Righteous or Sinful
by
Keith Hunt
The below is taken from the little booklet "Our Daily
Bread" one of the 2007 editions.
"Out of the depths" the psalmist cries to God (Ps. 130:1). His
problem surfaces: terrible guilt for things done and undone in
the past. "If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who
could stand?" (v. 3).
But, thankfully, God forgives. He does not keep an account
of past sins, no matter how many and how grievous they have been.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus" (Rum. 8:1). God's forgiveness then leads us to fear
Him (Ps.130:4). We worship and adore God, for grace and
forgiveness cause us to love Him all the more.
But what happens if we slide back into old sins? What if sin
lingers? We are to rent and "wait for the LORD" and be patient
while God works (vv. 5-6). We are not hopeless cases. We can
"hope" in the One who will deliver us in His time.
We now have these two assurances: God's unfailing love - He
will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). And God's promise
of full redemption in due time - He will redeem us from all our
iniquities (Ps.130:8) and present us before His glorious presence
without fault and with great joy (Jude 24).
We're forgiven! We're free! With the psalmist, let's worship
the Lord as we await His coming. - David Roper
How blest is he whose trespass Has freely been forgiven, Whose
sin is wholly covered Before the sight of heaven. - Psalter
WHEN WE'RE FORGIVEN, NO RECORD IS KEPT OF OUR FAILURES.
Now, this above teaching is wonderfully correct! Most of
Christianity teaches this great and glorious good news. We, as
repentant sinners, are FORGIVEN of our sins through the shed
blood of Christ Jesus our Savior. What is also taught by the Word
of God is that when our sins are washed away, God does not
REMEMBER THEM, if He did, then as we have read above, who would
be able to STAND. Maybe someone like a Job, would have a good
chance of standing, BUT few indeed are a Job. The rest of us
could not stand before God.
The good news is that God does not keep an account of our
sins, if we are a humble repentant child of His with Jesus as our
interceding High Priest and Savior.
Note these verses:
"Blessed is he whose transgression is FORGIVEN and whose sin is
COVERED. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
(remembers) not iniquity...." Ps. 32:1-2
"Hide thy face from my sins, and BLOT out all mine iniquities.
Ps. 51:9
"Thou hast FORGIVEN the iniquity of Thy people, thou hast COVERED
all their sin" Ps. 85:2
"As far as the EAST IS FROM THE WEST, so far hath He removed our
transgressions from us." Ps.103:12
"'Come now, let us reason together' says the Lord, 'though your
sins be as SCARLET they shall be as WHITE as snow; though they be
RED like crimson, they shall be as WOOL." Isa.1:18
"I, EVEN I, an He that BLOTTETH out thy transgressions for mine
own sake, and WILL NOT REMEMBER they sins. " Isa. 43:25
"...for they shall know me, from the least of them to the
greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will FORGIVE their
iniquity, and I will REMEMBER their sin NO MORE." Jer. 31:34
"If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he hath
robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing
iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die. NONE of his
sins that he hath committed SHALL BE MENTIONED unto him ... he
shall surely live." Ezek. 33:15-16
"I will be MERCIFUL to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE." Heb. 8:12
PLAIN AND WONDERFUL
The teaching of the Scriptures is CLEAR! When a person
REPENTS and is from that point on a humble repentant child of
God, then their sins are FORGIVEN, washed away in the blood and
interceding work of Christ Jesus. The Father looks upon His
child as white as snow, as white as wool. Sins are blotted out,
washed away, cleansed from the book of life. Those sins God will
NOT REMEMBER or hold against us ... EVER! They are GONE! They are
not there! They do not exist!
I give EMPHASIS to all this simple and plain truth, because
the some parts of the Christian world have another teaching that
CONTRADICTS this. I have in the past heard the same church and
the same teacher, weeks apart maybe, but nevertheless the two
teachings coming from the same church or fellowship. We have on
the one hand, all the teaching of a FORGIVING God that washes
away sin form the life of the repentant believer, yet at the same
time it is preached that one day we must all stand before the
judgment seat of God and be judged for all that we have done and
said and thought.
The latter teaching is usually backed up with such verses
as:
"I said, in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the
wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every
work." Ecc. 3:7
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee
in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart,
and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou, that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment." Ecc. 11:9
"And God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." Ecc. 12:14
"Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Mat. 26:36-37
"For there is nothing hid, which shall not be made manifest;
neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come
abroad." Mark 4:22
"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed;
neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye
have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that
which ye have spoken in the era in the closet, shall be
proclaimed upon the housetops." Luke 12:2-3
"But why do you judge thy brother ... for we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ ... So that everyone of us
shall give account of himself to God." Rom.14:10,12
"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall
declare it ..." 1 Cor. 3:13
"We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to
what he has done, whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor. 5:10
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment." Heb. 9:27
"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it ... And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before god; and the books
were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of
life, and the dead were judged out of those things that were
written in the books, according to their works..." Rev. 20:11-12
There maybe other verses that are used, but I think you get
the sense of it all.
First, we are told correctly that God FORGIVES and FORGETS -
does not REMEMBER our sins, if we are truly His child (how we are
His children is fully and in-depth, explain in many studies on
this Website), then we are told by some, that one day when we
stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that all of our good
and bad things come up to be judged.
Many people have the idea that when they come before the
judgment seat of Christ, there will be something like a GIANT TV
screen, and all things we have done, in body, mind, thought,
action, will flash up on the screen for ALL TO SEE! It will be to
some, kinda like the old TV series "This is Your Life" but with
the title "This WAS your life" and everything we have said and
done and thought, will be made manifest for all to see and hear.
Then adding all the events up from the record books of our
life, we shall be rewarded accordingly. We may have LIFE and a
pretty good REWARD but nevertheless our sins (body and mind) and
righteous deeds HAVE COME UP BEFORE ALL TO SEE!
This idea to me is not only frightening, but will be
TERRIBLY EMBARRASSING!!
I sure do not want to see all my sins (body and mind) from
my entire life, being brought forth to ME, never mind the rest of
the universe. I can think of nothing more embarrassing to have
ones sins shown to the universe. Yet, some teach that this is
what Scripture tells us will happen to each and every one of us.
It is enough for me to have recorded some of David's sins, and
other sins of the children of God, in the Bible. I sure do not
want to see up on some heavenly TV screen ALL the sins of David
that he committed in his life (body, and mind). I sure do not
want to see all of mine flashed before me and everyone.
A FALSE DOCTRINE
Fortunately, this idea of judgment for the saints, is
totally false, and will not happen. Our sins will not be
broadcasted for all the universe to see and hear.
First, we need to have the clear picture of SALVATION. We
have seen above, the plain verses that tell us that a child of
the Father, a child with a humble repentant mindset, is clean
from sin, is to God, as white as snow, as white as wool. All sins
are not only forgiven through the total work of Christ, but they
are also NOT REMEMBERED by God.
This is the very truth of the matter, this should be very
good news to all true Christians. Our sins will not appear, not
be flashed up on some heavenly TV screen for all to see, in the
judgment day.
So what is judgment day all about?
The Scriptures do say ALL will appear before the judgment
seat of Christ. But the children of God NOW in this life, are
BEING JUDGED. Yes, our judgment is NOW. This truth is told us in
1 Peter 4:17, "For the time IS COME that judgment must begin at
the house of God ..."
Salvation is by GRACE, not works. God is not judging or
accounting in some books, adding up our good works and bad works
to determine if we qualify for salvation. If we are a true child
of God (by our attitude of repentance and having Jesus as our
personal Savior) then salvation for us is not a judgmental matter
that God still has to tally up. Salvation does not depend on
having more good works than bad works. We are not SAVED by works,
but by GRACE. This wonderful truth is fully expounded in my study
on this Website called "Saved by Grace."
But, the Bible makes it also clear that our REWARD that we
get at the coming of Christ in glory, when we shall stand before
Him, before His judgment seat or throne, is determined by how
WORKS.
One verse to prove that is Revelation 22:12. There are other
verses that say the same thing, but one should be enough. God is
not obliged to have to repeat it two or three or a dozen times
to make it stick.
So with all this basic truth laid down, it should be evident
that the judging NOW upon the house of God, the church of God,
the children of God, is a judging that will determine our REWARD
that is given to us when Jesus returns, handed out to us at His
judgment seat. The book of Revelation says it is when we appear
upon the sea of glass before and with Him, that we receive our
reward - see Revelation 11:15-18; 14:1-5; 19:1-16; 20:1-4.
