From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part four of a series. Read part three.

The answer to this question may even surprise many professing Christians.

As we examine Jesus' evangelistic parable in Luke 12:54-59, we come now to His second point: He describes the adversarial nature of the Last Judgment for the unbeliever, and He identifies Himself as the great adversary of every unsaved sinner. Once again, let us consider the full text of Jesus' parable as He spoke to the multitude:

Then He also said to the multitudes, "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the West, immediately you say, 'a shower is coming'; and so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say, 'there will be hot weather'; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time?

Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.

Misidentifying the Unbeliever's Adversary

"When you go with your adversary to the magistrate..." Here is Jesus' second great point. When each unrepentant sinner comes before the judgment seat of Christ, his adversary will also be there. Who is that adversary? We may think we know that answer when we call to mind passages such as these:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place [more literally, give opportunity] to the devil. (Ephesians 4:26)

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

But we must ask this: To whom does the Holy Spirit address such words? He addresses them to believers in Christ. Satan is the adversary of the believer. He is "the accuser of our brethren" (Revelation 12:10), and we find such an instance in the account of Job's great trials (Job 1:9-11).

The Believer Has No Adversary at the Judgment

We must further ask: Is there any record of Satan appearing as an adversary at the Last Judgment? We find none. Indeed, the Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares such a thing to be impossible:

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.... Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:1, 33)

Likewise we find this statement of great comfort from the pen of the Apostle John:

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness [literally, cheerful confidence] in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:15-19)

Scripture thus makes it clear that at the Last Judgment no adversary appears to bring a charge against the believer in Christ.

But What of the Unbeliever?

In sharp contrast, the unsaved sinner comes before the judgment seat of Christ and is confronted by his adversary. Romans 5:10 reminds believers that before their conversion, they were the enemies of God. Philippians 3:18 speaks more specifically of unbelievers as "the enemies of the cross of Christ." Psalm 11:5 declares that God "hates the wicked". In Psalm 7 the Holy Spirit declares:

God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts. (Psalm 7:11-12)

Why is God the adversary of the unbeliever? Because He is absolutely holy, and sinful man cannot live in the presence of the Holy One. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the prophet Hosea, declares this fact concerning the hopeless condition of unrepentant sinners because of God's nature:

O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. (Hosea 1:12-13)

Let me remind you again of Jesus' own words to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 beginning at verse 18:

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.

The Nature of God's Judgment

So this is the sum of Jesus' second point in the evangelistic parable of Luke chapter 12: The judgment awaiting every individual who has not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is an adversarial proceeding. That is the essential nature of the judgment of God.

We see this as early as the third chapter of Genesis. Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God pronounced a judgment that is forensic in nature - based on established facts. In Genesis 3:9-13 we find the Lord asking them four questions that establish the facts of their violation of the commandment. He had warned them that the penalty for such violation would be death - not only their own, but all of their descendants:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 3:16-17)

In the original this reads, more literally, "dying you shall die". In other words, God was telling our first parents that they would immediately experience spiritual death and the resulting separation from fellowship with Him. But their sin would also unleash the inexorable process of deterioration leading to their physical death as part of the curse of sin falling upon the entire created order.

Through Adam's fall, God has become the adversary of every person born into this world. Apart from faith in Me, Jesus is saying, you are the enemies of God. The adversary who comes with the unbeliever to the Last Judgment is none other than Christ the Righteous Judge. To use the terms of the parable, He is both adversary and magistrate. The unbeliever stands condemned by Him and worthy of eternal death.

But the hopeless condition of the unrepentant sinner descends to yet greater depths: The third point of Jesus' parable is that a "guilty" verdict has already been rendered against each individual who is born into this world, from the moment of conception. How and why is this so? We shall examine this question as we continue.

Next: How Many Sins Must You Commit In Order to Be Eternally Lost?

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