God’s character traits of love and justice* have been consistently portrayed in the Bible. Jesus’ first coming to earth in the flesh and dying so sacrificially for humanity has convinced much of the world of God’s enormous love. That part of His character is now more clearly understood.
However, many still have questions about God’s justice. The many references to judgment mentioned in the Bible don’t generally leave people with positive feelings about it.
But after a close examination and consideration of God’s judgments, we can see the beautiful parts of His merciful justice and have a greater appreciation of that part of His character.
As everyone knows, a fair judicial process includes:
- an investigation, when evidence is gathered about whether a crime has been committed,
- a trial in a courtroom where a judge and jury consider the evidence and determine guilt or innocence,
- and the sentencing, or declaring the results and executing punishment for those found guilty.
Transparency throughout the proceedings is necessary to maintain integrity. And God has provided all this. The Scriptures outline three parts of His judicial process.
- Like our earthly courts, there is an investigative phase** (known by some as the pre-Advent judgment), which takes place in the last days before Jesus comes. Revelation 14:7 accurately reveals that judgment in heaven had begun at the time when the call of the first of three angels was given and people were reminded to worship the Creator. What this means is that the books in heaven were opened, so that, at the Second Coming, the names of the righteous and wicked would already be known. All the heavenly hosts, the holy angels, are onlookers of this investigative duty.
- The next phase of judgment takes place during the millennium, or thousand-year period following Christ’s Second Coming. Once again, transparency is served when the books in heaven are opened and questioned by the righteous ones who have been brought to heaven. They are said to rule with Christ on thrones there. So, they have a front-row seat during the court proceedings. “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them…” (Revelation 20:4). I Corinthians 6:2 says, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?…”
- The third and final phase of judgment will consist of the execution of justice, or destruction by fire that takes place after the millennium. Transparency had already been granted to the angels and the righteous, so now the wicked will also have an opportunity to see that they deserve their fate. Seeing the futility and audacity of their initial desire to overtake beautiful New Jerusalem when it comes down from heaven (Revelation 20:9), they will at last be ready to proclaim God as worthy of worship. Philippians 2:9-11 says that someday every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This would obviously be the time and place for that kind of worship–right before the unrighteous suffer “the second death” (Revelation 20:14).
Satan has done all he can to make it difficult to understand God’s judgments. But as we see in the Bible. it is possible to know God as a merciful judge and thus feel His love on an even deeper level than we ever thought possible.
*See more about God’s love and justice in this article: https://www.outlookmag.org/christ-shows-us-gods-love-and-justice/
**Seventh-day Adventists are the main believers of this investigative judgment, due to their extensive study of the heavenly sanctuary, as they tried to determine what the “cleansing of the sanctuary” meant in Daniel 8:14.
