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Scripture Reading: Heb. 12:23, 26-29; 1 Pet. 4:17; Rev. 19:11-12; 2 Tim. 4:1; Matt. 25:19; 1 Cor. 4:4-5; Rom. 14:10, 12; 2 Cor. 5:10-11; 1 Cor. 11:31-32; John 16:8; Isa. 57:14-15; Psa. 51:17
The Bible uses various words to describe God. These various words indicate His characteristics, His attributes. A believer’s condition often depends on his knowledge of God, which is derived from the Word of God. Many passages in the Bible reveal God to us so that we may know Him and His works. These portions focus on the kind of God we have. Hence, in order for us to know God, we must understand the Bible and pay particular attention to the words that describe God. Through these words the Bible reveals various aspects of God’s character.
The progression of the revelation of God in the Bible is very significant. First, the Bible presents the creating God (Gen. 1:1) and then the redeeming God (3:21). In addition, the Bible says that He is the living God (2 Sam. 22:47), the righteous God (Psa. 7:9), and the God of lovingkindness (Neh. 9:32). He is light (1 John 1:5), He is power (2 Cor. 13:4), and He is the God who hides Himself (Isa. 45:15). He is the God of resurrection (2 Cor. 1:9). He is also the God of grace (Heb. 4:16), and He gives His rich grace to man by giving man all that He is, all that He has, and all that He has done. He also gives man His fullness, His life, and His might. The Bible further reveals that He is a judging God (Rev. 19:11; 2 Tim. 4:1). The beginning of the Bible speaks of creation, showing that God is the creating God, and the end of the Bible speaks of God’s judgment, showing that He is a judging God.
The creating God speaks not only of the work of creation but also that God is a person who creates. He is the creating God not only at the beginning of time; He has not ceased His work of creation. Sometimes He creates a new environment for us, and at other times He creates a new mood. Everything about us was created by God for us. This shows that our God is a creating God.
The Bible also says that God is a judging God. This does not mean He is waiting until the end of the age in order to execute His judgment. He has been the judging God since the first fall of man. In Genesis 3 God judged the serpent for seducing man, and He judged Adam and Eve for acting contrary to His command. In chapter 4 God judged Cain for rejecting His salvation. Chapter 5 shows that under God’s judgment, the destiny of fallen man is death. In chapter 6 the wickedness of man was so great in the earth that his iniquities reached the heavens; hence, God came to judge man. Except for Noah and his family, God judged all mankind with the flood (chs. 7—8). In chapter 11 the descendants of Noah rebelled at Babel, and God judged them by confounding their language and scattering them over the surface of the earth. In the rest of the Old Testament God judges His elect, Israel, in the wilderness and in Canaan and also in their desolation, captivity, return, and restoration. When God walks among His people, He blesses and keeps them and also judges them. Even the Gentile nations are judged by God (Dan. 5). He is a judging God. Hence, in Romans 3:19 the apostle Paul says that all the world, including Jews and Gentiles, is under the judgment of God.
In the New Testament, the church age, the Bible further reveals that whenever something goes wrong in the church, God comes in to judge, such as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). In the beginning of Acts the church was blessed, but this couple had crooked hearts, deceived the Holy Spirit, and were immediately judged by God. God continues to judge the church. When the church became desolate, the apostles wrote the Epistles with a judging tone. For instance, Hebrews 12 says that we have come forward to God, the Judge of all (vv. 22-23), that God is a consuming fire (v. 29), and that He will shake not only the earth but also heaven (v. 26). God’s shaking is His judging. Anything that is incompatible with His nature will not last and will be shaken, destroyed by fire. Only that which is of God is compatible with His nature and will not be shaken but will remain.
The Lord’s appearance in Revelation is frightful. He has eyes like a flame of fire, His feet are like shining bronze, His voice is like the sound of many waters, and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword (1:14-16). His eyes “bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:5; Luke 2:35). On the day of judgment no one will be able to escape His observing and judging. Hence, in Revelation He appears mainly as the judging God. Today He is the Word of God, He is our Savior, and He is sitting on the throne of grace. But at the end of the age He will be the judging God sitting on the throne of judgment (4:2; 6:16). “Each one of us will give an account concerning himself to God” (Rom. 14:12).
God is the creating God and the judging God not only to human beings in general but also in the personal experience of the believers. In every believer He is first the creating God. He created the situation for us to hear and to obey the gospel and to be saved by grace. After we are saved by grace, He continues to work in us and in our environment so that our hearts would incline toward Him and love Him, thereby enabling us to set our hearts to follow Him and to fully offer ourselves to Him. The creating God initiates and creates every detail in the process of His giving us grace.