Notice in Revelation 19:1-8. The servants of the Lord, the
WIFE to marry the LAMB - the Church of God to marry the Son of
God is granted that she should be in CLEAN AND WHITE fine linen -
the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the saints. There is NO DIRTY linen
connected to this marriage. The Lambs 'wife does not have a
mixture of clean and unclean linen, she does not have linen that
is both white and black. She ONLY APPEARS to marry Jesus the Lamb
in CLEAN AND WHITE LINEN! The sins of the Church of God, the
people that make up the church, ARE NOT THERE!! I guess not, for
we have seen the Scriptures tell us that God's true children have
been FORGIVEN of their sins, have had their sins WASHED AWAY, and
God does NOT REMEMBER them any longer!
Nothing could be clearer than this in the Bible. I will not
see your sins, and you will not see mine, in the day of standing
before the seat of Christ. PRAISE THE LORD!
Now the picture should becoming clear. All will appear
before Christ, that is made clear to us by many verses in the
Bible, and the New Testament especially. You will either appear
before Him with NO SIN, as His clean Bride, dressed in white
linen, or appear before Him WITH sin. There are TWO basic classes
then. This is what Paul was saying in Romans 2: 6-8; "Who will
render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by
patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honor and
immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious,
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath."
This is the same truth recorded for us way back in Ezekiel's
day. "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful
and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his
transgressions that he hath committed, they shall NOT be
MENTIONED unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he
shall live (true repentance in humility and a mindset to serve
and follow the correct pathway of God's life gives you LIFE where
none of your sins are remembered)....But when the righteous
turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and
does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does,
shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall NOT
BE MENTIONED: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in
his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." Ezekiel
18:21-24.
There it is friends. You do the right about face - repent
and serve the ways of the true God, you will have life, and NO
SIN mentioned or remembered. If you will not repent or turn
away from serving God back into a life mindset of sin, you
die, with no righteousness that you may have done remembered.
Kind of SOBERING is it not. Yes, but GLORIOUS and WONDERFUL
for those who are the children of God. For them the day of
standing before the judgment seat of Christ, means NO SIN
mentioned, not even remembered. What LOVE, from the Father, what
JOY and FREEDOM for His children!
If you are a practicing sinner, one who was not called in
this life, or one who turned down his calling, or turned away from
his calling at some point, then as Paul said, there is
indignation and wrath. Only sins will be remembered. For those in
sin who were not called and chosen in this life time there is
HOPE, but that is another truth of God that is expounded in
another study "The White Throne Judgment" - or "The Last Great Day
Feast" - so I refer you to it, and will not take the time here to
go over that truth.
If you are one that has been called and you rejected that
calling, or one who turned away from that calling, who did not
endure to the end in that calling, then indeed WRATH will be
yours. Hebrews chapter 10:26-31 is about those who have rejected
salvation. They will have no righteousness they may have done
mentioned. They will have only sins before them and before the
judgment seat of Christ.
TWO categories exist before the judgment seat, or in the
judgment day of the Most High God's time table. You are either
righteous, in clean white linen or you are filthy, in unclean
linen of sin.
Jesus spoke about this a number of times during His
ministry.
"When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy
angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory
(the righteous and judgment throne). And before Him shall be
gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from the
other, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats..."
Mat. 25:31-32.
The parable Jesus continues to give is pretty clear. The
sheep are on ONE side, the goats are on the OTHER side. The sheep
on His right hand and the goats on His left hand. You will notice
the sheep ONLY HAVE GOOD things said about them. The true
children of God are NOT perfect, they do sin in this life time,
the rest of the New Testament makes all that very clear (see 1
John 1:6-2:6). But their sins are washed away through Christ,
their sins are REMOVED, NOT REMEMBERED, and hence they have only
good things said of them. They have only a clean and white
garment for the wedding, they are a bride clean and white to be
presented to Christ, when He comes to marry them, when He sits
upon the throne of His glory.
The others, on His left hand, the goats, they have only bad
things to remember them by. No good deeds are mentioned in
Matthew 25. They go into the judgment seat, the throne of Jesus'
glory, with only sins, and they are punished accordingly.
Now, many of the sinners group, will shout out and say to
Jesus that they had many fine righteous acts in their life-time,
that they even called Jesus "Lord." See it in Matthew 7:21-23.
