I am not sure if this is important since I have sort of worked out the doctrine of justification to a level comfortable for my understanding, but I am simply curious with regards to the relation between justification and judgment.Firstly, when one is justified – deemed righteous by what Christ has done – I suppose all past sins are forgiven. We are buried with him and died with him and rose to a new life. Sins are forgiven and forgotten. So I assume these will not be judged upon.
Subsequently, we are called to live a sanctified life – we still tend to fall into temptation and sin. So there is the working out of our salvation with fear and trembling. We work at pleasing our God who has saved us, seeking for his forgiveness as we forgive others who sin against us. God promised he will forgive us of our sins.
What then final judgment? What will we be judged upon? Is it not then justification by faith as the entrance into living a life in Christ and justification by works as the entrance into his eternal glory?
Maeghan
Picture by Maria Alcala
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested, there is quite a bit of discussion of this on Codepoke's blog. (Follow the links from mine).
I don't always agree with it all, but some of the comments are pretty cool.
God Bless
-Doug
Maeghan,
ReplyDeleteI see you made it over to my friend Rich's blog (Realm Of Possibility).
We actually went to High School, college together and he was best man at my wedding.
He (and his partner Ken) has, by far, my favorite blog. It is sometimes deap, entertaining, and best of all I get to keep up with someone who lives hundreds of miles away from me.
Anyway, it was nice to see you over there.
-Doug
Yes, I dropped into your Nice Blogs yesterday and found them yeah ... nice :) However, my head was seriously nodding off and I had to get to bed before I fell off my chair. Codepoke's blog looks interesting ... will check in when I am more wide awake! Same goes for Rich's blog - tho I can't help but comment on his book list coz books are my passion :) My colleague likes to introduce me to others as someone with a book problem!! LOL
ReplyDeletehmm ... gave me an idea - maybe I would post and frequently update my entire book collection!!!!
I like the idea.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of great books.
-Doug
At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, leaving u the thots that came when reading yr take on judgement and justification.
ReplyDeleteTrying to understand your thoughts from what you've written, I believe the "flaw" lie with equating forgiveness with no punishment (consequence)... thus yr question sounded like "What will we be judged on since He has promised to forgive ALL our sins (and has paid the price)?"
Here's my take of it:
Price of sin is death, and that was what was paid for... lighter sentence doesn't mean no sentence...thus judgement day...
but rather than going into a lengthy discourse on justification by faith or works or both... i prefer to take another route... one that you (as a loving mother and wife), I believe, will not only have no problem understanding but will surely have different dimensions to share.
Here goes... God loves us so much that he gave us Jesus... If we love Him back, more than we love ourselves, everything else should come naturally... not without struggle, like any relationship... but ultimately, love wins.
Just like we would do everything for the comfort of the one we love more than ourselves, just as how we would want to know everything about the person... make time for him/her, so would be the attitude towards God...
To, me there is no such thing as "justification by works" because one would not call the things that you do for the one you love as "works"... attempts "to win love" is unnecessary with God because we love because He first love us.
And if we believe that God loves us and our heart can testify of love for God, what happens on judgement day is secondary.
In perfect love there is no fear.
All that actually dawned on me when attempting to answer a fren's question on Cain and Abel some time ago... From then, I have found it beneficial to anchor all my thots on love (my love relation with God) when it comes to biblical matters... and I find that everything else becomes secondary...
Anyways, just sharing my thots... you don't have to agree... my hope is that it would help you just as it did me.
Hey ... many thanks for your thoughts and sharing ... good comments. Just so to let you know, I will come back to you on this one, most probably tomorrow. Let me do some thinking ;)
ReplyDeleteBut what is forgiveness if there is still punishment? Doesn't that mean that Christ has not completed the work? What is it then that he died to sin once and for all?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned death sentence and lighter sentence ... yes, I can see what you are getting at.
Where in the bible can we go for support on this you think?
Price of sin is death, but through Jesus, we have eternal life... in that sense, Christ's work was done, like He said "it is done" :) Don't remember which verse...
ReplyDeleteWhat is forgiveness if there is still punishment, you say? You have a point there... but you misunderstand my perspective in a way... which is regardless whether or not we will be punished, we trust that He will not put us through more than what we can bear... I merely assume there is punishment because I understand judgement day as day where we answer for our sins... and having to face all the bad things we have done in life should be punishment enough, don't u think? :)
Again no bible verses from my side, do you have some that says otherwise?
last sunday's sermon was on talents... and my pastor said there are two kinds of judgement.
ReplyDeletefirst kind is the those who believe and those who do not believe in Christ as saviour... what some wud call saving faith.
second judgement is on our deeds :)
my pastor spoke on the parable of the talents in Matt 25... where the wicked servant buried the one talent given and gave it back without interest to the master... he likened that to us christians...we will be judged on how we use the resources that has been entrusted to us... i guess in that sense, if we choose to lie and waste time and steal we would not be making good use of what had been entrusted to us... we are not the good steward we are suppose to be ...whether we are the five talent sort or two talent sort... and back to are we then saved by deeds? No.
We are saved through Christ alone. There is no way we can save ourselves. (The first part)
The second part of judgement involves our stewardship as christians... just as works without love is empty... it is impossible to have love and no manisfestation of it (works)
God is love...and as such i believe one would not be too far off when based one's thought on love when trying to fathom the Father's heart...after all, if one cannot love the brother u see, how can one love God whom u can't
and Jesus spoke using parables... simple things that us simple beings can understand some of His secrets in Heaven :)
i hope that clears up yr question somewhat