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Does God Shame Us at the Judgment Seat of Christ?

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It is sometimes taught in Christian circles that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, God will replay all of our sins and mistakes before the entire mass of other Christians who are there as well.

I have heard the judgment seat of Christ described as though there will be a big movie screen and as we are all gathered together on judgment day, God will show a movie of all our sins, mistakes, and failures for everybody to see.

Have you ever heard something like this taught about the judgment seat of Christ?

I was reminded of this idea recently when I saw this picture:

shame at the judgment seat of Christ

This guy cheats on his girlfriend, and so to teach him not to do this anymore, she makes him stand at the mall wearing this sign. He shouldn’t have done what he did, but at the same time, I am not sure that this is going to get him to love his girlfriend more…

Some people view God this way. We sin. He gets angry. So He tries to punish and shame us into obedience. Ultimately, when we all get to heaven, the first thing we have waiting for us is the worlds longest horror movie ever of everything bad we have ever said, done, or thought. Not every sin is sexual, but the sexual sins alone would make a XXX-Rated movie millions of hours long. Then you have all the violence, murders, anger, slander, gossip, greed, hate, jealousy, etc., etc., etc.

I cannot imagine a worse way to start eternity….

We Must All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

I suppose the idea is that since none of us want our deepest secrets and darkest sins revealed to the whole world, this sort of idea is to keep us from committing sins. There are even a few verses which seem to back up this idea. For example, 2 Corinthians 5:10 says that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an answer for the things done in the body, whether good or evil.

So the teaching is that at the judgment seat of Christ, Jesus is going to call us one by one before His throne and replay our life for us, pointing out in excruciating detail all the things we did–both good and bad–during our life. And since everyone else is going to be there too, well, they are going to overhear what Jesus says or be able to watch the movie of our life along with us.

Again…. this is NOT a good way to start eternity…

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Incarnation of God in the Violence of Israel

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incarnation of godThe death of Jesus on the cross is the pinnacle and apex of the incarnation. It is His most triumphal moment. Which of us would seek to take it from Him and say, “No, no! Jesus! You cannot die a criminal’s death! You are innocent! That is only for guilty people. You must live! You must rule! You must reign! You must act like God!”

In response, as Jesus dies, He says, “I am acting like God. Don’t you see? This is what God has been doing all along!”

But we won’t allow it. We try to take away God’s most triumphant moment. By explaining away the violent portrayals of God in the Old Testament, or by calling such evil actions as “good,” we are trying to get God down off the cross.

We tell Him, “Even though You look terribly guilty in the Old Testament, we are going to call ‘good’ all those bad things You claim to have done. All that genocide and murder which would be monstrous from any person and any other god, we are going to name as ‘righteous’ and ‘holy’ because it’s from You.”

We won’t let God do what He wants to do. We won’t let Him get up on the cross. We won’t let Him incarnate Himself into the sinful affairs of mankind and so destroy His righteousness, dignity, and power. We won’t let Him appear guilty. We brush the sin and shame under the carpet. We wash the blood off of His hands and feet and side.

And how does God respond to our feeble attempts at cleaning up His tarnished image? He says,

Why do you think I made it so obvious that I was the one commanding genocide, war, and murder? I want to appear guilty! I want to take the blame! But more than that, I don’t want you to think that such behavior is ever good, is ever holy, or is ever righteous! That’s twisted!

In what universe is genocide and murder ever good? Not in any universe I created! The only universe where such things are good is the perverted, imaginary, nightmarish universe that exists only within Satan’s mind. And he is lying to you, and telling you that since I did it, these are good, and so if you want to do this too in my name, then murder and genocide and war can also be good.

Don’t fall for that trap! The reason I did what I did in the Old Testament is to expose that lie and lay bare that trap! The reason Jesus came was to make it crystal clear what kind of God I am!

I am love. I am grace. I am mercy. I am forgiving. I am long-suffering. I am patient. I am kind. Please, please, for your own sake, look at Jesus. Look at Jesus and see Me!

This is what Jesus was saying all along: “Look at Me! I will show you what God is like!” And we know that Jesus was not guilty, even though by all outward appearances, He looked exactly like a guilty criminal dying on a God-forsaken cross. But this is the incarnation. As we saw earlier from Philippians 2, it is this aspect of the incarnation—the death of Jesus on the cross—where Jesus most fully reveals God to us.

It is there that He looks guilty, that He was despised and rejected by men, that He died a criminal’s death, and took His place among the wicked. But He was not guilty of any crime. He simply took the sins of the world upon Himself so that He could conquer over sin, death, and the devil by bearing them all into the grave.

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Make Sure You Never Commit the Unforgivable Sin

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Unforgivable SinHow can you know if you, or a friend, or relative, have committed the unforgivable sin?

Believers Cannot Commit the Unforgivable Sin

First, if you have believed in Jesus Christ for eternal life, then it is no longer possible for you to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

Since you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, the Holy Spirit has ceased the work upon you which He performs on unbelievers, and is now living within you to mold and shape you into Christlikeness. Due to this, a Christian can quench and grieve the Holy Spirit, but cannot blaspheme the Spirit in the way Jesus talks about in Matthew 12:31-32.

If you are a believer, do not worry about committing the unpardonable sin. The possibility of committing the unforgivable sin is forever in your past.

Unbelievers who Worry about the Unforgivable Sin Have Not Committed It

If, however, you are not a Christian, and worry that you might have committed the unforgivable sin, be encouraged. Nobody who commits the blasphemy against the Spirit wonders if they have.

They no longer care about such things.

The unbeliever who commits the unforgivable sin has become so morally and spiritually blind that their heart is hardened. They Holy Spirit has stopped trying to convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. As a result, they have become fully enslaved to sin, to the point that they no longer care about spiritual things and will never believe in Jesus.

Such a condition is clearly not true of you, because you are reading this book and are concerned about your spiritual state. This proves that the Holy Spirit is still working on you, and therefore, you have not yet committed the unforgivable sin.

A Warning about the Unforgivable Sin

Unforgivable SinBut be warned.

If you have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life, then the warning that Jesus gave to the religious leaders in Matthew 12:31-32 may apply to you as well.

Jesus told the Pharisees that if they continued to reject the truths which were clearly before their eyes, then there may come a day when the Spirit stops trying to convince them.

So if you have not believed in Jesus for eternal life, do not resist the Spirit any longer. There is still time. Do not delay. Receive eternal life and become a member of God’s family by believing in Jesus Christ (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Once you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, the possibility of committing the unforgivable sin becomes an impossibility forever.

Do you fear that you have committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Fear not! You are forgiven. You are loved.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails from me which explains how you can know that you are loved and forgiven by God.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

 

Is Failure to Believe in Jesus the Unforgivable Sin?

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believe in JesusOne popular view about the unforgivable sin is that it occurs when someone fails to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

The idea behind this view is that while God forgives all sin, He cannot and will not forgive a person for refusing to believe in Jesus until they actually believe in Jesus for eternal life.

In other words, if they continue in their unbelief until death, then they will never be forgiven, and will therefore be eternally separated from God. Of course, once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, they are forgiven of this sin as well, and will spend eternity with God.

I held this view for many years, but eventually rejected it for several reasons.

Reason I Rejected this View on the Unforgivable Sin

First, in Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says that those who commit the unforgivable sin will never be forgiven. It is not that they might be forgiven if they eventually believe in Jesus, but that once this sin is committed, it will never be forgiven. To say that it will never be forgiven as long as they don’t believe removes all the force from Jesus’ warning, and makes His argument redundantly self-evident.

Second, if Jesus was simply talking about the sin of unbelief, why didn’t He just talk about unbelief? He frequently warns people about their lack of faith, so if that was the issue here, why not make the same warning again?

Third, the big problem with this view on the unforgivable sin is that it has almost nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. The concern of Jesus in this particular text is that the unpardonable sin is against the Holy Spirit. If a particular view about this sin can be explained without ever mentioning the Holy Spirit, this is a good indication that this view is wrong.

Finally, this explanation of the unforgivable sin reveals a basic misunderstanding about forgiveness. Many wrongly assume that God does not and cannot forgive us of our sins unless we first do something to trigger His forgiveness. For example, many believe that God does not and cannot forgive us unless we first confess or repent of our sin. Those posts I linked to show that this is not true.

Similarly, some believe that God does not or cannot forgive us of our sins unless we first believe in Jesus. But this also is not true. Forgiveness is the free gift of God to all people for all their sin regardless of whether they want it, receive it, ask for it, or believe in Jesus for it. This was seen in a previous post about forgiveness.

This, of course, raises questions about how there can be an “unforgivable sin” if God freely forgives us of all our sin. That excellent question will be answered in a future post.

For now, we must reject this view of the unforgivable sin. The unforgivable sin is not a failure to believe in Jesus for everlasting life. God forgives all people freely without condition.

Of course, if you have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life, why put it off any longer? Believe in Him today.

Do you fear that you have committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Fear not! You are forgiven. You are loved.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails from me which explains how you can know that you are loved and forgiven by God.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

 

Did Israel commit the unforgivable sin by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah?

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unforgivable sinSince the controversy in Matthew 12 involves Jesus defending His claim to be the Messiah to the religious and national leaders of Israel, some Bible scholars and teachers believe that the unforgivable sin is Israel’s national rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.

The strength of this view is that it does not simply look at what is said and done in the text of Matthew 12:31-32, but looks at the surrounding context of Matthew 12 and the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, and sees that Jesus is trying to show the people of Israel that He is their promised and prophesied Messiah, but no matter what He says or what miracles He performs, they keep rejecting the truth and denying the clear evidence in the signs that He performs.

It is also argued that Matthew 12 is somewhat the turning point in the Gospel of Matthew. From this point on, Jesus begins to minister more toward Gentiles than to Jews (cf. Matt 13–15). Those who hold this view believe that while Jesus came primarily to the Messiah for the Jewish people, after they rejected Him, He refocused His mission toward being the Savior of the world. Matthew 12 is seen as a key text for this transition.

Those who hold this view point out that after the Pharisees claim that Jesus is performing miracles by the power of Satan (Matt 12:24), Jesus calls them an “evil generation” which deserves condemnation for rejecting the Messiah (Matt 12:39-42). After this, Jesus makes several predictions about how God will turn to a people who will not reject Him, and how Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed (cf. Matt 13:41-43; 16:1-4; 21:18-19, 42-46; 22:1-14; 24:1-2).

Nobody Can Commit the Unforgivable Sin Today?

Note that if this theory is correct, then nobody is able to commit this sin except for the Jewish people living at the time of Jesus Christ. In other words, since we are not Jewish and we are not living at the time of Jesus, we cannot commit this sin.

According to this view, the unforgivable sin was a particular sin which only Jewish people could commit who were alive during the ministry of Jesus and who saw the signs He was performing and should have recognized Him as their Messiah, but rejected Him instead.

This view is comforting since it makes the unforgivable sin impossible to commit today.

Weaknesses with this View on the Unforgivable Sin

However, the idea that this sin cannot be committed today is also the major weakness of the view. While Scripture does at times include descriptions of unique sins that cannot be committed by future generations—such as God’s instruction to Adam to not eat fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—it does not seem that this particular sin falls into that category.

It seems that Matthew included this instruction from Jesus not simply to explain what happened to the Jewish people, but also because he believed that the possibility of committing this sin was a real danger for future generations as well.

At the time of writing, Matthew was warning his readers about this sin, and people today must receive this warning as well.

Furthermore, the very words of Jesus indicate a warning for all future generations. He applies the warning to “anyone” and not just to the Jewish people who were alive in His day.

Jesus also says that anyone who speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but this view about Israel’s rejection of Jesus seems to say the opposite, that Jewish people who rejected Jesus by speaking against Him would not be forgiven.

So for these reasons, we can say that the unforgivable sin is not Israel’s national rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.

There is definitely a warning for all people who read this passage in Matthew about the unforgivable sin, and we must not simply say that because we do not live in the days of Jesus that people today cannot commit the unforgivable sin. People probably can commit this sin, but we must not too quickly assume that people have. Instead, we must discern the nature of the unforgivable sin, and then help counsel and love people who fear they have committed a sin which is unforgivable. Most likely they haven’t.

Do you fear that you have committed the Unforgivable Sin?

Fear not! You are forgiven. You are loved.

Fill out the form below to receive several emails from me which explains how you can know that you are loved and forgiven by God.

(Note: If you are a member of RedeemingGod.com, login and then revisit this page to update your membership.)

 

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