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So, we are exploring that incredible verse in Romans 14, where Paul quotes Isaiah 45 and says, that as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. And the word confess there is to take an oath. As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall take an oath to God, that in him alone is there righteousness and strength.
When will this be? We certainly don’t see the world doing that now, and we don’t see any chance or likelihood of it ever happening in this side of the kingdom, on this side of the kingdom. But you see, this is going to happen in the judgment. So many people, so many Christians, so much traditional history of Christianity has misunderstood the judgment.
We think of the judgment as dividing the world, saving those who have put faith in Christ and damning to hell those who have rejected him. But the division of the world is at the second coming of Christ, not the judgment. The division of the world is when the sheep are received into God’s kingdom and the goats are sent to punishment.
That’s the judgment. But what is the result of judgment? Is it death or is it life? Well, when we look at the book of Ezekiel, as I’ve often suggested you do, all the judgments there, including those referring to fire and brimstone, lead to a knowledge that God is the Lord, and not a knowledge that destroys people but that brings them to redemption. As I mentioned the other day, there are over 60 references in the book of Ezekiel that say, and then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Something wonderful and awesome and terrifying and beautiful is going to happen in the judgment. For you see, the judgment is not the separation, the final judgment, is not the separation of the world between the lost and the saved. It is rather the reconciliation of the world.
That is why Paul is saying, as he does in verse 10 and verse 11 of Romans, But why do you judge your brother, or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to me to God. Now Paul refers to these verses from Isaiah 45 again in the book of Philippians.
He says in chapter 2, Therefore God has highly exalted him, that is, God has highly exalted Christ, and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That is God’s plan, that is God’s goal, and it will be fulfilled. And I want you to notice that what he says in Philippians adds a little more to the understanding of this final surrendering of the world to God, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth, that is the dead.
And that’s why I made a point of Romans 14 when I read to you, For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord, that is, that he might reign over both the dead and the living. God’s salvation is total, it is complete, it is going to cover everyone. Those who have resisted him and continue to resist him will go through the judgment, and that judgment will be so utterly shattering to those who have resisted him that they will finally see and realize that there is only life, and hope, and mercy, and righteousness, and strength in God.
Now remember what Acts chapter 3 verse 21 has said. It speaks about the restoration of all things. Well, we hardly ever refer to that, do we as Christians? The restoration of all things? Yes, everything is going to be restored.
And then remember Ephesians 1 verse 10, that at the dispensation of the fullness of times. That’s a heavy-loaded phrase, isn’t it? The dispensation of the fullness of times. When God disperses all fullness of the times, completes it, then comes about what? Well, this is it.
Listen. He will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. That’s Ephesians 1 verse 10.
Why don’t we give much attention to these verses? And what about Colossians verses 19 and 20? It pleased the Father. In other words, it was the pleasure of the Father, the will of the Father, the willingness of our heavenly Father, that in Christ he’s going to reconcile all things to himself, by him, by Christ, that is, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and we could add what it says there in Philippians, or those things under the earth, having made peace through the blood of the cross. This is the astonishing news of the gospel, which has been terribly, terribly neglected, and not only neglected, but denied, because people want to hate.
They want to separate. Now, we’re not talking about the unity that comes about through the Antichrist in the last days. That is a fake, of course.
There is no unity except through Jesus Christ. But that unity will be brought about in the judgment. The judgment is about the reconciliation of all humankind, not the separation of all humankind.
Yes, it is a judgment to be feared for those who have rejected Christ, but what the judgment will do is two things. It will reveal the glory of God in a manner that has never been seen on earth at any time. And the glory of God will rise in majesty before the world and will terrorize the people who have rejected him, for they will see him like a lion, ready to pounce.
And yet, God is like a lamb. That’s why he is presented as in his Son on the throne as one slain like a lamb, sacrificial lamb. So the judgment does two things.
It reveals the glory of God. Well, I might say it does three. It reveals the glory of God, and then it reveals the utter brokenness and manifestation of sins of humankind.
And when all human beings who have rejected him stand before the judgment without a mediator and with the revelation of all their sins before them, it is going to be a shattering experience. That is the torment that is spoken about in the book of Revelation. God is not a sadist.
He does not bring pain to people. But once people have chosen to be on the other, the wrong side of God’s grace and mercy, then their sins become overwhelming and crushing. But then there is a third revelation, not of the glory of God only, not only of the revelation of mankind’s sins, but a revelation of God’s incredible mercy.
And there will be manifestations in the judgment of God’s mercy to all the world. People will see where he was merciful to them when they didn’t even know that he existed or believe that he existed. They will see his mercy on their lives even though they turned against him, because according to the scriptures, God lets his sun shine upon the just and the unjust, and his rain fall upon the just and the unjust.
What does that mean? It means God is merciful to the unbelievers just as much as he is merciful to the believers, but they don’t see it. But in the judgment, they will. Now I want you to try to imagine the reconciliation that will take place in the final judgment.
Do you realize what an utterly staggering shock and offense that will be to the world? What will it be to family members who have separated themselves and not seen each other for decades? What will it be for people who hold a grudge and who hate one another and who simply justify their existence, their own existence, by hating somebody else? What will it be for the tormentors of the age, the Hitlers and the Stalins and the Mao Zedongs, these men who have killed hundreds of millions of people, a hundred million people, these tyrants? What will it be when the Jewish nation, when the people who have been sent to the gas chambers, redeemed now, hold out their hands to Hitler? How will Hitler be able to handle reconciliation? It will crush him, and if it were not for the mercy of God, he would die of shock. And if it were not for the mercy of God, those who are called upon to have mercy would fade away. I’m telling you, we need to contemplate these things.
The judgment is not something that simply is a blank sheet. The world will be brought to seeing that in Christ is reconciliation. Remember that all Israel will look upon the one whom they pierced, and that is true for all the world too.
All the world will look upon him whom they pierced, and there will be a great mourning in all the tribes of Israel and in all the tribes of the world. That reconciliation, that ending of hate, that ending of the justification we give ourselves for hating others while we love ourselves, it will all break down. There will be sobbing, there will be weeping, there will be gnashing of teeth, but it will be reconciling.
It will be the place where people finally let go of the hatred that has broken down their minds and their bodies, and all hatred will finally sink and drop to the bottom of the sea. All the hatred that has broken our health and broken our lives will be melted away, but not by simply some miracle of a change, but by God’s persuading the world of his mercy, that if God had mercy upon them, then they should have mercy upon their neighbors. How about that? Before me, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess and acknowledge and take an oath that in the Lord alone is their righteousness and strength, and they repent therefore of all the strength of their hatred.
Thank you for joining me today. This is Colin Cook, and How It Happens. You have been listening to a broadcast that you can hear on the radio in the Denver and surrounding states areas at 10 o’clock in the evening, repeated at 4 in the morning on KLTT AM 670.
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See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
