No avoiding the day of judgment
Christ Jesus will only plead our case if we have received him as the free gift of God
The acts of violence that so often fill our newsfeeds of late are difficult to come to terms with and they can leave us unsettled.
When we read the Old Testament and the history of God’s people we often run into trouble trying to make sense of the violence we encounter in its pages. It is right to be unsettled by such things, but when we read the Word of God we are being challenged with truth that requires careful consideration. In the first verses of 1 Samuel 15 a mission is given to King Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites (another kingdom) because of their wickedness in preying on the people of God when they were coming up out of Egypt. We are told in Exodus 17 that God declared his judgement against the Amalekites at that time, although he did not bring it to pass until much later.
God’s delayed judgment is not a sign that the sin has passed by unnoticed. A student may hope that a teacher hasn’t noticed bad behaviour, and when the class is over breathe a sigh of relief that punishment has been escaped. God notices all things, however, and although we may feel that because there are no immediate consequences that we have somehow “gotten away with it” the truth is that all our sins will be brought to light before the Judgment seat of God. God judges the Amalekites when he sees fit, and it is a mighty and terrible judgment.
We may struggle with the magnitude of the judgment that is brought upon the Amalekites and feel uncomfortable with its sweeping declaration that everything must perish, old and young alike, along with all that belonged to them, but the truth is that it is the just judgement of a holy God against unrepentant sinners. We may easily repeat the words of Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death”, but here is a clear illustration of that reality and we should find it discomforting to see what our sin so justly deserves. It is a reminder of the holiness of God that such divine judgments were worked out in history, and it calls us to consider where we stand before that perfectly holy God.
Thankfully, along with the demonstration of his holiness and the reality of judgement, God also declares his mercy and desire to save. The second part of Romans 6:23, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus”, shows the contrast between the death we deserve and the eternal life we don’t. There is no avoiding the day of judgment, but God has graciously provided a way to stand in that day.
The truth that challenges here is the provision of a free gift in order to have eternal life. When the day of judgment comes we will not stand because we somehow justify ourselves or manage to mount a defense based on our good works or simply have our sin overlooked.
We will not stand because we can afford the best lawyers and have the deepest pockets or the best connections. We will only stand because of Christ Jesus, and he will only plead our case if we have received him as the free gift of God.