Confidence In the Day of Judgment – Part 1

1 John 4:17

July 20, 2003

            One reality that is taught plainly and clearly throughout Scripture is the Day of Judgment: the final day when ultimate sentence will be rendered on each man’s life. Jesus Himself spoke often of the Day of Judgment. In Matthew 10, Jesus is giving His twelve disciples instructions as He sends them out to preach in Israel. He knew that there would be cities that would reject His disciples, and in Matthew 10:15, speaking such a city, He said, “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.” Here Jesus explains that on the Day of Judgment Sodom and Gomorrah will feel less wrath than cities that would reject the disciples. In Matthew 11:22, speaking of cities that saw many miracles at the hand of Christ and did not believe in Him, He said, “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.” Again in verse 24 He says, “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” In these passages Jesus denounced those who reject Him and the Gospel, and He promises that the day of judgment would be cruel to them. In Matthew 12:36 He made the day of judgment directly applicable to every person, saying, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” There is a day coming, called the day of judgment, when all people shall have to give an account for every careless word that they have spoken. Their very words will be judged on this awesome day. The day of judgment was a future reality in the mind of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus taught with abundant clarity that a day of reckoning would come upon all those who have ever lived on this earth.

            The Apostle Peter also believed in a coming day of judgment. The only thing preventing that judgment from breaking in upon the world at this very moment is the infinite mercy of God. Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:7, By His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. It is nothing but the sovereign word of God that is now preserving this wicked world from entering immediately into judgment. The God whom the ungodly provoke and blaspheme is the same God whose word keeps this world spinning and does not immediately break onto the scene in amazing and awesome fury and wrath and judgment. Nothing but the patience and mercy of God have thus far kept the world from seeing that great and terrible day of final judgment.

            The natural man, we must admit quite frankly, does not like this idea of final judgment. He rarely thinks about it except perhaps in terms of others who have offended him, or others who have been cruel to mankind. The Day of Judgment, the natural man often thinks, is something for terrorists or fascist dictators. But rarely does he ever apply it directly to himself. This is because the natural man apart from Christ has an inherent fear of final judgment. Every man’s conscience testifies against him that he is guilty before a holy God, and to think of final judgment only affirms what each person’s conscience cries out against him. Yet there are times when even the natural man cannot ignore the Day of Judgment, and fear becomes an overriding emotion.

            Lieutenant-Colonel George V. Hamilton has given his own testimony about how he felt about the Day of Judgment. He is not a Christian, according to his own testimony. He wrote concerning the Day of Judgment, “I think many earnest Christian seekers after Truth have been much troubled as to the meaning of this "Day of Judgment" so often spoken of in the Scriptures, and so generally misunderstood. I can say that in my childhood it was a constant terror to me, and the more I heard of it and thought about it, the deeper became my fear. So much so, that while still a mere child, I desired death in preference to the Day of Judgment.” This is surely the basic position of the natural man – fear and terror when the Day of Judgment is contemplated, and this is rightfully so. Lt-Col. Hamilton, sadly, does not truly understand the biblical teaching, and he evidences one method that many use to try to do something about this slavish fear regarding the Day of Judgment. He redefines judgment, and believes that ultimately it will be a day of understanding, and finally all humanity will understand the truth and have their sins removed.

            This is perhaps one of the most popular methods of suppressing fear of this final judgment – to deny it by redefining it. Yet there are many who, rather than denying it, would use it to bring people into slavery and bondage. The Catholics teach that there can be no ultimate assurance of salvation, and the Day of Judgment cannot be met with confidence. This teaching comes from the fact that they teach salvation by works, not by grace. And this also helps them to increase in wealth and to keep their followers enslaved to a human religious system.

It is no different in Islam. There can be no final confidence before the Day of Judgment for any person, according to the teachings of Islam. In fact, in Islam, even for the person who would be saved according to this damning doctrine, there can be no assurance even on that day. Imam Mohamed Baianonie, in a speech at the Islamic Center of Raleigh, N.C., said, “The good believer will have an easy reckoning and Allah will cover up his sins after he reminds him about them…Allah will bring the believer very close and privately ask him "Do you know this sin? Do you know that sin? The believer’s reply will be, "Yes, oh Lord," until he is reminded about all of his sins, and he thinks he will perish. Then Allah will say "I covered up your sins during your life, and I will forgive you your sins today. Then he will be given his book of good deeds.”” The false religion of Islam offers its followers no security, no confidence, and no assurance regarding final judgment, even on that very day. It is a religion of slavery and fear, without offering its followers any real hope, and ultimately bringing all of those who believe its doctrines to eternal destruction.

