We Shall All Stand In Judgment

We have all heard about the “Judgment” or the “Last Judgment” or the “Great Judgment” or the “White Throne Judgment”. The Bible talks about some kind of a judgment alright, but the specifics have always been very confusing to me and to most others that I have heard concerning it.

When is it? Who is judged? Of what are they judged? What are the penalties? These are all things that seem rather vague and, at some points, contradictory in the Bible.

I have heard many sermons over the years speaking about how we are all to stand before God in a review and judgment of all the things that we did in our human lives.

Here is how I viewed it in my religious upbringing:
I thought that God kept a big book listing everything that I did, good and bad, throughout my life and everything everybody else did also. It surely must have been some volume of a book, but God could handle that! If I died with an unrepented big or “mortal” sin, I would go straight to “hell”. If I died with an unrepented little or “venial” sin, I would go to a place called “purgatory” which was just as bad as hell but had the redeeming feature that some day I would be released from purgatory and go to “heaven”.

And if I died having repented and been forgiven of all my sins, I would go straight to “heaven”. But this idea of purgatory always seemed strange to me. It seemed like I should be either good enough for heaven or that I should deserve hell. But what was this middle-ground? And it was even more confusing because I was told that other living people could pray for me and do good works for me to get me released from purgatory sooner. I couldn’t understand how this whole system of “indulgences” or releasings worked, but I was told not to worry about it because the priests had it figured out.

But then sometime out in the future, everyone who had died was going to take part in a “Last Judgment”. Everyone! Those who had gone to be in heaven to live in the spirit realm were going to put on some kind of “bodies” and be judged. Those in purgatory likewise. And Jesus Christ was to sit on a throne and preside over this “Last Judgment”.

Now, if I was in heaven enjoying that spirit life and then was called down for a soul-searching judgment, I wouldn’t be very happy! I had “earned” heaven; now what was this about? And, if I was in hell by condemnation already, why this temporary removal from the flames just so that I could be sent there again? It all didn’t make much sense!

Just picture a giant sports stadium filled to capacity and overflowing with people. In front of you, you see the giant television replay screen. Each person, one by one, is called down to the 50 yard line with Jesus Christ on His throne in the middle of the field. Christ opens His Book and replays the good things and the sinful things that you did in your life. Everyone sees it on the big screen! In living color! How could the joy of the good things shown ever cancel out the embarrassment of the dark sins we committed?

And then we are each judged according to our “works”. No more purgatory now. It is either heaven or hell. Did the righteous works outweigh the evil works? Or did the scale tip to the evil works and send us to hell? If we had been sent to heaven at our death, could this “Last Judgment” change that and send us to hell? I couldn’t figure it out! And I was never given what I considered an understandable explanation.

Was I just weird? Or did some of you have thoughts along these lines?

Well, I struggled with this concept of judgment for many years. And then it got even more complicated. Because I discovered many places in the Bible that stated when God forgives us of our sin, HE FORGETS IT! HE SEPARATES IT AS FAR FROM US AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST! Well as you know, there is a North pole and a South pole. But there are no East or West poles. So what God is saying is that He casts our sin an infinite distance away from us, AND FORGETS IT! If He forgets it, then He can never bring it up against us again. Doesn’t that make sense? Then what about this Book to remind us about it later? Now I was really confused!

New Understanding

When you come to an understanding of what happens to a person at conversion (Christ comes to live IN you), and what righteousness and sin really consist of, then you begin to see what judgment is all about. Here is what my, albeit incomplete, understanding of judgment consists of now.

I believe that judgment for sin is inescapable. But I also believe that there are more judgments than people ordinarily have recognized. The average church member has the idea that there is only one judgment and that there everyone, good and bad, Christian and non-Christian, will meet and be separated like sheep and goats.

But the Bible teaches two judgments to be faced by every Christian. One is past, at our conversion and new birth, when we are judged as sinners; and one is continuously present when we are judged as sons.

1. Judged as Sinners

This judgment is past for every converted Christian. “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). But Jesus did that 2000 years ago and you can do nothing to add to its effectiveness except to trust in it. “There is therefore now no condemnation (sin judgment) to them who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The sins of our past are forgotten by God, just as if they had never taken place. They have been blotted out by the blood of Christ, totally forgiven, totally gone! There is no record of them in any book, nothing to recall against us later. The punishment for our sins has been paid already by Christ. Therefore, why bring it up again?

2. Judged as Sons

Because Christ now lives in us, we have the nature of God and God accepts us as His children. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:2). He gives us the STANDING of sons. But the Father desires also that we become sons in UNDERSTANDING as well. And in order to make us so He brings us into judgment, son judgment. The prodigal son was not son-like, but he was still a son. When we are not son-like, then God judges us with physical correction (not punishment which is a legal payment for sin but correction which looks to the future improvement of the son). That is, when we do wrong, when we recognize it and condemn it in ourselves and confess it to God, that is the end of it. It is forgotten just as at conversion. For all God wants is for us to recognize our living union with Christ and forsake all evil influences. And the steady correction when we start to try to live independently drives us gradually but inevitably to the true understanding of sonship in the family of God. All of the correction by God that occurs after conversion is physical chastisement — not spiritual punishment! “Chastise” comes from a root word meaning “chaste” or “pure”. God is purifying us.

Christ has said that once He comes to live in us, He will never leave us. Our salvation is assured! Certainly we can and will occasionally slip into sin. But we will never again jump into it with both feet, wallow in it, splash around in it, linger interminably in it. It is just Satan’s spirit of independence influencing us from outside of us temporarily. We are drawn back to an awareness of Christ living in our spirit. Our sin is quickly forgiven, and FORGOTTEN, and although we have that physical chastisement to remind us of our problem, we probably understand our sonship a little better.

Read Hebrews 12:5-11. These verses describe chastisement by a loving Father who desires “... that we may share His holiness.., and that afterward we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character.” (Living Bible wording). These verses show both the nature and purpose of our son-judgment. But such judgment is going on here and now whenever we need it. And it is correction that is looking forward to a beneficial result, is very personal, and individually applied. While punishment is looking backward to the offense, is impersonal and automatic, and its goal is the administration of justice.

Judgment for Non-Christians

Then there is the Judgment of the Nations (Matt. 25:31-46) for non-Christians. The Bible does not really give a good explanation of what will take place at these times. Nobody knows just what this judgment will be like nor will he know until he enters it. But we ought to have a few trustworthy ideas based on the Bible about the subject and about the nature of God.
• Judgment will bring punishment.
• Judgment will be just. That is, God will remember the heredity and environment of each individual and what he was up against.
• Judgment will be graded to suit the offense. See Luke 12:42-48 about being deserving of few stripes or many stripes.
• All of God’s judgments will be purposive; they will accomplish something - Isa. 26:9.
• Judgment will destroy enmity and rebellion
- 1 Corinthians 15:25.

What about the "rewards" mentioned in some verses? Read my article about this subject here.


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