Judgment – See you in Heaven

How can we respond to those who refuse to believe in Christ? Part 5

“⁴⁴Then Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. ⁴⁵ And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.’ ” John 12:44-45

The people to whom Jesus spoke had important decisions to make before Christ was crucified. We are learning from Jesus’ response to this crowd how we can respond to those who refuse to believe in Christ. So far we have discovered we must…

– Challenge them to seek God while there is time (John 12:34-35).

– Counsel them to Believe in Christ while there is time (12:36).

– Contemplate the Scriptures’ explanation for their unbelief (John 12:37-41).

– Consider that some are secret believers (John 12:42-43).

The fifth way to respond to those who refuse to believe is to CONFRONT THOSE WHO REFUSE TO BELIEVE WITH THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS (John 12:44-50). “Then Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me.’ ” (John 12:44). Jesus “cried out” to get the crowd’s attention as He makes one last appeal for them to believe in Him. Jesus is the perfect reflection of the Father because He also is God (cf. 1:1, 14; 5:18; 8:58; 10:30-36). To believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father “who sent” Christ. This emphasizes the oneness of God the Father and God the Son. You cannot say you believe in God and at the same time reject Jesus Christ because Jesus is equal with God the Father (cf. John 5:18-47).

Jesus explains, “And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” (John 12:45). When a person “sees” Jesus, he or she “sees” the Father “who sent” Him because Christ perfectly mirrors His Father since they are equal in essence. They both have divine natures capable of giving eternal life to those who believe in Christ. Therefore, to behold and believe in One, is to behold and believe in the other. Jesus is claiming to be God here! He is capable of giving eternal life to them if they would behold and believe in Him.

Then Christ said, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:46). Christ came into the world as the Light so that those who believe in Him “should not abide in darkness.” This may refer to positional or experiential truth. ¹ If it is positional truth, it means that those who believe in Christ are now “sons of light”(12:36) and are no longer a part of the kingdom of darkness and eternal death (cf. John 5:24; Colossians 1:13). If this phrase refers to experiential truth, it would mean that Christ came into the world so that those who believe in Him should have fellowship with God. The word “abide” (menō) is a fellowship term in John’s writings. ²To “abide in darkness” refers to being without direction and alienated from the Lord. Believers are not to remain out of fellowship with God. They are to walk in the light by being open and honest with God (I John 1:5-10).

“And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” (John 12:47). If a person hears Christ’s message and “does not believe” it, Jesus says He will “not judge him; for” He “did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” Jesus will not condemn those who refuse to believe in Him because He came to save sinners by His grace. Christ explains, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him — the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48). But “in the last day” Christ’s message will condemn those who refused to believe in Him. These verses are excellent to show those who accuse God of being unfair when He sends people to hell. The truth is, if a person goes to hell it is not because Jesus rejected him or her, it is because that person rejected Christ.

What is the word that Jesus had “spoken”? Christ said, “he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” (John 6:47). Have you believed in Christ for His gift of everlasting life? If yes, then you will live forever with Him in heaven. But if you do not ever believe in Christ, then His message will condemn you to the Lake of Fire forever on the last day at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Part of an unbeliever’s agony in the Lake of Fire will be the remembrance of the missed opportunities they had to get right with God by believing in Jesus. Christ’s message of everlasting life will torment the unbeliever throughout eternity.

How can Jesus say that His word will be the fitting judge of people on the last day?! “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” (John 12:49). He can say this because His message did not originate from Himself, but from His Father. If anyone has a problem with what Jesus teaches, then his or her problem is with God the Father because He told Jesus what to say. Christ is totally dependent upon His Father as to what to teach. His Father commanded Him what to say.

“And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:50). Christ knows that His Father’s “command is everlasting life.” What God the Father commanded Jesus to say resulted in eternal life for those who believed it. Therefore, Christ was very careful to “speak just as the Father has told” Him. ³Christ’s teaching leads to “everlasting life.” He concludes His final public teaching with an invitation to receive His message and believe in Him for eternal life.

