessence of
all law - "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth"; yet, since it is applied in a court embracing the holiest
saints as well as the lowest graded of God’s servants, it is made to work as a
general principle covering all conduct; and so while it carries exact
retribution for wrong-doing, it ,equally and
simultaneously carries an automatic recoil of glory. It is
a fact past all conceivable wonder that we are the arbiters of our own
judgment.
Now
our Lord, "as He lifted up His eyes on His disciples"
(Luke 6: 20) - for "the persons addressed," as Dean Alford says, "are Christians, persons justified by faith, and waging the Christian
conflict in the power of the Spirit" - in the heart of His counsels
to the ‘little flock’ propounds the law of the
Judgment Seat. He says:- "Judge not" -
do not act on the principle of justice,
set not yourself up as a judge (Godet) - "and" - as
an automatic recoil - "ye shall not be be judged"
(Luke 6: 37) - the principle of justice will
not be applied to you. That our Lord
refers to the judgment of God and not the judgment of man is certain because
whether we judge men or not, they will judge us; the most
un-censorious, of saints will not escape the censure of the world: our very
refusal to condemn can make the uncharitable pronounce us hypocrites for speaking
kindly of all.*
"It cannot mean," as Augustine says, "that if we judge rashly of others, God will judge rashly of
us; or, if we measure unjustly to them, it will in turn be measured unjustly to
us." Nor is it mental
discrimination which our Lord forbids: for immediately after (Matt. 7: 3) He explains how, rightly, we can analyse our
brother’s faults, and how detect the human wolf masked as a child of God: what He forbids us is to invoke law, or to
sentence as a judge sentences. So
the Apostle James, defining it with inspired aptness as ‘the law of liberty,’ embodies
the principle beyond misunderstanding:- "So speak ye, and so do, as men that are to be judged
by the law of liberty. For judgment
shall be without mercy" - that is, purely
judicial and retributive - "to him that showed
no mercy" - who acted, in all things, on justice: "mercy rejoiceth against judgment"
(Jas. 2: 13).
[*
"It frequently happens that the children of God
receive the very worst reward, and are oppressed by many unjust slanders: and
that, too, when they have injured no man's reputation, and even spared the
faults of others" (Calvin).]
But
now our Lord, to put the meaning beyond all doubt, splits up judgment into its
two constituent elements of condemnation and acquittal, and once again reveals
that the principle of action we adopt is the principle of action we shall
experience. "Condemn not, and ye shall not he condemned" - not
because you have no counts of condemnation, but because they are
cancelled by your action: do not pass sentence, and sentence
will not be passed on you: refrain from all that is judicial, and you will
receive all that is merciful.* As God "is
not reckoning unto the world their trespasses"
(2 Cor. 5: 19),
His patience is to be our pattern; His kindness our precedent; His forbearance
our rule; and His love our law. And so
shall we receive back. "Punishment is the recoil of crime, and the force of the
backstroke is in proportion to the force of the original blow" (Archbishop Trench).
[*
That the Epistles are woven of one web with the Gospels, is proved by identical
doctrine. So Paul equally warns of
appeal to law:- "Dare any
of you go to law? Brother goeth to law
with brother, and that before unbelievers: it is
altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another"
(1 Cor. 6: 1-7). Certain exceptions however,
Scripture states. In the Church,
for certain sins (1 Cor.
5: 12); in business relations, which demand "that which is just" (Col.
4: 1); and in the rule of the home (1 Tim.
3: 4, 5), a measure of justice is permitted.]
So
then the Lord takes up the other half of the judicial function:- "release" -
acquit, absolve, discharge: it is a legal term - "and
ye shall be released." The emphasis our Lord places on forgiveness
can hardly be over-stated: in the heart of His model prayer He makes our
forgiveness to turn exactly on the degree with which we forgive,
and He commands us to tell God that we accept and plead the principle.
"Forgive us our sins as" - like as, in the same
manner as - "we forgive men their sins against us"
(Luke 11: 4). Moreover alone of the seven
petitions of the Prayer He singles it out, afterwards, for restatement and
emphasis; and enforces it both positively and negatively, so as to make
misunderstanding impossible "giving one more blow
to the die, so as to make the impression sharper and deeper" (Trench). "For if ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also" -
will correspondingly - "forgive you; but if ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses" (Matt. 6: 15).* It is obvious that the pardon, or
non-pardon, must be after death,
for only then does the opportunity for trespassing cease: that is, it is an
adjudication at the Judgment Seat;
and our perfect pardon will turn upon our perfect pardoning. "Whensoever ye
stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against anyone; that your Father also
which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11: 25).
