Ten ways that an awareness of final judgement will help you
To meditate/pray upon
John 16:8-11 “When he comes,
he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and
judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I
am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment,
because the prince of this world now stands condemned”.
Hebrews 9:27 ‘Just
as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…’
Revelation
20:11-15 ‘Then I saw a great
white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from
his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of
life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the
books. The sea gave up the
dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them,
and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown
into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found
written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.’
The Holy Spirit will convict the world about its impending judgement. When
we die, we go to heaven or to hell depending on whether or not we have received
the forgiveness of our sins in Christ as we have seen in the previous two
blogs. But this is not final judgement. Final judgement happens when Christ
comes again at the end of this history.
The
second coming of Christ is an extremely important and often overlooked subject.
One verse in thirty in the New Testament refers to the Second coming of Christ.
For every reference to the first coming there are eight references to the
Second!
Ten ways that a greater
awareness of the second coming will affect our lives:
1.
A
cure for grief: We expect to see those who have already died: 1 Thessalonians 4:14 We believe
that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus
those who have fallen asleep in him.
2.
A
cure for the lukewarm as we are encouraged by this future hope (1 Thess. 4:18)
3.
A
cure for the slack as it stimulates holiness (Titus 2:12-13)
4.
A
cure for the bitter as we are aware of perfect ultimate justice (2 Thess. 1:7)
5.
A
cure for the worried as this hope gives us an understanding of where history is
heading, rather than a view of the world which is ruled by chance.
6.
A
cure for those without compassion as we understand the ultimate end of those
who do not believe the gospel.
7.
A
cure for the hopeless in showing us our ultimate destiny in perfected bodies in
a perfected creation
8.
A
cure for the lazy and greedy: it teaches us that our lives can be used as an
investment into that age.
9.
A
cure for the sad in giving us a proper view of suffering – That it is temporary
10. A cure for the disappointed: It teaches us
that our relationship with God in this life is a very dim vision compared to
our relationship with God in that age. (1Cor.
13:12)
Only Jesus offers us forgiveness for sin, the gift of righteousness and
deliverance from judgement. The Spirit is communicating all this as He is
working in the world independently and through His church.
Let’s be ready to speak and so be used to bring the conviction of the
Spirit; let’s also have our eyes open and be prepared to speak to people in
whom the Spirit is bringing conviction.
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