From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part three of a series. Read part two.

How can you be certain that Christ will place you on His right hand at the Last Judgment?

In the first two articles of this series, we have seen that Scripture declares that the Last Judgment is not a trial or an inquest, but the announcement of a verdict determined long before any of us appear there. The evidence, Jesus told Nicodemus, is clear:

He who believes in Him [he who believes in the Son of God] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)

How, then, can you be certain that on the Day of Judgment the Lord Jesus will place you in His right hand - declaring you innocent and inviting you to "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34)? How can you be certain that He will not place you on His left hand, to "go away into everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46)?

Christ's answer is simple and powerful:

When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag it to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. (Luke 12:58)

Matthew records a similar statement of the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. (Matthew 5:25)

Agree with your adversary. That is Jesus' message. The Holy Spirit repeats it for us later in the New Testament through the Apostle John:

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)

Those words reinforce Jesus' statement to Nicodemus, do they not?

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:19-21)

But in First John chapter one we also read this:

If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:9-10)

"If we confess our sins..." The word confess in that verse is homologomen, the Greek word that means "to say the same thing as someone else." In other words, to agree with someone.

If as lost, condemned sinners we confess our sins - if we say the same thing that God says about our sins, if we agree with our adversary while we are on the way to the judgment, if we settle out of court based on the righteousness and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ - then we will come before His judgment seat to a hear of pronouncement of "not guilty." And that verdict will be announced on the only basis possible - not on any righteousness of our own, but entirely and only on the righteousness purchased for sinners by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the message of Christ's parable: Settle out of court. You are on your way to judgment. Agree with your adversary on the way to judgment that you are a sinner, condemned, under the wrath of God, deservedly bound for "everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46).

Receive the gift of grace that we read of in Romans chapter 5. Receive the substitution of the righteous obedience of Christ for the sinful disobedience of your father Adam. Receive the righteous obedience of Christ in exchange for your own sinful disobedience of the law of God because you are a sinner after the manner of your father Adam.

Comfort for the Believer

This is a message of the greatest comfort to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer will come to the Last Judgment having already appropriated, by faith, the redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The one whom Christ will immediately place on His right hand on that day will have long ago been brought to repentance and faith by the regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit, who is the One who applies the salvation accomplished at the cross by Christ to the soul of the condemned son of Adam.

It is all of grace. It is none of us.

As I think of these things, I am reminded of a story the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon told. He had heard that an elderly widow in his church was about to be put out of her house because she could not pay the rent. And so Spurgeon took some of his own money, put it in an envelope, put it in his pocket, and made his way to the door of her house. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. And so he knocked again, because he knew that the lady was there. Still there was no answer. And so he knocked, again and again and again.

Finally the widow came to the door and opened it just a tiny bit. But when she saw that it was Spurgeon standing at the door, she threw it wide open, and she said, "Oh pastor, I am sorry I did not answer the door. I thought that you were the man coming for the rent." But Spurgeon, reaching into his pocket, said to her, "No, my dear, I am not 'the man for the rent,' but the man with the rent."

Dear reader, that is an illustration of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot "pay the rent." We cannot possibly pay the penalty for our sins. We cannot pay our way into the glories of the New Heavens and New Earth by our good works. But Jesus is "the man with the rent." Jesus is the God-man who has paid it all. Salvation from eternal punishment is all of grace.

And so, when you come to the Day of Judgment, as you surely will, if you have believed on Christ He will immediately place you on His right hand. He will immediately welcome you into the kingdom that was prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.

At the beginning of this series, I quoted Hebrews 9:27 - "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment..." But that is not the end of the sentence. Yes, "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment," but - verse 28 - "Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time" - that second time being the Day of Judgment - "apart from sin, for salvation."

You will appear, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, at His judgment seat, "apart from sin, for salvation." There can be no greater word of comfort to anyone in this world.

Some years ago I was in the hospital, having suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. I was in a coma for several days. As I finally began to wake up, I wondered where I was. But my wondering was limited to this: Am I on earth, or am I in Heaven? On the authority of the Word of God and on the merits of Jesus Christ, I knew that those were, for me, the only two possible alternatives. I knew that I have already been delivered from eternal punishment by faith in Christ. I am grateful to the Lord that these were among my first waking thoughts. It was an incredible comfort at the moment of greatest need.

Severe Warning to the Unbeliever - But An Offer of Hope

But dear reader, while the matters that we have considered in these articles are words of greatest comfort to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ - words of greatest comfort to the one who has settled out of court with his adversary, our righteous Judge - at the same time these are words of the severest warning to the unbeliever. And yet with the warning, there is the offer of hope.

Unbeliever, you are on your way to judgment. The verdict is already against you. All that waits is for you to come before the Magistrate of the Universe and to hear the sentence pronounced:

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels"... And these will go away into everlasting punishment... (Matthew 25:41, 46)

If you are an unbeliever, Christ is the only One by whom your case may be settled out of court. Christ is the only One by whom and through whom you may escape the condemning judgment of God.

Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

In the opening verses of Romans chapter 8, God declares the state of the one who has "settled out of court":

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

And in the next verse of that chapter, we have the Gospel message in one sentence:

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin.

How did He do that? The next verse tells us:

He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

How Is It With You?

Dear reader, have you agreed with your adversary on the way to the Last Judgment? Are you certain of eternal life? Are you certain of freedom from eternal punishment? Has the sentence of condemnation, under which you entered this world, been wiped away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ? If you are uncertain of the answers to these questions, we invite you to contact us, and we will be glad to explain further how, on the authority of the Word of God, you can be certain.

say0088

TeachingtheWord Ministriesmmmmmwww.teachingtheword.org

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