While false religion always plays on the man’s natural fear of final judgment, biblical Christianity offers freedom from fear of judgment. Christianity is unique in this respect: It teaches the ultimate, final judgment of every person, and it offers every single person freedom from fear of this judgment if that person will receive Christ as Savior and Lord. This is a vital distinction between biblical truth and heretical doctrines of demons. Biblical truth sets a person free from fear of judgment, and brings them to the place where they can say with the Apostle Paul, In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Tim 4:8). The Christian, far from having a slavish fear of judgment, ought to look forward to the coming day, and ought to be able to say that they love the appearing of Christ, the righteous Judge. There need be no fear of judgment for the Christian.

It does seem, however, that many Christians do in fact live in terror of death and of judgment. Many Christians do not have confidence about facing that day, and this is tragic. God wants us to have confidence when we face the Day of Judgment if we are His children. How, then, can this confidence be obtained?

This is the subject with which John is dealing in his first epistle. You will perhaps remember that the purpose of the letter is to teach the readers how to have authentic fellowship with God (1:3) and thereby assurance of salvation (5:13). The Apostle wants to deliver his readers from fear of judgment and eternal condemnation. He wants them to know that they have eternal life, that they are in fellowship with God.

The Apostle deals with this at length, and one primary component of this assurance of eternal life, as we have seen, is love. When we see ourselves demonstrating the character of God in our lives, we have great assurance that God is in reality abiding in us and we in Him. One great aspect of the character of God is love. John has said in this chapter that love is from God (4:7) and God is love (4:8, 16). It is only natural, then, that this characteristic should be seen in us if we claim to be His children. And so John starts this passage with the exhortation, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. This is his primary statement, his main thesis, and throughout the rest of this section he is expanding and expounding on this statement.

He begins by proving that love must exist in the Church because of God’s own love toward us. It is inconceivable to the Apostle that those of us who have been so beloved of God could not love each other. When we have God’s very nature in us, and we have God’s love manifested among us, it seems to be a logical conclusion that we will also manifest love toward one another. This is the Apostle’s first argument, and he puts it to us in verses 8 through 11.

Then he goes on to show that this type of love is a sure proof that we are abiding in God. It is when we have this type of love that we can be certain that we have fellowship with God, that He abides in us and we abide in Him. We do not have fellowship with God through our physical senses; we cannot see God, for He is spirit. Even so, we can still truly know Him and be in intimate fellowship with Him. Because God is love, we know that if we abide in love, then we abide in God. We could not do it otherwise. We could not love in this manner if God did not abide in us and we in Him. So the Apostle argues that we ought to love one another because it is a sure sign that we know God. We cannot prove it through visions or physical apprehensions of Him. The sure test that we know Him is when we love those within the Church. The Apostle puts it like this in 4:16: The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. There is intimacy and fellowship for the one who abides in love. The one who lives in the sphere of love has this relationship with God that is deep, intimate, and unbroken. He abides in God, and God abides in him.

This type of relationship is the goal of love. It is the purpose for which God’s love was manifested. It is its proper end. The Apostle, following what he wrote in verse 16, says in verse 17, By this, love is perfected with us. What does he mean by this statement? I believe when he says by this he is referring to what we just read in verse 16 – abiding in God. So what he is saying is this: “By this abiding in God, this fellowship of love, love is perfected with us.” This word, perfected, carries with it the idea of reaching a goal, becoming complete or mature. There is a work that God’s love does with us. When God set His love on His children He did so with a goal in mind. He did so to bring them to Himself, to bring them into intimate union and fellowship with Himself. In 1 Peter 3:18 Peter puts it like this: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. There is this goal about which the Apostle John is speaking as he writes. Being brought to God, being brought into union and fellowship with God Himself. You remember how before sin entered the world Adam had fellowship with God in the Garden. When sin came that fellowship was broken, and mankind was estranged from God. The work of Christ, God’s work of love toward those who believe, was to reverse what sin accomplished, and to bring us into fellowship with God that can never be broken or destroyed again by sin.

