John 5:22-27 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, (23) that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. … (27) and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.”
As revealed to us in the passage of scripture quoted above, God the Father has committed all judgement to His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason that our Father did that is twofold. Jesus stated that the first reason why God has committed all judgement to Him is so that all should honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Our Lord stated that the second reason why God has committed all judgement to Him is because although Jesus is the eternal Son of God He is also the Son of Man. And so it is as the Son of Man that Jesus is fully qualified to judge all men, for not only is He the only man who never committed any sin but it was also as a man that He paid the price for the sins of all mankind.
1 Corinthians 6:2 “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?”
As we have already seen earlier our Lord Jesus has reserved the judgement of His saints for Himself. Nevertheless the Lord has committed the judgement of the unbelievers to His saints. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul revealed this particular truth to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. In an earlier passage of scripture we have seen that when the unbelievers are judged on that day that books will be opened. The books referred to in that passage are the detailed records of the lives of every unbeliever that has ever lived. And so the saints on that day will be seated as judges before whom the unbelievers will be brought, and the angels of God will then place the books before the saints who will review them and then pronounce the appropriate sentence of eternal punishment on each one. And so we see that the unbelievers judgement will be just like a court of law, for the scripture declares of that day that the court will be seated, and the books will be opened (Daniel 7:10).
Matthew 12:41-42 “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed, a greater than Jonah is here. (42) The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed, a greater than Solomon is here.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus confirmed the same truth to us that the saints will judge the world. The context of this passage is that the Lord Jesus was teaching on the unbelievers’ day of judgement. And so in this passage our Lord Jesus taught us that the men of Nineveh and the queen of Sheba would be among those who would pronounce judgement on the generation that heard Jesus preach in the flesh but nevertheless rejected Him. Both the men of Nineveh and the queen of Sheba are among the saints in heaven today, for as Old Testament saints their faith was accounted to them for righteousness. And so this passage clearly teaches us that the Lord’s saints will be the ones who will pronounce eternal judgement on the unbelievers on that day.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments