CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 962

“Grace and Judgment”

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people… (Titus 2:11)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

I was impressed by the visual metaphor for God’s grace and His judgment when I saw this photograph of a rainbow and lightning taken a few weeks ago in Arizona.

For many people God’s grace, mercy, and love are not thought about in concert with God’s justice and righteous judgment. We tend to want to think of Him only in terms of love and forgiveness. Many who live after the flesh even though they believe in God are hedging their bets that at the last day God’s love and mercy will give them a free pass.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

However, to know Jesus is to know Him as both Savior and Judge as His Word reveals Him to us.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life … The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son… (John 3:16); (John 5:22)

In and of itself, judgment is neutral. It cuts both ways – one side for rewards and the other for punishment. Either way, there is no avoiding the judgment seat of Christ.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil … So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace…  (2 Corinthians 5:10); (Matthew 13:49-50)

My brothers and sisters in Christ, all you who profess to be Christians – do you possess the depth of realization of what Jesus has saved you from? I shared the Gospel with a young man the other day and his response was that he did not want to worship Jesus. His heart was hardened to the realization of what Jesus had done for him by His death on the cross. He refused to acknowledge that he had an eternal soul because if he did then he would have to make choice about Jesus and that was a choice he was not prepared to make.

May you have a lifestyle of worship always realizing the enormity and priceless value of the eternal free gift of salvation given to you by Jesus. May Jesus be more to you than a carnal blessing machine for the present age. May Jesus always be seen in the light of eternity as your advocate before the Father, as your Lord, Savior, and Judge. May you worship Him accordingly.