After giving us initial grace, He goes on to reveal, to manifest, the various aspects of His person so that we can receive grace according to the various aspects of what He is. He wants us to know Him as the mighty God, whose power transcends all things. He wants us to know Him as the living God; hence, we should not follow doctrine, but we should experience and express Him as the living God. He wants us to know Him as the God who hides Himself. He seems to turn a deaf ear to the corruption and evil on earth and to the things that contradict and offend Him, but He tries those who fear Him. He wants us to know Him as the living God who makes all things manifest in time. He manifests His light so that we may know Him as the God of light. He manifests His holiness so that we may experience Him as the holy God. He makes His various attributes known to us, such as His lovingkindness and His long-suffering. He also makes Himself known to us as the God of resurrection. It was not possible for death to hold Him, Hades could not overcome Him, and He destroyed the devil, who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14). As the God of resurrection, He wants to live in us as resurrection (John 14:19-20) and be mingled with us. Finally, God wants us to know Him as the judging God who executes judgment in the church and in the individual believers. After we are saved, we will gradually begin to know and experience God according to His characteristics, His attributes.
Both church history and our personal experience show that God works in His saints as the creating God, the revealing God, and the judging God. His work of creation within the believers begins their life of grace. Then He gradually reveals the kind of God that He is so that they may experience His various aspects. Furthermore, He judges. His judging always follows a revelation of Himself. After one cycle is completed, He begins anew to create, give grace, manifest Himself, and judge. After the completion of a cycle, God brings in another beginning. This is how the divine life grows in the churches and in the believers. Every new cycle begins with God’s creation and ends with His judgment.
God creates, gives grace, and judges so that His people can serve Him in reverence and godliness, according to His pleasure. Reverence is the fear of offending God, that is, of having anything that offends, opposes, or provokes God, such as sin, the world, the flesh, pride, and the will of man. Godliness is to be mingled with God in our daily life and in our service so that God is lived out of us. Reverence and godliness are two aspects of a life that every believer should have. Reverence rejects anything other than God, and godliness is God mingling with every part of our being so that we may be filled with God and be like God in order to express God. God’s plan in the universe can be accomplished only by our living a life of reverence and godliness.
Our problem is that in our daily living we do not revere God nor do we express godliness. We are often loose, without restraint; we let the world usurp God’s place within us, and we live by the flesh and the self. We often set God aside; hence, we are short of being mingled with God, and we cut off the way to receive grace. This is the reason that God judges us. God’s judging is a purging that removes our irreverence and ungodliness. His judging also shakes everything that can be shaken within us, including the world, the flesh, the self, and the natural man.
God uses various means to judge and purge His people. Sometimes He allows us to suffer from sickness or poor health. Sometimes He lets our business fail, or He may allow troubles to arise in our family. Examples of God’s judging are beyond enumeration. Before God stretches forth His hand of judgment, we live in peace and security, seemingly serving God, but in reality there is not much reverence and dependence on Him. Although we are for Him, we also are full of the self. Once His judging hand comes upon us, all our excuses and wrong concepts fall away. When we are subdued under His hand, we will abhor the self.
I had a schoolmate who loved the Lord and was reverent, godly, and blessed by God. Later, he became wealthy and lived an affluent life, but his heart toward the Lord became cold. Eventually, he stopped attending the meetings. When several brothers visited him, he was not aware of his condition and even justified his actions. One day he was captured by the Japanese military government and suffered much in prison. After his release he asked the brothers to pray that the Lord would forgive him, because he had failed the Lord’s grace. He also confessed his sins with much weeping. This was God’s judgment upon him in order to give him a new beginning. After this experience he and his whole household once again attended the meetings and resumed their service. This example shows that God not only gives us grace; He also judges us. When His grace is blocked from reaching us, He clears up the blockage by judging us so that we may receive more grace.
Only a person who has fallen short of God’s grace and has been judged by God knows the meaning of reverence and godliness. Such a person does not have excuses or wrong concepts. Those who have not been judged do not know reverence or godliness and have many wrong concepts. A believer who is full of arguments, murmurings, excuses, and wrong concepts does not know reverence or godliness. He has not passed through God’s judging hand, and he is short of grace. If God has mercy on him, he will be judged by God. God shakes everything that is incompatible with His nature so that His children can serve Him with reverence and godliness.
Even though God’s judgment is to clear out the negative things within us, His purpose is to give us grace so that we may have a new beginning. God does not stop with judgment. His judging puts an end to everything that is old in order for Him to gain new ground and begin a fresh work. He wants to create more and to give more grace. God judges in order to give grace, and He gives grace after He judges.
Concerning the Holy Spirit, John 16:8 says, “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment.” This is the judging God executing His judgment through the Holy Spirit. God judges His people in order to convict them and to open the way for them to receive His grace. If we ignore His shining and reject His judging, we will close the way to God’s grace, and as a result, we will lose His blessing. If we are willing to accept His judging and be convicted by it, we will open the way for Him to give us grace so that His blessings can reach us. God judges us in order to bring us into His grace.
God’s intention in judging man, especially His people, is to open a way for His work of grace; hence, we should have a proper attitude toward His judging. We should be humble and bow down to God’s judgment; we should judge ourselves according to His judgment. Then He will open a way for His rich blessings to come upon us. The more thoroughly we receive His judgment, the more we will receive His grace. However, if we are insensitive to God’s judgment or even defy it and remain in darkness, His judgment will become our loss. The effect of God’s judging us, whether it is a gain or a loss, depends on how we receive it.
In order to do any work of grace in man, God needs man’s cooperation. God’s judging is not an exception. God’s goal is not to judge us; He wants us to receive His judging light so that we can be blessed. The more thoroughly we receive His judgment, the more grace we will receive, and the more we will grow in the divine life. Those who do not act upon God’s judging light cannot receive grace.
In order to be regenerated, man must receive God’s judgment. The Spirit convicts man concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment. When a person judges himself according to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he is immediately saved by grace. Otherwise, God has no way to save that person. This shows that in order for us to receive grace from God, we must cooperate with His judging.
Isaiah 57:15 says that God will dwell with the contrite and lowly of spirit. A person with a contrite and lowly spirit is a person who receives God’s judging. Verse 14 says, “Cast up, cast up; prepare the way; / Take up the obstacle out of the way of My people.” From the context, the obstacle in this verse refers to those who are proud and unwilling to judge themselves according to God’s light. They are proud, self-righteous, and unwilling to examine themselves; hence, they are filled with obstacles and fall into desolation. God says that we should take the obstacle out of the way.
Our present need is still to remove the obstacles if we want God to give us grace. A believer who is proud and conceited will condemn and criticize others, looking only at the splinter in their eye but not considering the beam in his own (Matt. 7:3). He is stumbled by pride and self-conceit, and the way for him to receive grace is blocked. Furthermore, he can become an obstacle, frustrating others from receiving God’s grace. If we are considerate of the Lord’s heart, we will learn to be humble and judge ourselves according to His light. Instead of being proud, we will see our poor condition and our weakness, and we will realize our need for the Lord’s mercy and rebukes. When we are willing to place such a demand on ourselves, rather than on the saints, our contriteness and humbleness will open the way to receive God’s grace.
The apostle Paul says, “If we discerned ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31). David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; / A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psa. 51:17). In order for the Lord to revive our locality, many of us must humbly accept the Lord’s rebuke in His judging light. This is the way for us to receive grace, and it is also the way for the church to bring in God’s blessing.
Let me repeat: our God is a judging God, and we need to revere Him. God’s judging is a serious matter. If we do not revere and express Him, we will face His ultimate judgment.
God ends every age with judgment. He has judged every age in human history. Eventually, there will be a consummate judgment, which will include the church. The churches are always being judged by God and will eventually face a consummate judgment. This also applies to individuals: we are judged by God during our lives, and eventually, we will face a consummate judgment.
The Lord said, “The kingdom of the heavens is just like a man about to go abroad, who called his own slaves and delivered to them his possessions. To one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability. And he went abroad...Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them” (Matt. 25:14-15, 19). On the one hand, we are God’s children and members of His household (Eph. 2:19). On the other hand, we are His slaves, and one day He will come to settle accounts with us. The settling of accounts is His judging. Everything we have — whether it be a healthy body, a sober mind, material riches, or spiritual gifts — was given to us by God. Since He gave us these things, we have a responsibility, and with it comes judgment. One day He will ask how we used the gifts that He gave us: did we hide them in the earth, or did we use them to do business? He gave us light. Did we give it to those who were short of light? He gave us power. Did we sustain the weak with it? He gave us material riches. Did we use them to care for those in need? God will inquire concerning the things He gave us. As much as He has given us is as much as He will demand from us. Grace comes with a responsibility, which brings in judgment. God’s judgment begins from the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). The Bible shows that at the end of time God will judge all things. Now, God is judging us at the end of every stage of our Christian life.
The apostle Paul says, “I am conscious of nothing against myself; but I am not justified in this, but He who examines me is the Lord. So then do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:4-5). In Romans Paul says that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God and give an account concerning ourselves to God (14:10, 12). Each one of us will come under God’s great judgment. Today we may criticize and judge our brothers, but in that day God will make us explain our words of criticism and judgment. The Lord said that we will render an account of every idle word on the day of judgment, for by our words we will be justified or condemned (Matt. 12:36-37). The day of judgment is awesome. Regardless of who we are, in that day “we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
We revere God because He is the living God, and we express godliness because He is the God of resurrection. But He is also the judging God. On the day of judgment His eyes will be like a flame of fire, His feet will be like shining bronze that has been fired in a furnace, and out of His mouth will proceed a sharp two-edged sword (Rev. 1:14-16; 19:12). He will indeed be frightening. If on the day of judgment we still have things that are not of God or are incompatible with God, such as sin, the flesh, natural affections, the world, and the self, they will be searched out by the flaming fire in His eyes, cut off by the sharp sword from His mouth, and trampled on by His feet of shining bronze.
We thank the Lord that today He is judging us in the course of our life in order to give us new opportunities and new beginnings before His consummate judging. This is His mercy; otherwise, we would be condemned along with the world. In this process every judgment is a reminder and a deliverance. With each new beginning, God gives us fresh grace. If we do not receive His judging, we will face His judgment on the ultimate day of His judgment. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we would know Him as the judging God who is not mocked.