They will proclaim they did this or that in Jesus' name, they
will try to give forth many "works" to say they qualify to be in
the Kingdom. But the BASICS were not there (covered in my study
called "Saved by Grace") - and so ONLY the fact that they are
still considered by the Lord to be workers of iniquity, or as the
Greek really is, "lawlessness."
You have TWO categories - those that built upon the ROCK
and those that built upon the SAND. Those that built upon the
rock have no sand brought up to them. Those that built upon the
sand have no rocks brought up to them. You are either dressed in
clean fine and white linen of righteousness or you are in filthy
rags of sin. There is no mixture!
IT'S ALL OVER THE GOSPELS
Jesus gave another parable at another time. It is recorded
by Luke in chapter 19 of his Gospel. It starts in verse 11 and
ends in at verse 27. A nobleman goes into a far country and gives
out to his servants a certain number of pounds or dollars. He
comes back eventually and wants to see what his servants did with
what was given them to work with. Those that used the gift given
to them were given more and were said to be good and faithful
servants. Nothing bad is said of them. But the one who did
nothing with what he had been freely given, was classified as
"wicked" - no good things were said of him, and for those who
just would not let the master reign over them, were classified as
"enemies" and were to be slain - they were to live no longer!
We have the parable of the fish, the wheat and the tares,
the seed cast forth by the farmer, the reaping of the harvest by
the angels at the end of the age. We have Jesus telling us over
and over again this important truth. JUDGMENT - the day of
showing forth to the universe the children of light and the
children of darkness, will be just that - light or darkness!
If you have walked in the light given you, if you have been
called and you lived in that calling with the mind of Christ in
you (Phil. 2:5), you will come before Christ as part of the Bride
of Christ. You will only be in white, clean linen. Only your
light and righteousness will be seen and revealed to the universe
- no sin - no unrighteousness - you may have done, will be
mentioned or brought up in any specific way. But, if you denied
your calling, if you practiced sin, lived a life with a mindset
of not wanting God to reign over you - you will have none of your
righteousness mentioned - you will only be shown to be
unrighteous and still in sin.
This is the simple and yes, wonderful (to the children of
God that is) truth of your Bible. For the children of God there
is no FEAR in judgment, there is no condemnation. We are free
from the accusations of Satan the Devil. We shall be free from
his accusations he may want to bring up about us in that day of
judgment, when we shall stand before the seat of Christ as His
Bride. We shall only be dressed in clean and white linen.
OUR REWARDS ARE BEING JUDGED NOW
Jesus said we shall be rewarded according to our WORKS! So
there is a judgment that will VARY between the children of God.
We shall not all have the same reward. You may remember David
said in one of his psalms that he would rather be a "door-keeper"
in the house of God than dwell with the kings of this earth. So,
someone in the family of God will be door-keepers. But the
important thing to remember is that THEY WILL BE IN THE HOUSE OF
GOD, IN THE FAMILY OF GOD!!
They will still be SAVED, and in the very FAMILY of God. And
that my friends is MORE than you have probably every been shown.
That mind-bending truth is all expounded upon in my study called
"A Christian's Destiny." If you have not studied that study,
PLEASE DO SO! You will be stunned at what the Father and Jesus
are going to do with us humans.
The apostle Paul was inspired to tell us about "judgment to
rewards." It is found in his epistle to the Corinthians - his
first epistle too them, chapter 3, starting in verse 11.
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ."
It all begins and ends with Christ Jesus - He is the
foundation to eternal life. Paul goes on to say that we build
upon that foundation. We can build gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble. We can all see the progressive decline
downwards from gold to stubble. Paul says every man's work will
be made manifest; for indeed the day will declare it - judgment
day or reward day when we shall all appear before the throne of
Christ. As we build on the foundation fiery and tough things will
come along to determine our work, of what sort it is (gold or
stubble).
Notice verse 14, "If any man's work ABIDE which he has built
thereupon, he shall receive a REWARD!" Paul is talking about
building on the basic salvation in Christ FOR A REWARD - NOT to
gain eternal life, but the reward we get when we enter eternal
life. Verse 15 proves this. "If any man's work shall be BURNED,
he shall SUFFER LOSS, but he himself shall be SAVED, even coming
through the fire (the tests, trial, ordeals of life)."
The issue here is NOT "being saved" but what our REWARD
shall be when we are saved, when we inherit salvation, when we
stand before the judgment seat of Christ, upon His coming to
earth in glory, to establish and set up the Kingdom of God on
earth.
We are to build upon our salvation (that is a gift from God
through grace and faith not of works). With what we are given
(one talent, two talents, three talents etc.) we do something
with it all - we produce certain fruits - we do certain works.
Under the fiery tests of life we may bear up doing things very
well (gold) or well, or not very well, or even very little
(stubble), but we do SOMETHING (the person with one talent or
pound, or dollar, went out and gained another talent or pound or
dollar - not necessarily in the literal money way) with what we
have been given. All through our life we are being judged, going
through life's fiery ... whatever. At the end of it all, God
judging us NOW (remember what we read in 1 Peter 4:17) determines
our REWARD for work done - maybe gold, maybe silver, or maybe
stubble, but we did do something so we do get a reward. Even
though we may not have done a lot in life, maybe we could have
done more works, and have received precious stones reward instead
of a hay reward, we SHALL BE SAVED, we shall inherit the Kingdom
of God.
We may end up as a "door-keeper" in the House of God, but we
WILL BE THERE! And that is FAR GREATER, WAY FAR GREATER, than
dwelling in the house of a king on this earthly and physical
habitat.
GIVE ACCOUNT OF EVERY IDLE WORD
Now Jesus did say that we will give account of our words, of
our every idle word that comes from us.
Are we to take Jesus' statement and figure from it that
there will be this HUGE TV screen before the judgment seat of
Christ, on which every word we have ever spoken will come up, and
Jesus will point out to us (and the whole universe) all our idle
words. Here we are again, back to this idea of all our sins and
worthless words being shown to us and all the other saints and
angelic beings.
I do not think we are to take Jesus' words about our
accountability for idle words, and understand it all with the
above idea.
We shall in a very real sense be judged now in all our works
(and words from our mouth is one of our works) - God will take
into account what comes out of our mouth in words from the
tongue. James chapter 3 tells us about the importance of the
tongue in our Christian life. I think if we get a reward of say
"hay" (not literally of course), then we shall know that we did
not possibly do as much good work as we maybe could have done. We
may have been a sincere Christian, salvation - no question, and
being saved - no question, but we were somewhat loose with our
tongue at times, just not careful enough as to the words that
came out of our mouth at times. We maybe did not take to heart
the instructions James gave to us in his epistle concerning the
tongue. We shall be SAVED - no question, but with a little more
care with our words and tongue we may have received a reward of
"wood" instead of "hay."
Do you see then how we can be judged now, give account of
every idle word, yet NOT have some reward ceremony on the sea of
glass before Jesus' throne, that goes through all we have
thought, said, done, practiced, be it good or be it bad.
I speculate here. We get a reward of hay, we say to Jesus,
"I thought I might have gotten a reward of at least wood. Where
did I fail? What was it that kept me from getting wood?" Jesus
may simply say, without going into any details, or pulling up the
details on some TV screen, "You had too many idle words, you
could have been more careful with your tongue."
I think most of us would "get the picture" pretty quick, and
not want Jesus to get into the nitty-gritty of amplifying His
statement, to us or everyone around.
THREE TYPES OF JUDGMENT
The Church of God, its members, the individual saints, from
all ages were (if now dead) and are (if still alive) JUDGED
during their physical life. The truth of judgment must now begin
at the house of God. Our sins are blotted out, God will not
remember them. We are white as snow, white like wool. We shall
not have any of our sins brought up to us per se when we stand
before Christ. We shall wear only clean and white linen as His
Bride. We shall receive our rewards according to our works. We
shall know how well we did with what we were given when our
reward is either gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or
stubble. I cannot see anything else about how God arrived at
those rewards for His children having to be amplified. Surely the
words "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the
joy of thy Lord" is all we need to hear.
God's saints surely do not want or need to have the sins of
saints blasted out in front of everyone. Surely it is enough to
know in this physical life that we are sinners, falling short
many times, missing the mark of holy righteousness, without it
being driven home to us in some embarrassing open judgmental
disclosure. THANK GOD He teaches no such open shame will be put
on His children on that day of judgment rewards.
That day for the saints will be their WEDDING DAY - a
marriage to Christ Jesus. It will be a wonderful, happy, joyous,
exhilarating day. We shall be PERFECTED in resurrection, as John
said, "We shall be like Christ for we shall see Him as He is" (1
John 3:1-3).