When the Apostle John writes, By this, love is perfected with us, he is saying that when we are in this vital union with God love has reached its goal with us. Love has accomplished what it was sent out to do when we are brought into union with God, when we abide in Him and He in us, and we live a life of love toward one another. You must never forget that when God saved you He did so with a purpose, a goal, in mind. It was not just so that you could have forgiveness of sins and live forever. Thank God He does do that for us in our salvation, but that is just the beginning. Paul tells us in Romans 8:29 that before the foundation of the world God had a goal in mind in our salvation. Paul wrote, For those whom He foreknew He also predestined. But predestined to what? Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. God saved us with this purpose in mind – to make us into the image of His Son. To make us like Christ. And Christ is the exact representation of the Father, so to be conformed to Christ is to be conformed to God Himself, to be made like God. The Apostle Peter puts it this way in 2 Peter 1:4: For by these things He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Now I would not believe such a thing if it were not so boldly declared in Scripture! God gave us His promises so that we would become partakers even of the divine nature. This is the goal, and we know that God is love. If we are to be partakers of the divine nature we must live a life of love, because the divine nature is love. So John says, in effect, that when we abide in love, when we live this life of love, God’s love manifested toward us reaches its goal, it is perfected with us.

Why is this important? Why is it essential that we live in such a way so that God’s love is perfected with us? Remember that John’s reason for writing is to give us assurance of our salvation. It is great assurance of salvation if we see the purpose of salvation being worked out in our lives. In fact, when love is perfected with us there are two effects in our lives. Two great and marvelous effects result when we abide in God and He abides in us in this life of love that bring confidence and assurance of our salvation. These two effects, when present, will cause us to know that we have eternal life (5:13).

Perfected Love Raises Confidence (v. 17)

            The first effect is found in verse 17. John writes, By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Confidence! Love reaching its goal with us raises confidence. Perfected love raises confidence. That is the Apostle’s concern here – that we have confidence before God. And he says the way to have this confidence is to see God’s love reaching its goal in your life.

            The reason that God has this in His Word for us is so that we might have confidence in the Day of Judgment. The true God is not the god of Islam, who doesn’t give his followers any confidence until he has given them excessive agony. He is not a god who drives his followers into slavish fear of him. No, to the contrary, God is a God of mercy and love, and part of that love is to instill confidence in those who abide in Him, so that when they stand before Him in judgment, they will have boldness and confidence, and not shrink away from Him in shame. The Apostle wants us to experience this boldness, this confidence. That is one reason he tells us in verse 7 of chapter 4, Beloved, let us love one another. “Don’t you realize,” says the Apostle, “that you must love one another because that is part of God’s objective in loving you. And one purpose God has for us in living this life of love is to give us confidence that He will not condemn us!” God has manifested His love so that we might love, and God puts His love in us so that we might know that we know Him. He does all of these things, perfecting His love with us, so that we can have confidence. This is perhaps one of the most thrilling truths in all of Scripture, that God wants us to have confidence and boldness before Him and His seat of judgment. He does not want us to shrink away from Him in shame.

            Specifically, John is here dealing with confidence in the day of judgment. Earlier, in 3:19-24, he dealt with confidence in our prayer lives, but now the Apostle turns his attention to confidence in the day of judgment. As I said at the beginning, confidence concerning the day of judgment is not natural for man apart from Christ. The day of judgment is a fearful day. It is a day of dread and terror. Imagine yourself, standing before our holy, powerful, wrathful God in all of your sins without the righteousness of Christ to cover you, having to give an account for everything you have ever done, said, or thought. Imagine yourself standing there, your eternal destiny about to be announced to you. It is your eternal destiny. No chance of parole or early release. No relief will ever be felt. It is eternal. And there you stand before this God of wrath and fury, filled with your sins and iniquities, knowing how you have despised His glory, trampled over His precious Son, blasphemed His Holy Spirit, and now you must face Him, and He will judge you without mercy and without pity. He will not feel one whit of compassion for you as He sends you to an eternity of torment under the fierceness of His wrath. He knows that you cannot endure even one minute of His almighty, ferocious wrath, and yet that does not deter Him for one second from sending you into an eternity of being under the crushing weight of His holy and majestic and terrible fury. Can you imagine yourself on this day, there is no second chance, your eternal destiny is proclaimed, and you have nothing with which to protect yourself, no excuses, and no power to avoid the terrible destruction that is about to overwhelm your soul for all of eternity. There is great fear for the man apart from Christ on the Day of Judgment.

