Tag: Judgment

Digging in Deeper: Romans 1:28-32

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***An extra post today. I was doing some cleaning up on the back end of the blog, and accidentally deleted this post from a few weeks ago. My meticulousness wouldn’t let me leave out this one passage from the series. Good thing I saved it in another place as well. Happy Monday.***

“And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know God’s just sentence — that those who practice such things deserve to die  — they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Worldview is everything. Belief dictates behavior. Worldview determines belief. Therefore, worldview lies at the heart of every single decision we make, every action we take, every word we speak, even every thought we think. Because of this, having the right worldview is a really big deal. All worldviews, you see, are not created equal. Now, some borrow ideas from other worldviews because their own worldview produces ideas that address not very good. But idea borrowing like this can be an indication of a flawed worldview. Choosing a worldview known to be flawed is a moral decision. It is a moral decision that will be judged appropriately. As Paul wraps up his opening condemnation of sin in light of the Gospel, these ideas are present in his thinking. Let’s explore them.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 2:9-12

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“There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For there is no favoritism with God. For all who sin without the law will also perish without the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We love the concept of judgment for sin. If that sounds funny to say, allow me to clarify. We love the idea that people who have done what we recognize to be wrong will face the just consequences for their misdeeds. It doesn’t sound quite so bad when you put it that way, does it? In fact, if you recoiled a bit at the first statement, you may have found yourself nodding along in agreement with the second. That’s because, deep down, we love the concept of judgment for sin. There’s a reason for that: we were created in the image of a God who does too. Let’s talk about why judgment is a good thing, and the way God approaches it is best.

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Morning Musing: Romans 2:5-8

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“Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will repay each one according to his works: eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Salvation is based on grace. If you’ve been around the church for long, you’ve probably heard that. It’s sort of one of the church’s central messages. In fact, if you’ve been around the church for very long and that’s news to you, you should probably find a new church because the one you’re at now isn’t very good. But as much as salvation is based on grace, judgment is not. Let’s talk about the basis of judgment and what it means for us.

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Morning Musing: Romans 2:1

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“Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a culture that hates judgment. Well, at least we profess and make a mean case of such a thing. But the truth is that we love judgment. We simply don’t like people judging us or people we count as our people. We’re very content to cast judgment on those who don’t meet with our standards whatever they are. This state of affairs makes the oft-lobbed criticism that Christians are too judgmental of a lot most ironic. Yet accusing followers of Jesus of being judgmental isn’t something the culture has the corner market on. Paul does it right here. Let’s talk about why and what he means.

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Morning Musing: Romans 1:24-25

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“Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Thanks to a few hundred years’ worth of pop culture, when we think about the judgment of God, we imagine fire and brimstone. We picture great floods and earthquakes. We imagine something dramatic and terrible. We imagine God’s actively doing something to punish us for our sins (or, better yet, them for theirs…we usually give ourselves a pass). Yet so much of the judgment we encounter in the Scriptures doesn’t look like that at all. Instead, it takes the form of God simply stepping back and letting the consequences of our sin play themselves out naturally. Paul describes something like that here. Check this out with me.

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