Friday, September 5, 2008

The Righteous Judge

John 5:15-23 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (16) And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. (17) But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (22) The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, (23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

John 8:15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

Scripture alternately has Jesus stating that all judgment is His, but that He came not to judge. We accept the Word as fully true- never contradictory, but sometimes paradoxical to our spiritually myopic & sin-hardened mind. “Well, ‘We have the mind of Christ’ ” you say, & you are correct; but understanding must foundationally begin with the Bible, for there are many deceiving spirits in the world (firstly, our own natural man). Because He has stated “He will never leave us nor forsake us”, the treasure of God’s Word was given & passed down to us- so that we can understand the things we need to understand. God has not left His children as spiritual orphans- in His Word, He has given us all we need; if His children would just dwell there, His Spirit would open their minds to all they need to know.

All Scripture should be taken in its immediate context, as well as its larger context of being just one part of the composite teaching we call the Bible. Above, when I quoted John 8, I purposely did as many false teachers do & parceled it from its context- to illustrate the danger of listening to the “one verse” teacher. Many lies are taught by men such as these. Now read it in context:

John 8:2-26 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. (3) The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst (4) they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. (5) Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" (6) This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. (7) And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." (8) And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. (9) But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. (10) Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" (11) She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."


Jesus does not judge her to be “not guilty”- based on His next statement- “sin no more.” She was guilty, but He adjudicated a judgment of no condemnation upon her. This was foretelling the adjudication for sin He would be giving all the elect of God, for all their sin- the “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Adjudication is defined as “a judge making an official decision about a problem or dispute” & this speaks to Christ’s power as both Savior & Judge. The problem is God has pure holiness & righteousness- & we do not. We are in dispute with His nature with our every transgression. This is why the Father “has given all judgment to the Son”; for it is the Son who suffered for our transgressions. If the Father were to be our judge, every one of us would be destined for Hell, for His desire for mercy cannot simply trump His demand for purity. More than all else, God is a holy God. It is the Son alone who paid the price for our sin, who was the propitiation for our iniquity, so only He alone can bestow merciful forgiveness for said iniquity. If Christ did not retain both titles- Savior & Judge- He would lack the authority to commute sentences for sin. A judge who simply dismisses a case against the guilty, without a penalty being paid, could not be called a righteous judge. He would be derelict in duty as he disregarded criminal activity. But a merciful Judge blessed with ability to foresee the criminal activity of His friends could pay their penalty in advance; certainly this is what took place as Jesus foresaw “the joy that was set before Him”. He “endured the cross & despis(ed) the shame”, looking forward to that day when He would be “seated at the right hand of the throne of God”, rightly able to dispense mercy to all those entrusted to Him. “The joy that was set before Him” was the ability to truly put our sin “as far the east is from the west”.

The Judge will not lose any of God's children to Hell because the Judge Himself paid the price to save them from Hell.

(12) Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (13) So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." (14) Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. (15) You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. (16) Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. (17) In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. (18) I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." (19) They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." (20) These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. (21) So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come." (22) So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" (23) He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. (24) I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." (25) So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. (26) I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him."

Note that when we take in more of His message, we see in verse 26 that Christ will judge (in the future). When Jesus says "I judge no one", He is speaking in the present tense. It reflected the nature of His current ministry at the time- a suffering servant dedicated to His future “joy” of granting mercy to those He loves. Jesus sums His mission on earth in John 3:

John 3:16-21 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (19) And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (20) For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (21) But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

See, there is a judgment to come, & Christ’s primary mission was to have the authority to rightly adjudicate the case against the ones He loves.

4 comments:

Even So... said...

Nice...We should approach Scripture holistically and not rely on proof-texts for our doctrine, and see to it that the holistic teaching of Scripture, its warp and woof, supports our doctrine.

Zoarean said...

Thanks JD. My desire to rely solely on the Bible to offer commentary on the Bible derives from my upbringing as a Christian Scientist. I would counter my Christian friends’ Biblical criticisms of CS with the standard “one liner” responses I had learned in the religion. I assumed that I had the Bible backing me up just as much as they had. I thought “At worst, we are at an impasse in our disagreements, for the Bible teaches both sides.” At all these impasses, I did not go to the Bible for my understanding; I instead went outside Scripture (Mary Baker Eddy) to find the truth. I had never given God’s Word its due by first seeking its illumination on the dilemma. But one day I realized the disingenuous nature of seeking understanding outside His Word- that in fact I could be only deceiving myself; & in such case, I would have accept the truth at some point anyways (& hopefully it wouldn’t too late at that point). I decided that I would allow no other referee, in regards to truth, than the Bible. It wasn’t long after that seemingly small decision (small because I truly believed Scripture would only further reinforce what I had thought to be true) that I left CS & have determined ever since not to allow commentary apart from Scripture to mislead me yet again. (Well, except for that indulgence to “charismania” back in the 80’s!)

Even So... said...

Yes, well done, Steve...if all we have are "proof texts", then all we do is play "Bible ping pong"...

The consistent witness of the whole of scripture attests to the truth of something being in the nature of God's character or not...

Of course we can see the error of simple "proof texting" by looking to Our Lord refuting Satan's use of proof texting, when tempted in the wilderness...

Even So... said...

hmmmm...I feel a new post coming on..."Tempted by the "Proof" Text"...