            The Apostle Paul understood the reality of this judgment day for men apart from Christ. He knew the terror of that awesome day, and he understood the fear of the Lord. And he also knew that all of us shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ. No one is exempt. No one will get out of it. It will be a universal judgment to come upon all men. That is what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:10, saying, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. All of us will appear there. All of us will have our lives examined there. This was great motivation for Paul to proclaim the Gospel, so that men would not be sentenced to eternal damnation. He went on in verse 11 to say, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. What is he saying? He is saying that because he knows the awful fear of judgment, he and the other apostles proclaimed the Gospel, and they tried to persuade men to receive Christ as Savior. He knew the fear of the Lord. He understood the reality and weightiness of final judgment, and because he understood that, he persuaded men of the Gospel. He put all his effort into warning men to flee from the wrath to come.

            Now concerning the Day of Judgment, undoubtedly there are many opinions about when it shall occur, how many judgments there will be, and who will be at each judgment, and I am aware of these many theories and ideas. But John, in this passage in 1 John 4, is not interested in all of these theories about the Day of Judgment. As far as he is concerned, we all will face it, and that is the reality he wants us to deal with here. We must have confidence when we do face it, knowing that as sure as we shall die or see the Lord coming in glory, we shall also stand before the judgment seat of Christ, who has been granted authority to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42;17:31). Let us keep this thing in our minds, and not become consumed with how it will happen to the point that we forget that it will in fact happen. The important thing to remember is that the day of judgment will happen, and you must always have that as your emphasis and your focus.

            With this terrible day of judgment coming, when the heavens and earth will be destroyed with fire (2 Pet 3:7), the Apostle John says that we can, indeed, should have confidence or boldness. That is his proposition to us. He says, In this, love is perfected with us, so that we might have confidence in the day of judgment. What is it, then, that gives us such confidence on such a terrible day of wrath and vengeance on sinners and the ungodly?

            John says most clearly at the end of verse 17 that we have confidence because as He is, so also are we in this world. Here is the basis for our confidence on that day. We are like Jesus in this world. We are imitators of Him. We are following the command, Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love (Eph 5:1-2). Here is the reason we have boldness – we see the image of God in us as we love one another. We see God’s love alive and living through us, and we can say, as He is, so also are we in this world. One commentator put it like this: “Jesus is in the world unseen, and our office is to make Him visible.” That is precisely what we are to do, and when we do that, we have a solid foundation for confidence in the day of judgment. We know that God’s grace is living and active in us, and when we know that God’s grace is in our lives, we have confidence that we are God’s children.

            Are you this morning filled with confidence as you face that Day of Judgment? Do you feel as though you have boldness as you contemplate standing before the throne of Christ being examined and being judged? Or are you filled with fear and with terror? Would you prefer annihilation over the Day of Judgment?

            Also you must ask yourself, “Where does my confidence come from?” If you look to the Day of Judgment without fear, why do you do so? Is it because God’s love has reached its goal with you? Is it because God’s eternal plan of salvation is taking effect in your life and conforming you to the image of Christ? As we read earlier in Romans 8:29, God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is His purpose for us, that we should be conformed to the image of Christ, and therefore to His very own image. Is this where you confidence lies? Can you say with confidence, As He is, so also am I in this world? Do you know this feeling, beloved?

            Many people feel confidence about the Day of Judgment because they have either denied it or reserved it only for terrorists, murderers, and other criminals. But do you realize that you yourself shall give an account for all that you have done in the body, whether good or bad? You will have to stand before the righteous Judge, and you will also give an account, and He will judge you according to His own righteousness and holiness, and not in comparison with others. He will judge whether or not you have obeyed His law perfectly, or whether you have failed to be as holy as He is. It is a high and strict standard which no man can meet. Confidence can only come when you are covered by Jesus’ blood and righteousness. No other help exists for the sinner but the blood and righteousness of Jesus. Where is your confidence? Do you have confidence? If you do, is it in Christ?

            There are many Christians who do not have confidence. They fear judgment just like the world fears it. This should not be so, and I must say that it even is a lack of faith. God has told us in His Word that we should have confidence if we are in Christ, living this life of love. If we do not have confidence and we are in Christ, then it is only because we do not believe that God wants us to have confidence, and has indeed promised that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). May God give us confidence facing the Day of Judgment as we live this life of love, abiding in Him. Let’s pray.

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