We have been discussing the Apostles’ Creed and thinking about the things we hold in common with all true believers in Jesus Christ. These familiar words have remarkable claims which are worth considering. This week we notice that the Creed, drawing heavily from the Scriptures, proclaims the reality of both a life to come and a judgment to come. While it lacks some of the details we might like (what’s the typical day in heaven like?), the Creed affirms this belief in the afterlife in two statements:
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
(I believe in…) the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Christians are not the slightest bit uncertain about what is to come. We will live forever with God - we who have accepted God’s offer of peace in Jesus Christ. If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and come to him in a faith that is marked by repentance from sins, we know we will live forever. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). When we die we live forever with God, not because we are great Christians, but because we believe in a great Savior.
That is good news, but it means there are hard choices to make here and now. There is nothing said of purgatory or second chances or plan B. There is a judgment day coming, and we are ready for that day only by believing in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ reflected in the Creed itself. God has given us the gift of this life; He has presented us with the offer of peace in Jesus Christ. We accept it and we live. We reject it and the reality is that He is “coming to judge the living and the dead.”
I won’t say much about the resurrection of the body. Tag and I did a whole series of sermons on heaven a bit ago, and we’d be glad to get you a copy of them. It is a great truth. We get new bodies, full of God’s glory and renewed and restored beyond our imaginations. Even the material world shall be made new.
It is also a great truth that He is coming to judge the living and the dead. We live in a world of terrible evil and injustice. A few weeks ago we heard about this from Stephanie Buttner who is going to another country to work in the area of human trafficking. Children are sold into slavery for bread. Today, in our world, this is true. Slavery didn’t end in 1865. Trinity PCA is starting a ministry for people delivered from slavery here in our region (women imported to pleasure others for money). As I write there is news from Iraq of the evils of the ISIS invasion, and plentiful stories of terror in Afghanistan and around the world. On our college campuses there is an explosion of rapes that are often unreported or underreported. Evil abounds. Why doesn’t someone do something? Well, we should, and we are doing something by bringing the gospel of Jesus to all people, and along with the message of love we bring acts of love: all the material help that we can. In this present age there are victories here and there. Sometimes the darkness is turned back. Sometimes mercy touches the weak. Sometimes justice comes to the oppressors.
I believe He is coming to judge the living and the dead. One day the evil rulers of North Korea will answer for their deeds. Forever. Unrelenting. Never ending. They imprisoned and murdered thousands, including many of our Christian family members. From their place near the throne of grace they now cry out “How long, O Lord?” (Revelation 6:10). Their oppressors meet certain justice at death, and more justice on that last great day, when all their deeds will be revealed. Their prison will be where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched (Mark 9:48). On that day all will say “righteous and true are your judgments, O Lord.” (Revelation 16:7).
That’s scary stuff, especially when I get a look in the mirror at the desires of my heart - the things I love more than God and more than my neighbor so easily. That leads me to be reminded of the fact that I am saved by grace, forgiven because Jesus took the penalty for my sin and gave me His perfect righteousness. And, in my best moments, it leads me to offer mercy to those who have acted with malice toward me. The gospel leads me away from my tendency to want “mercy for me and justice for everybody else”. Have mercy O Lord!
It’s good to remember what we believe, for the good days and bad days alike!
In Him,
Don