Once Lucifer discarded the unconditional nature of God’s law of agape love, he had to automatically institute a system of judgment. Humanity’s actions and motives had to be judged so he could divide us into the Good and the Evil categories. How else could he have determined whom to reward and whom to punish?
The system of Good and Evil must first establish one’s merit or demerit before a reward or punishment can be meted. This process of determining one’s innocence or guilt is done through weighing one’s behaviour on the balances of Good and Evil. Whichever side leans heavier determines the outcome of the judgment.
Now if God’s love is unconditional, can He resort to such a mode of judgment? Jesus addressed this issue in the Sermon on the Mount:
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:1-5).
“Judge not that you be not judged.” In this succinct but loaded phrase, Jesus gives us a principle that can determine our fate. Why are we not to judge? So that we will not be judged. But who will judge us if we judge others? God? Satan? Ourselves? These are important questions and we are going to try to answer them.
In the Book of Luke Jesus amplifies the word “judge” to mean condemnation:
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:37).
What is the plank in the eye of someone who judges others? The plank in the eye is “judgment” itself—because this kind of judgment is condemning, and comes from the moral law of Good and Evil. Jesus characterizes this as a grosser flaw, a beam much bigger than the splinter in their brother’s eye.
As we judge and weigh others, we give proof that we are in the domain of death. Judging and finding fault is in itself a greater sin than the actual faults we may find in others. After all, we are all sinners; all are imperfect. Accusation is the greater evil. Paul gives the same warning:
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand (Romans 14:3-4).
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 writ- ten, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way (Romans 14:10-13).
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me [GIVES ME JUSTIFICATION] is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God (1 Corinthians 4:3-5).
Paul says that he does not even judge himself and God is able to make him, and all, stand through His agape love.
He who judges after the flesh by speaking against his brother, judges the law of unconditional love and joins Satan in declaring God’s law inefficient, faulty. He is like Lucifer, in that he also judged God’s Law and found it to be foolish and weak. He rejects unconditional love in preference to the law of Good and Evil. By rejecting God’s unconditional principle, he rejects God Himself.
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another (James 4:11-12)?
There is only one true Lawgiver—He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and He has one supreme, eternal law—agape love. His law is the true law. Lucifer’s law is a deception and a failure that will not survive the test of time. It is through his law that he is destroying the earth and its inhabitants. In the end, God’s law will stand vindicated; it will continue eternally, as it has always been.
What do we make of the words “He is able to save and destroy?” By judging we stand in danger of destruction. The key word here is “freedom.” God saves and destroys by giving us the ultimate freedom to choose between the law of life and the law of death. Both destruction and salvation are inherent to the choices we make. Judging one another puts us clearly under Satan’s jurisdiction.
What is the danger of judging one another? Why does Jesus warn us not to judge? You may say it is because we may make a wrong judgment, since we cannot read the heart. Yes, that is absolutely true. And we could say that judging kills love; it makes the heart cold—all this is true.
But another, real danger to us is this: that by using the system of Good and Evil to measure others we actually measure ourselves. By judging others, we state that our moral law is the moral law of Good and Evil. By weighing others on his balance of merit and demerit we disregard God’s law of unconditional agape love and demonstrate that we have chosen Satan over God—we are subjects of his kingdom of death. Thus, Satan’s condemning law will judge us, and there is no mercy in his system.
By judging others we judge ourselves. By imputing sin to others we also impute sin to ourselves. This results in self-condemnation and, in due course, in total darkness. This is Lucifer’s and his angels’ fate.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6).
The loss of one life to eternal death is a senseless, needless loss. God is infinite love and mercy. No one needs to be lost. If God never condemns us, then who does? We condemn ourselves. When we study the cross, it will become very clear how lethal Satan’s condemning power is.
Jesus explained that this “judgment” of condemnation is done “according to the flesh,” the carnal mind, (which is con- trolled by the moral code of Good and Evil):
You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me (John 8:15-16).
Those who “judge according to the flesh” use the principle of Good and Evil as their measuring rod. “I judge no one”—Jesus judges no one by the moral code of Good and Evil. What about the words “Yet if I do judge, My judgment is true?” If God judges no one in order to arbitrarily reward or punish, then how does He judge, and what is the true judgment He is talking about?
God’s judgment must not be confused with the judgment inherent in the principle of Good and Evil.
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8).
“Righteous judgment” is based solely on righteousness. God’s “righteous judgment” has to be in harmony with His unconditional love. As such, “righteous judgment” cannot involve the reward and punishment system.
God cannot both judge “after the flesh” and love unconditionally. It is either one or the other. The judgment that Jesus referred to as “My judgment is true” is a judgment based on agape love, not Good and Evil. Therefore “righteous judgment” means that God deals with each of us in the same manner—with unconditional, impartial love. This includes respecting our freedom of choice. God’s final judgment will be conducted through “righteous judgment.” What will that look like?
It is very simple. In the final judgment, God’s “righteous judgment” will be to give us freedom and honour the consequences of our choices. He will allow us to fully receive the consequences of the jurisdiction we have chosen in this life. If we have chosen the jurisdiction of life, we will receive life. If we have chosen the jurisdiction of death, we will receive death. This is righteous judgment that stems from agape love.
