Judgment part 2
It occurs to me that before I expound upon the need--the honor!--of executing the judgment that has been passed down... we ought to first look at what that judgment was. Because, unfortunately, we have built a religion based on the false idea that God's judgment was a death sentence. We've built a religion based on the idea that God was angry at humanity and just positively, absolutely HAD to kill someone. And, in a (I guess) moment of weakness... He decided to kill His own Son instead of all of us. Or something. Jesus came to save us from God? That doesn't sound right. Especially when you consider the truth that Jesus IS God. God in the flesh. Love in a body. And, because of the cross--because He drew us all into Himself when He was raised up from the earth on the cross--God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Jesus didn't come to save us from God (again, Himself). The judgment that God passed down was not a death sentence. Jesus came to save us from death. Because we were already dead in our trespasses and sins. The judgment of God was accepting the sacrifice that Jesus made... and raising Him (and us IN Him) back to life. Let me say it like this: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). See, again, we WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. And we needed the second death to be FREE of that death. Free of that sin. Sometimes I hear people say, "Jesus died so I could live." Well... not exactly. Jesus died so you could die. So DEATH could die! And then Jesus rose again so that we could live. By HIM living in us. And through us. And as us. Romans 6:4 says it like this, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Just as He was raised up, so can we walk in newness of life. HIS life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. The life of LOVE that comes from knowing God as your loving heavenly Father instead of (falsely) believing Him to be an angry, distant taskmaster. Look, if you believe God is out to get you... you'll probably run from Him. Hide from His presence. When what you really ought to be doing--all of the time--is running TO Him. Resting in His loving arms. Being yourself--by letting Him be HIMSELF--in you, and through you, and as you. The judgment of God wasn't to kill anybody. It was after MAN had crucified His only begotten Son... God's judgment was raising Him (and us in Him) from the dead. Jesus' death gave us the second death that we needed to be free from death. And then the righteous judgment of God was to give us life. HIS life. Eternal life. The life of love that comes--only--from receiving and releasing the gift we've been given. The life of love that is His true, righteous judgment. And, as we'll see tomorrow, and moving forward, that's HOW we judge righteous judgment. That's HOW we execute the judgment that was passed down. The judgment was life. And we execute it by living. To live is to love and to love is to live. We judge people--not by appearance--by loving them!