Lesson 27 · Unit 5 · Roots of the Gospel
Why Would God Judge
A love with no judgment in it cannot hold up a just world.
Open
The film ends, the lights come up, and someone in the back row is indignant: "So he just gets away with it?" The villain walked off with the money, wrecked lives, and the last shot is of him sunning himself by the sea. The whole theatre is holding its breath. We may not be able to define justice, but every one of us recognizes the taste of injustice — the scales come installed at birth.
The odd thing is that the moment the subject turns to faith, many people switch sides: "How can God judge anyone?" This lesson sets those two instincts side by side. By the end you will see that "there is a judgment" is not the gospel's problem; "there is no judgment" is where this world's real despair begins.
Scripture
Abraham pleads with God outside Sodom; Paul reminds those of us who pass judgment that we are standing in the dock ourselves. (WEB) Genesis 18:23-25 —
23Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?
24What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it?
25May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.
2We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
3Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God,
6who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
8but to those who are self-seeking and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation,
9oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
10But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
11For there is no partiality with God.
See
The scales inside us
Wages withheld, a bullied child, a truth covered up — the people closest to injustice are the first to understand that if no one in heaven or earth is keeping the books, a wrong stays a wrong forever. A God who never grows angry at evil is not more loving; he is more indifferent. So love and judgment are not opponents: precisely because he loves the people he made, he cannot shrug and walk away from the evil that destroys them. The wronged voices in the Psalms sing again and again that God is the Judge — not as a threat, but as the only pillow they have.
The Judge of all the earth does right
Look again at Abraham's plea; its direction is surprising. He is not talking God out of his anger — he is appealing to God on the basis of God's own character: "Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?" He works the number all the way down to ten righteous people, and God grants every step. That tells us something: God's judgment is not a temper out of control but a verdict "according to truth," according to each person's deeds, with no partiality (Rom 2:2, 6, 11) — cooler than any human court, and far more accurate. He hates a wrongful conviction more than we do.
What you find in the dock
But Romans 2 makes a quiet turn: in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. The same scales we slam down over someone else's evil, applied to ourselves, leave no one standing. That is exactly Paul's point — not that we should put the scales away, but that we should discover we are in the dock too. And the fact that God has not yet convened the court is, Scripture says, not delay: "the goodness of God leads you to repentance" (Rom 2:4). Every day judgment is postponed is time given for people to come home.
When a friend asks you this
Your friend puts down his chopsticks: "What I can't stand is you people saying God is going to judge everyone — isn't that terrifying?" You think for a moment: "Let me ask you something. Remember the guy in your department who faked the numbers and got promoted? How long were you angry about that?" "That's different. He should have been investigated." "I think so too. Which is why I can't believe in a God who sees everything and never does anything. What actually keeps me up at night is the other half — by the same scales, I'm standing in the dock myself." He pauses: "So what do you do about that?" "That's the most unbelievable part of the gospel: the Judge came down himself and took the sentence in the defendant's place. The cross didn't cancel judgment — judgment fell on him." Notice what that conversation did: it did not rush to win, it first caught hold of the scales in his own heart; it honestly admitted that we are defendants too; and it brought him, at the end, to the cross. Gentleness and reverence, and neither one optional (1 Pet 3:15).
Deeper
God's justice
judgment is not the opposite of love but what love and holiness require; he is not neutral toward evil that destroys what he loves (Gen 18:25; Ps 9:8).
Judgment according to truth
not by appearances, without partiality, according to each person's deeds: God's court is more accurate than any human one (Rom 2:2, 6, 11).
Kindness that leads to repentance
the delay of judgment is not indulgence; it is time given for turning back (Rom 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9).
Judgment at the cross
God did not bypass justice in order to forgive: the sentence for sin was carried out on Christ, and that is the ground of justification (Rom 3:25-26).
Story
Lao Duan had run crews of twenty-odd workers for years. He fronted the money, finished a whole housing block, and the developer vanished. For two years he wore himself out chasing it: he won the lawsuit and still could not get the money; his workers blocked his door, and he sold his own car to cover their wages. The sentence he said most often in those two years was, "There's nowhere in this world to get a fair hearing."
When his wife dragged him into a church, he sat in the last row watching coldly. Then one Sunday he heard Abraham's line — "Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?" — and suddenly he was weeping. So there really is a ledger in this universe that cannot be erased. He said that from that day on he could sleep: "Because there is a God keeping accounts, I can finally stop collecting the debt myself."
The more surprising part came later. Reading Romans 2, he remembered that years earlier he had held back a day laborer's pay himself. He searched for a long time, found the man, paid him back with interest, and said he was sorry to his face. The scales had finally weighed him too.
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1What part of God's character does Abraham take hold of when he pleads? How is that different from the "God of judgment" you had pictured?
2Think of one injustice that has kept you awake — is "God will judge" a threat or a comfort, for that situation and for you?
3Romans 2:1 says that when we judge others we condemn ourselves — when those scales weigh you, what do you want to say to God?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Judge of all the earth: thank you that you are not a God who shrugs. Everything in this world that has been stolen, bullied and covered up, you have on record — I put the few wrongs I have been nursing into your hands and stop collecting them myself. And shine your light on me: when I am angry at someone else's evil, the same shadow is usually on me. Thank you that you did not bypass justice but let the sentence fall on your Son. Let me live with reverence and with peace. In Jesus's name, amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Write down one injustice you still cannot let go of, then pray twice: first, hand the collecting of it over to "the Judge of all the earth"; second, ask him to show you the part in that story — or somewhere else — where you yourself need to repent.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Watch for injustice this week, in the news or near at hand. Every time the anger rises, practice rewriting it as a prayer: "Lord, you see this, and you will judge it justly."
Memory verse · Genesis 18:25
Shouldn'ttheJudgeofalltheearthdoright?
Walk further
The whole scene of Abraham pleading for Sodom, the outcome for Lot and Sodom, the theme of justice, the essay "Judgment and Hell," and Edwards's sermon that shook New England.