How do we choose a jurisdiction? By the law we adopt as our moral rule in this life. If we choose to live by the unconditional law of agape love, we will be under God’s jurisdiction and will inherit the gift of eternal life. If we live by the conditional law of Good and Evil we position ourselves under Satan’s jurisdiction and reap death. Thus we reap what we sow. God’s “righteous judgment” is to respect our choices, and the “righteous judge” will make sure that our freedom is upheld and our choices respected.
“The righteous Judge will give the crown of life to all those who love His appearing at that Day.” Those “who love His appearing” died in the hope of the resurrection at Jesus’ second coming. They did not trust their own goodness, their own works. They put their trust on God, who unconditionally gave them the gift of eternal life. They trusted on God’s mercy and grace. They accepted the gift of life freely given to all—they believed Jesus’ revelation of the Father’s unconditional love.
And yet the Bible does say our works will judge us, does it not? If the “righteous judge” does not base our salvation upon our own works, then how will He judge us? Works are the visible evidence of our thoughts. They reveal what’s inside us. Therefore, our actions are “evidence” of who we are, evidence used in the cosmic courtroom. God is our defense, Satan our prosecutor. Our actions show whether we believe and follow what Christ told us regarding God’s unconditional love or whether we have remained in bondage to Satan’s arbitrary law—the kingdom of accusation and condemnation.
God cannot force us to get out of Good and Evil. He cannot violate our free- dom. If we choose to remain in it, He is forced to leave us there, and there we will reap death. Our lives will be weighed and the evidence will be examined so that all can see which law we have chosen to live by. Transparency is the reason for this investigative judgment. Each law has its own set of rules. Satan’s law is condemning—God’s is absolving. According to which law do we live?
Christ is the gift God gave to the world, to reveal His non-judging and non- judgmental character. The only negative in regards to God’s judgment, as far as God the Father and Jesus the Son are concerned, has to do with our reaction to the light we are given. We can accept or reject light. If God gives us truth and we reject it, then He allows us to return to darkness—His hands are tied.
The flood was a judgment—two thousand years after the creation of the world. The light of the gospel was given to the antediluvians:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:18-20).
The people of Noah’s time rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, and as a result, the flood came by the hand of the accuser, the Destroyer.
The first advent was another judgment—four thousand years removed from Eden. The very act of bringing “light,” truth, to the earth, also brought judgment. Jesus said:
“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “are we blind also?” Jesus said to them “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains” (John 9:39-41).
Jesus revealed God’s character to the children of Israel. They were to impart His love to the world. But most of them rejected and crucified God’s Son—the destruction of Jerusalem came forty years later again by the hand of the Destroyer. By rejecting the truth the people of Jesus’ time gave themselves over to Satan.
The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;” “for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The horrible cruel- ties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his control{GC 35.3}.
Another judgment is about to take place soon—six thousand years after Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The light of God’s character is being given now. God is pouring light to His messengers all over the world so they can carry it to all people. The light of God’s character of unconditional love will cover the entire earth.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).
“Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity!
Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts
That the peoples labor to feed the fire,
And nations weary themselves in vain?
For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:12-14).
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:6-7).
If this knowledge is rejected, destruction will come again by the hand of the Destroyer, who is described in Revelation 9:11:
And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon (Revelation 9:11).
Sadly, many will reject the truth about God’s character. The rejection of this truth places them under the jurisdiction of the Destroyer. Then destruction, by the hand of the Destroyer, will come in through the seven last plagues of Revelation sixteen.
We have freedom of choice. We can either accept or reject Jesus’ testimony—this will be our judgment. This judgment involves what we do with everything Jesus taught and revealed about God, in particular in regards to His principle of unconditional love. This judgment came into effect the moment Jesus declared the truth about God, and if we reject the same, we judge ourselves. What judges us is our acceptance or rejection of the light Christ shed on God’s character. Note His words in this regard:
And if any one hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak (John 12:47-50, emphasis added).
Jesus was the true light that came into the world. He came to give light, but the world did not accept Him:
That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:9-13).
Even though the world was made through Him, the world did not know, receive, or accept Him. The world could not accept the principle of agape love because the world preferred Satan’s law of Good and Evil.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).
To many, Satan’s law makes so much more sense than unconditional love. After all, how can we not punish criminals? How could love alone reform them? How can we not use violence to protect our families, our children and ourselves? How can order be kept without the use of force? True love for God elicits an obedience that is blind to consequences—this is evident in the life of the martyrs. Daniel and his friends had the only true, correct response to the argument that we need to follow the world in order to save ourselves:
O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up (Daniel 3:16-18).
It may be counter-intuitive, but Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Losing our lives for the sake of God’s nonviolent love principle will bring a reward this world cannot offer – eternal life. But even then we are cautioned not to follow God out of selfish reasons:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Humanity is saturated with the law of the god of this world. One way or another, Satan’s arbitrary moral code has gripped our hearts. Our only hope is to open the door for Jesus to enter our hearts. He is knocking at the door. Our only hope is to stand before “the judgment seat of Christ,” because in Him there is no condemnation, and all are freely absolved.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1).
God is calling us to come out of Satan’s system so that we may not share in its impending destruction. He will empower us to shed our dual nature and will impute His righteousness unto us—He can purify us from all “corrupting” elements. God will never use force against us or violate our free will, not even to save us. The choice is ours, and we must choose on which side we stand.