We shall have no human nature only perfect holy nature, we
shall not be angry or upset or jealous at others who received a
silver reward when we got wood. There will be no vain "puffed
out chests" and a "look at me all of you, I got a gold reward."
There will be saints of humility, you will not be there if
you can't be humble - see Isa.66:1-2. The saints will have had
judgment rewards handed out and there will be only peace, joy,
laughter, love, gentleness, kindness, and praises, at that
marriage feast of the Lamb and His Bride.
A SECOND JUDGMENT
Many will not be in the first resurrection (Rev.20:4). They
will rise in the WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT RESURRECTION, a thousand
years after Jesus has been on this earth as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.
This will be the time for all people, children, and all who
were not called by God in their life time to know and understand
the truths of salvation through Christ. They also will be saved
by grace through faith, and be rewarded and judged for reward
according to how they relate to the "books" - the Bible books.
So it will be the same for them concerning rewards as for
us. How you work with what you have been given to work with,
determines your reward. God knows all the facts and all the
situations we live in and work in, the rewards are just and good
and correct for us and so it will be for those who are in this
second resurrection.
I have written an in-depth study on this important judgment
resurrection. It is on this Website, and is called "The White
Throne Resurrection" or the the catagory of the FEASTS it is "The
Last Great Feast Day."
This great general resurrection is depicted by the LAST
GREAT FEAST DAY, in the Festival Salvation plan that God has for
all peoples from all ages. It is a wonderful Feast Day and you
need to KNOW what it pictures for a HUGE part of mankind, if fact
the majority of mankind.
JUDGMENT TO DEATH
The last verses of the last book of the Old Testament gives
it to us with no punches pulled.
"For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and
all the proud, yes, and all that do (practice as a way of
life) wickedness, shall be stubble: and the day that comes
shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor branch. but unto you that fear
my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in
his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of
the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked for they
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that
I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts" Malachi 4:1-3.
The Bible is full of verses that says the end result of
those who will not repent of sins, and will not have the Lord
reign over them, those who will reject the calling to salvation,
will be that they shall DIE ... be BURNT UP, BE ASHES under the
feet of the righteous. Those sinners will not live, ever again,
they will be gone from the universe, forever!
Those who deliberately and knowingly reject God's offer to
salvation by grace through faith, those who will not have THE God
as their Lord and Savior, will be destroyed by fire, as in an
oven that burns them up into ashes. Not pleasant at all, the
apostle Paul tells us about it in Hebrews 10:26-31.
Jesus got at times pretty frustrated with some of the
religious leaders of His day, and said, "...How shall you escape
the damnation of hell" (Mat. 23:33). The Greek word often simply
translated as "hell" in the KJV translation is "gehena" and is
connected to the trash heap of fire that burned outside of
Jerusalem. It was the city land-fill for trash and rubbish, only
it was a fire burning up the garbage and not a land-fill as we
think of land-fills in our western world.
The truth is that those who do not want salvation as God
offers it, will be burnt up into ashes and be no more. The in-
depth study of this you will find in other studies on this
Website.
Those willful sinners will be judged in the lifetime they
are given to live on this earth. If they have been called, if God
has indeed set His hand to call them to salvation, and they have
rejected it, they will face (by being resurrected - Jesus said
that ALL in the graves would one day be resurrected - John 5:25-
29) the punishment fitting for such - DEATH in the fires of
gehena.
By reading the Gospels you will find Jesus talking about the
judgment of gehena - the judgment for sinners who will not
repent. It is a fact and truth of the Bible that there is coming
a condemnation day, a judgment to death, for the rebellious
wicked.
So, the judgments are complete. We have now come to the end
of Revelation 20. Now the time has come for the NEW heavens and
the NEW earth. The time has come for God the Father to dwell on
the new earth with all His children. The holy city, heavenly
Jerusalem will also come to earth, and all that we read about in
Revelation chapters 21 and 22 will be a reality.
Now even death is judged, and is cast away from the
universe. Only light, truth, holiness, and righteousness, will
remain. Judgment for all humans is no more. Judgment itself has
been judged, it served its purpose on the human race, now those
humans who did accept salvation are in the very family of God,
and no judgment is needed on the God family. All is perfect and
holy.
..................
Written September 2007
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