Judgment and how to escape it

Things in the world around us – things across the globe – are very bad. The days are evil. This is a tit for tat world in which the retaliation is almost always harsher than the original hurt. Even amongst nations.

In secondary school, I regularly found myself in pain from being pinched, followed by hearing the explanatory chant, “A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month.” One wonderful day I discovered a retaliation. This was to inflict an even more painful pinch than I had received followed by a ferocious kick, chanting, “A pinch and a kick for being so quick.” Then run. 

President Donald Trump didn’t go to the same school as me. But he is certainly promising North Korea even more dire consequences than Kim Jong Un is threatening towards US Guam....

 

But what judgment should rightly fall upon those who inflict hurt on others? In the ancient Scriptures of Israel, of the Jews, the standard principle was no more than “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. No more than that. This applied even in cases of false testimony in court. Also a person shown to have given false testimony so as to put someone (wrongly) in jail for five years, would himself receive a five year sentence for that false testimony....

In the AD 30 incident in Jerusalem (in bold above), the Jews were doubling their efforts to kill Jesus. Why? On their Sabbath, he had just made totally well a man who had been totally paralyzed and without strength for 38 years. And then he was claiming God to be his Father, making himself equal with God.

Equal? Equal with God? Yes, but please take note of Jesus’ description of his equality with the Father. He told the Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Jesus is doing only what the Father does and he does nothing that the Father doesn’t do. He is the complete split-image of the Father as well as being Son of Man.

But the subject today is “Judgment and how to escape it”. What about that? 

The first thing to note is Jesus’ statement that “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” So “life” – life for us - is in the hands of the Son of God.

Second, Jesus told the Jews that “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father.” So “judgment” is now in the hands of Jesus – Jesus alone. That’s very appropriate because Jesus is a man, a human being as well as Son of God.

Third, Jesus said these searching words, “Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.” Those who don’t honour Jesus aren’t honouring the Father. What will befall them? Judgment? True. And “judgment” is now in Jesus’ hands.

 

Finally, Jesus explains. "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.” There will be no judgment – no condemnation – for those who honour the Son. And retribution and death are replaced, in them, by “life”. 

Yes, they’ve decided that Jesus, Son of God, is worthy of honour. Their assessment was correct and they escape Jesus’ judgment – and the Father’s. That includes just judgment for their pinching, punching and kicking – as well as for their far more harmful stuff - including killing - in later life.