[*Apart
from known sin, there may be sins once conscious and unrepented, but now
forgotten; or dispensational sins (and the like) not admitted to be sins; or
sins against the dead, whose forgiveness we cannot now obtain; and other such. "The remains of
sin in us require the same forgiveness through grace that we received at first"
(Stier). As the
Church has seen all down the ages, this petition, put into the
mouth of every child of the Father in Heaven, is fatal to
any doctrine of sinlessness. "In many
things we all stumble" (Jas. 3: 2);
and some degree of mercy's need the most exalted saint will carry to
heaven's gates.]
But
our Saviour, not content with these categorical commands, nor with embedding
the principle in our most sacred Prayer, has crystallized it into one of His
pregnant, exquisite Beatitudes. "Blessed are the merciful: for" -
apart from all loveliness of character it may produce, or the scattering of
mercy’s priceless boons: another fact altogether is the Lord’s ground of the
beatitude - "they shall obtain mercy"
(Matt. 5: 7); for "with the merciful Thou shalt show thyself merciful"
(Psa.18: 25). Mercy broke from every action of our Lord. He brought no charge against the Tempter; He
wept for
[*
"Servants obey in all things them that are your
masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice,
as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord: whatsoever ye
do, WORK heartily, as unto the Lord and not unto men ; knowing that from the Lord ye"
- the Lord’s servants - "shall receive the
recompence of the inheritance ; ye
serve the Lord Christ. For he that doeth wrong shall
receive again for the wrong that he hath done: and there is no respect of
persons." (Col. 2:
22-24).
All
God-inspired belief in the truth of our Lord’s near return to establish His
Kingdom is essentially practical. It is
not content merely to sit down and wait, but remembering that "the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation," it
seeks to hasten the Coming by gathering in souls while the opportunity remains.
The need is urgent, the opportunity
short-lived, and it behoves us to become those who are skilled in the art of soul-winning.
This
old dead world is waiting for "the revealing of
the sons of God. For
the creation was subjected to vanity" (Rom. 8: 19, 20). It will still roll on, and the men that belong
to it will be left behind. Shall we,
beloved, take our place like Enoch? - a type of all
who walk with God (Jude 14.) Shall we
begin the journey that leads to the gates of light and the chariots of the
Translation? (Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10, 11).]
The
Christian’s behaviour here and now
will determine our reward in the
future.
Judgment
- (now active on every believer’s works)
- is what will determine whether or not we will have an ‘inheritance’ in the
Once
more our Lord takes this harp of many strings but pouring one
music, and strikes the fullest chord of all. "Give"
- manifestly wealth, first of all; but also all else we have to
give - "and it shall be given unto you; good
measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they" -
the judgment officers of the court above* -
"give into your bosom" (Luke 6: 38). The
Age to Come will show that the man who hoarded was the
true spendthrift, and the ultimate bankrupt: on the other hand he who invests
his all for Christ will find his worthless scrip, one day, fabulous. "In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give
up, that makes us rich" (H. W. Beecher).
[*
“The plural they will give, corresponds
to the French indef. pron. on;
it denotes the instruments of divine munificence, whoever they may be"
(Godet):
"such agents being indefinite, and the meaning I
hereby rendered solemn and emphatic; if we are to find a nominative, it should
be the Angels, the ministers of the divine purpose" (Alford).]
Finally,
the Lord sums it all up in its essential principle.
"With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matt. 7: 2). Could anything be conceived
more subtle, yet more simple? anything more
intensely practical? anything more fearfully
analytical of our own spirits? anything more
extraordinarily pregnant, if practised, with all the graces of the Christian
character? The most merciful of us will
need mercy, and the most forgiving will need pardon: therefore do to others,
the Lord says, as you would that God should do to you; and reap exactly what
you sow - love for love, mercy for mercy, or else justice for justice,
vengeance for vengeance. In the words of
Chrysostom:- "God makes thee arbiter of
the judgment : as thou thyself judgest, He will judge thee."
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