Jesus did not come to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world by His grace. So many unbelievers think that Christianity is a religion filled with dos and don’ts. “Don’t drink and don’t chew. And don’t run around with girls who do.” Christ did not come into the world to condemn us. He came into the world to cleanse us through His matchless grace.

Picture if you will, a giant eagle soaring majestically above the Niagara River, his great wings spread in flight. As he glides silently overhead looking for prey, he spies the carcass of a bird floating upon a block of ice on the river below. He swoops down, lands on the ice, and begins to devour the dead bird. From time to time, while he eats, he looks up and sees the river’s width is increasing — a sign it is nearing the falls — but hastily he returns to his meal, waiting until the ice is about to go over the falls when he will spread his wings and fly to safety. Why worry about the falls? Here is a great feast. There’s plenty of time. So the ice floats onward carrying its strange cargo closer and closer to the gigantic falls. The roar of this great spectacle of God’s handiwork grows louder and louder as if crying out a warning that death is near, but to no avail. At last, as the block of ice is about to plunge over the falls, the eagle lifts his wings to take flight. But, while he has been engrossed in eating, his long talons have become frozen in the ice. He is unable to free himself, and goes screeching over the falls to his death. ⁴

The same can be said of many people in Jesus’ day and today. They go floating along on the river of life interested only in material things. “The Judgment Day Falls” cry out, but they pay no attention. Oh someday, when they are lying on their death bed, when they are about to breathe their last breath, when they have tried all the world has to offer, then, when they have no other way to turn, then they intend to trust Christ. They intend to fly into the safety of His everlasting arms. But they wait too long. The world has frozen their hearts and they plunge over “Judgment Day Falls” unsaved. Please do not let that happen to you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ while you still have time and He will give you everlasting life (John 3:16).

Prayer: Father God, thank You for sending Jesus into the world not to condemn us, but to save us and cleanse us of our sins. Please help me to speak Your words in the Bible just as Jesus was careful to speak what You spoke to Him. Your words give live everlasting, Lord God. Father, I am deeply burdened for those who continue to reject Jesus as the Giver of eternal life. Please work in and through their circumstances so that they will become more open to Your message of grace. Help me not to give up on those who have repeatedly rejected Your message, just as You never gave up on me after I initially ignored Your gospel message that others shared with me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

ENDNOTES:

1. Dr. Robert N. Wilkin, “The Gospel According to John,” The Grace New Testament Commentary, Vol. 1: Matthew – Acts (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), pg. 436.

2. John 1:32, 33, 38, 39 (2); 2:12; 3:36; 4:40 (2); 5:38; 6:27, 56; 7:9; 8:31, 35 (2); 9:41; 10:40; 11:6, 54; 12:24, 34, 46; 14:10, 17, 25; 15:4 (3), 5, 6, 7 (2), 9, 10 (2), 16; 19:31; 21:22, 23; cf. I John 2:6, 10, 14, 17, 24, 27-28; 3:6, 14, 17 24; 4:12-13, 15-16.

3. Dr. Tom Constable, Notes on John, 2015 Edition, pg. 246.

4. On July 4, 2017, taken from http://winsome.org.previewmysite.com/E_ Illustrations.htm.

Is Jesus Christ equal with God? Part 3

Jesus not only claims to be equal with God the Father because He is the Son and the Savior, but also because HE IS THE SEPARATOR (John 5:27-30). Jesus will separate believers from unbelievers, and execute judgment on those without eternal life and bless those with eternal life. “…And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.” (John 5:27). Christ is qualified to judge humanity because as a human being, “the Son of Man,” He can understand the needs and viewpoints of people. Christ knows the pressures and the problems we face, therefore He knows clearly when we have reached the place where we are ready to give up depending on ourselves and are ready to depend on Him alone for eternal life.

