The
Bible is clear that a day is coming when God will judge people (Acts 17:31; Rom.
2:16).
At
the present time the Day of Judgment is a very unfashionable idea, but it will
certainly happen nevertheless. And everyone will participate in it.
What
will happen on the Day of Judgment?
On
this day, two things will happen.
First,
those who are saved and those who are unsaved will be separated and consigned
to their fate (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43; 25:31-46), the saved to eternal life on
the new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1), and the unsaved to hell (Matt.
24:50-51; Rev. 20:15).
Which
group we are in depends on whether or not before death we have received by
faith the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. Those who have done this will be
saved, and those who haven’t will be unsaved.
Second,
God will judge every person for what they have done while on earth. In other
words, He will put each of us on trial for how we have lived our lives. The
Bible teaches that this trial will involve a detailed assessment of everything
we have done, including every word we have spoken (Eccl. 12:14; Matt. 12:36).
For
the unsaved, what they have done wrong will form the basis for their being sent
to hell (Matt. 25:41-46; Rom. 2:5-9).
For
the saved, what we have done right or wrong will form the basis for the rewards
we gain or don’t gain in eternity (1 Cor. 3:12-15; 2 John 1:8).
Those
who follow mainstream culture
In
every society and culture around the world it is extremely common for people to
go with the flow, to adopt the values and lifestyles of mainstream culture
without really stopping to think very hard about whether these are good things.
And
people often seem to feel that there is a kind of safety in numbers. If they side
with the views of the majority, they think there can’t be much wrong with that.
If they act in the same way as most others do, they reckon that they can’t be
doing a lot wrong.
To
put it another way, people often seem to feel that they
can hide in the crowd of popular opinion. Even many of those who believe in
the existence of the Day of Judgment apparently think that that day will not
pose any great danger for them, since they are just
ordinary people with mainstream values, who live as most others do.
We
will all be on trial alone before God
In
reality, however, any notion that there is safety in numbers is just an
illusion. The number of other people who believe and act as we do counts for
nothing in God’s sight. What counts is how we measure up in His eyes.
And
the Bible teaches clearly that the average man or woman is thoroughly sinful (Rom.
3:9-19). Jesus even describes ordinary people as “evil” (Luke 11:13). And He also
teaches that most are on the road to hell (Matt. 7:13-14). Being an ordinary
person, who has ordinary values and lives an ordinary life, will be no
protection on the Day of Judgment.
Something that we must understand clearly too is that
we will all stand alone before God when we are judged. Each of us will
be on trial on our own before the Lord. There will be absolutely no hiding in
the crowd on that day.
In
Matt. 7:22-23 Jesus says that on the Day of Judgment many who are condemned
will try to defend themselves by making feeble excuses. I expect that many will
argue that they just acted in the ways that most people did, and that that
shouldn’t be held against them. If they do try to use this as a defense, it
will be a very poor one.
We
need to be ready
It
makes sense to think that in some respects the Day of Judgment will be an
unpleasant experience for all of us, since we have each done so many wrong things
in our lives.
Nevertheless,
those of us who have taken hold of Christ and the salvation that is in Him will
be ready for this day.
However,
those who have not taken hold of Christ will be completely unready. For them,
the Day of Judgment will be a terrible day indeed.
The
good news for all the world is that Christ, in His great love for us, paid the
price for our sins when He died on the cross. When we turn to Him in faith, all
our guilt is washed away, and we will then be free to live our lives for Him.
See
also:
