For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. | Hebrews 10:30–31
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. | John 12:47–49
In last Sunday’s text (John 12 above), Jesus makes the statement that He did not come to judge the world. While this seems straightforward, it is complicated by the fact that in numerous other passages in the NT, Jesus is given the title: JUDGE. Which is it? Is Jesus the judge or not?
In John 12, Jesus was informing the people of the purpose of His first coming. In His first coming, Jesus did not come to judge, because if He were to judge justly, everyone would be deemed guilty. If Jesus judged before the cross, everyone would be condemned.
He tells them that He is here to save the world. All of the actions of the incarnation were meant to provide a means to salvation. When Jesus calls people out, it is so that they can see their sin and repent. When He gives us the moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, it is so that people will be convicted by the standard of God. When Jesus gives up His life, it is to punish the sin of those He has come to save.
Where people get this wrong, is when they assume that Jesus was saying that He will NEVER judge. He makes it clear that their will be a judgement at the end, and in other parts of the Bible we see that He is the one presiding over that judgement. The words that He has spoken have set up the standard and acted as a warning to the world: every person will be judges based on the standard of God’s holiness. For those who trust in their own good, they will come up terribly short. For those who put their hope in the Savior of the world, He has come to save the world.
This also helps us to understand the most quoted verse in the Bible:
Judge not, that you be not judged.| Matthew 7:1
In this, Jesus is not telling us to forego discernment and to accept all under the banner of tolerance. Instead, He is warning us that our judgements can easily be corrupted by our sinful flesh. The Bible warns us of four types of judgement that we fall into.
1. Superficial judgement | For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Our judgement is different than God’s, which means that it is skewed. We must be very careful not to jump to conclusions that are common knowledge and easy, but that don’t match with the things that God cares about. This should make us very patient with our judgments.
2. Hypocritical judgement | Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things (Romans 2:1). Have you ever noticed that the people who seem to be loudest on certain issues are the ones who are practicing the same thing in the shadows? It is very common for people to use judgement as a smokescreen for their own sin. It does not matter how well we convince those around us, it does not change the state of our sinfulness. This should make us very humble in our judgements.
3. Unforgiving judgement | And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:24–25). The goal of judgement should always be repentance: we call out that which is wrong so that people will turn to that which is right. Too often, judgments sow seeds of discord and push people away from reconciliation; even worse, sometimes the person doing the judging is the one unwilling to forgive. We must make sure that the motivation of our judgement is leading people to a knowledge of the truth. This should make us very gentle with our judgements.
4. Self-righteous judgment | But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Self-righteous judgement comes from a heart that truly believes that it is worthy of God. This is the most dangerous kind of judgement, because judging tends to fuel the self-righteousness. It says, like the Pharisee in Luke 18: thank you that I am not like other men. This is the problem, more than the others, that Jesus is addressing in Matthew 7. He is warning us not to imagine that we our judged by any standard other than His holiness. This should make us very convicted in our judgements.
Jesus did not come to judge, but He will return to judge the living and the dead. This future judgement, along with God’s means of judging laid out in His law, should lead us to judge all things, in ourselves and others, as a means to bring people to Jesus. As Jesus said: the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day; we have between now and then to introduce people to the grace of God revealed in saving sinners from the deserved punishment of their sin.