| Judgment

A world that refuses to be judged is not fit to judge. A world unfit to judge, a world unable to administer justice. A world without justice, a world consumed by itself.

Is this not our world? Have we not grown weary of it, furious with it?

It is with this world, ourselves, that the Judge did the unprecedented—in His great love exchanging places with us, granting us the gavel, accepting our groundless sentence of execution, bearing our most heinous injustice, absorbing our pathetic outrage as we mocked and spit on Him. “Hail, King of the Jews!” He intended in this staggering exchange to waken us to the foolishness and repugnance of our rebellion against His profound love for us.

For all who kneel at His pierced feet pleading for mercy and for those who go forth to show mercy, He will show His own.

For those who persist in wielding the gavel, “be warned that this Judge is a consuming fire. It is a dreadful thing to fall into His hands. He will come again like a thief in the night—this time to judge the living and the dead. Be assured that the wicked will not go unpunished. He will destroy those who destroy the earth. He will execute justice and righteousness. Vengeance is His, and He will repay.”

For this world to be fully restored, the invitation to forgiveness cannot remain open forever. (And how long it remains open… how incomprehensibly patient God is, not wanting anyone to perish.)

Judgment is God’s final act in setting the world aright. The suffering, the oppressed, the abused—they long for this act.

“Those who hope in the Lord do not hope in vain.”