“²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (John 5:28-29). What a marvelous claim! Jesus says there is an hour coming in history when all the dead – the good and the bad – loving and unloving, murderers, rapists – all, shall come forth from the grave. He is going to empty the cemeteries of the world. Christ will ultimately determine the eternal destiny of all people.

What does “those who have done good” mean? Many people take this verse out of context and make up their own ideas about what it means to “have done good.” Some say if the good you have done in your life outweighs the bad, then God will let you into heaven. But that is not what this verse is saying. This is just a few verses removed from what Jesus said about the gift of eternal life in John 5:24. To“have done good,” of course, means to have heard Jesus’s Word and believed in Him who sent Christ. After a person trusts Christ for eternal life, God looks at their life and sees only the good things they have done, not the evil. How can this be? Because God has no charge against the believer (Romans 8:33). The believer is justified (“declared totally righteous”) of all things based on his or her faith in Christ (Romans 4:5). All our sin has been covered by the goodness of Jesus Christ. We are seen by God as completely holy and perfect because of His grace.

“Those who have done evil” – refers to the person who rejects Christ and remains in the sphere of “death.” This dark circle (see diagram 1) represents the non-Christian’s life filled with the darkness of sin. When God looks at the life of an unbeliever, all He sees are the evil things the unbeliever has done. There is no hint of righteousness in the non-Christian. All their good works, thoughts, and words are stained with sin (Isaiah 64:6). Their condemnation by God is total, just as the believer’s acceptance by God is total. So, when God looks at our lives before we believe in Jesus, all He sees are the bad things we have done.

But the Bible tells us that when a person hears God’s promise of eternal life and believes in Jesus, he is transferred into the sphere of “life” (see diagram 2). When God looks at our life after we believe in Christ, what does He see? He sees only the blood of His Son and His goodness in our lives. That’s why God can let us into heaven when we die if we have believed in Christ as our Savior.

Some people may object to Jesus’s judgment of the unbeliever. After all, how can a loving God send people to an eternity separated from God? “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30). There will be no argument against Jesus’s judgment. No one will be able to complain that it is unfair, because it is the work of both the Father and the Son. Jesus does not judge others independently of the Father. He says, “As I hear, I judge.” Christ’s judgment is based upon what He hears His Father say so that His “judgment is righteous.” Jesus would never make a judgment that is different from His righteous Father’s.

God the Son who came among us and knows how we feel, is both our Savior and Judge. We decide which He is going to be by the response we make to the truth. It is Christ’s responsibility to determine a person’s eternal destiny. It is our responsibility to direct people to Christ. Hence, Jesus defends His equality with God the Father by making three claims:

He is the Son

He is the Savior

He is the Separator

Do you see Jesus as He is this moment? John is concerned that we have a correct understanding of who Jesus Christ is. From the very beginning of his gospel, he has told us that the Word (meaning Jesus) was God and that the Word became human flesh without ceasing to be God (John 1:1, 14). Jesus can never be put on a par with Mohammed, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, the virgin Mary, Moses or any other religious leader. But the truth is, much of the world has an image of Jesus as a good man with good teachings on how we are to get along with each other. If that were true though, He would never have gotten Himself in trouble, and He definitely would not have been crucified. You see, the facts don’t match up with that line of thinking.

What will you do with Jesus now? Perhaps your life is a mess. You have been trying to run your own life and it keeps getting messier. Are you prepared to meet Christ as a Judge or as your Savior? The only way you can face Him as your Savior is by coming to Him as a sinner, realizing He paid for all your sins on the cross and rose from the dead, and then trusting Him alone to save you. Have you done that? If not, is there anything keeping you from trusting Christ as your Savior right now? If not, simply take Him at His Word when He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24).

The moment you hear Jesus’s promise of eternal life and believe in Him for it, you have eternal life. Would you do me a favor? The moment you are convinced you have eternal life after trusting in Jesus, would you let me know because I want to rejoice with you!!! Just send me a message under our “Contact Us” menu.

Prayer: Father, please make an eternal difference today by convincing those without Christ to trust in Him alone for the gift of eternal life. Thank You, Father… Please help those of us who know Christ to make Him known to others with our lips and our lives. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Is Jesus Christ equal with God? Part 2

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24

After Jesus healed a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years (John 5:1-15), He established His equality with God before His enemies by claiming to be the Son of God (John 5:16-20). Now He establishes His equality with God the Father by claiming that HE IS THE SAVIOR (John 5:21-26). “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” (John 5:21). The Jews understood that only God has the power to give life. But now Jesus is claiming to have the same power as God the Father. Christ gives both physical life and everlasting life (cf. John 1:3-4, 12).

The claim of Jesus is that life belongs to Him. He only loans it to us for a while. This cuts right across the philosophy and the propaganda of our day! Much of our culture tells you that your life belongs to you, and you can do with it whatever you want; it is up to you to make of yourself whatever you desire. That is what is fed to us all the time. But that’s a lie! Your life is not yours. You did not invent it, you were given it by God. One of these days you will have to give it back to the Lord.

If this claim of Jesus is real, it clearly makes Him the most important Person in anybody’s life. If your very physical existence has come from Him, and your spiritual destiny is in His hands, then He is the most important Person you will ever have to deal with. More than that, He is the most important Person in all the universe.

“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.” (John 5:22). The Jews thought it was God alone who would judge the world, but Jesus claims that the Father has given Him that privilege. Why? “…That all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:23). The Jews believed that only God was to be honored and worshiped.

Jesus claims the same right to be worshiped and honored that the Father has. This emphasizes the unity of the Father and the Son. What is done to One, is also done to the other because they are equals. This is why other religions fall short. They cannot truly honor God or worship Him apart from Jesus Christ. This is why Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses, etc., all fall short because they do not worship and honor God through Jesus Christ. They may say Jesus was a god or a prophet or a good moral teacher, but they do not believe He is the one true God (I John 5:20). And by rejecting Jesus Christ as God, they are rejecting His Father because Christ is the perfect reflection of the Father.

You will remember when Jesus healed the lame man, He chose him out of all the others that were by the pool. And this is a reminder that it is Jesus who graciously gives everlasting life. And this is how it happens…

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24). To whom does Jesus give eternal life? To the man or woman, boy or girl who “hears His word and believes in Him who sent Him.” When one hears His Word and believes what He says, Jesus says he “has everlasting life.” That means right now, not after you die. How long is everlasting life? 10… 100… 1,000… 1 million years? No! It is forever!

Next, He guarantees that you “shall not come into judgment.” That’s a promise and God does not break His promises. A believer in Jesus Christ will not be judged for his or her sins in the future because Christ was already judged for our sins when He died on the cross in our place. Such a one has “passed from death into life.”That means death is behind him, not before him. It is past, not present or future.

During a war, a soldier was critically wounded and the doctors were about to operate. Just before they did, one physician told the man, “It’s only fair to tell you that you have one chance in one hundred of coming through this operation.” The soldier replied, “Let’s get on with the operation. If I come out of it on this side, the doctors will welcome me. Should I come out of it on the other side, my Savior will welcome me.” Do you have that kind of assurance? If you don’t know for sure you will go to heaven when you die, ask yourself, “Am I TRUSTING Christ alone right now to get me to heaven?”

John 5:24 affirms the equality of the Father and the Son. He who hears Jesus’s Word and believes in the Father who sent Christ, has everlasting life. To believe in the Father, you must hear and believe in Christ since the Father sent Jesus that people might believe in Him. To believe in the Father was to believe in Christ because Jesus is the perfect reflection of the Father. Believing in the Son is one way to honor Him (cf. John 5:23).

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25). Already the “hour” of which Jesus speaks is nearly 2,000 years long. During that time those who are spiritually “dead” will possess everlasting life the moment they “hear the voice of the Son of God” and believe. Non-Christians are dead people walking around. They lack God’s life – eternal life.

But, Jesus also says, the hour “now is,” that is, it was already happening. By those words He is referring to His own giving to individuals of the gift of eternal life. We have already seen this in John’s gospel. Jesus had given the gift of eternal life to the troubled religious leader named Nicodemus (John 3) and to the dissatisfied Samaritan woman at the well along with the people of her village (John 4).

So, it was already happening, “the hour is coming, and now is,” when the spiritually dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and “those who hear will live” forever. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.” (John 5:26). As the Son of God, the One who is eternally with the Father, Jesus has always had this ability to give life to the spiritually dead. He has this life “in Himself.” He is the One who has always given eternal life, in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. He is our Savior.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the most incredible Person in the universe. You are the perfect reflection of God the Father because You are equal with Him. Thank You for giving me physical life and life that never ends the moment I believed in You. I worship You my Lord and my God because You alone give life and You alone judge this world. Please forgive those who fail to worship You as God. I beg of You to send Your Holy Spirit to them to convict them of their sin since they do not believe in You. Convict them of their need for Your righteousness to enter the Kingdom of God. And convict them of the judgment that awaits them should they continue in unbelief toward You. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

How can I prepare to face God as my Judge?

“These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you.” Psalm 50:21

Asaph refers to God as “the Mighty One” who has come “out of Zion” to call “the earth” to stand before Him as a witness “that He may judge His people,” Israel (50:1-6). He was not rebuking Israel for offering animal sacrifices as He had prescribed, but He does remind them that He did not need their sacrifices because He already owned everything they presented to Him (50:7-13). What God wanted from His people was what the giving of their animal sacrifices represented, namely their “thanksgiving” to Him (50:14). He wanted them to “glorify” Him by calling upon Him to “deliver” them “in the day of trouble” (50:15). He was not interested in a ritualistic form of worship from them. He wanted a vital relationship with them whereby they looked to Him to meet all their needs.

Although Israel presented animal sacrifices as God had instructed them, they loved what God hated by participating in the sins of the wicked (50:16-20). It seems as though Israel concluded that it did not matter to God that they had lived hypocritical lives because He had “kept silent” about their sins up to now (50:21a). But the truth was their sins did not matter to them. So God says to them, “You thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes” (50:21b).

God graciously warns His people, “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver: Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God” (50:22-23). Sincere gratitude and obedience toward God would glorify Him and bring about His “salvation” or deliverance from His coming judgment. But going through the motions of formalistic worship while at the same time participating in the sins of the wicked would invite His wrath.

All people, saved and unsaved, will eventually face God as their Judge after death (Hebrews 9:27). There are no second chances after death. For those who do not believe in Jesus for His gift of eternal life (John 3:36b), they will face God as their Judge to determine their degree of punishment in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15). Those who do believe in Jesus (John 3:36a) will also face Him as their Judge to determine their degree of rewards in His coming Kingdom on earth (I Corinthians 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Knowing this is intended to motivate people now to prepare to face Christ as their Judge in the future.

Going through the motions of worship and using religious words does not prepare unbelievers or believers to face Christ as their Judge. If you have not believed in Jesus yet, it is important to understand that your thoughts, words, and actions are all stained with sin (Isaiah 64:6). No amount of formalistic worship or pious speech can save you from your sins. Only Jesus is qualified to save you from your sins because He alone, being God, is without sin (John 1:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15). He paid the full penalty for your sins when He died on the cross and then rose from the dead (John 1:29; 19:30; I Corinthians 15:3-6) so that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). He invites you right now to believe or trust in Him alone to save you from your sins and give you everlasting life. The moment you do, He guarantees to save you forever from hell and give you everlasting life (John 3:16; Acts 16:31).

For those who do believe in Jesus for eternal life, you can prepare to face Him as your Judge by living to please Him now (2 Corinthians 5:9-11). As you yield to the control of His Holy Spirit daily (Ephesians 5:18), He will give you the power to live a victorious Christian life (Romans 8:1-17) so you can face Christ with boldness instead of shame at the Judgment Seat of Christ (I John 2:28-3:3).