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Confidence In the Day of Judgment – Part 2 Last Lord’s Day we began to look at these two verses concerning confidence in the day of judgment. There is perhaps no more relevant topic to every person on the planet than this topic that the Apostle deals with in verses 17 and 18 of this fourth chapter. Death is an inevitable event unless our Lord should return first, but even more inevitable than death is the day of judgment, that final day when we all, believer and unbeliever, shall stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to be examined and judged. None of us will be able to escape that final day. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:10, 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. We see a similar picture in Revelation 20:12, where John writes, And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. There is this final day coming when we shall most certainly stand before the Lord and be judged. The writer of Hebrews, proving that Christ’s one sacrifice is all that is needed forever to atone for His people’s sin, wrote this concerning death and judgment in Hebrews 9:27: It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. Just as Christ only had to die once for the sins of His people, so each person must die once and then face judgment. We know, of course, that some will not taste death because they will be alive at the Lord’s coming, but the natural course of nature is for men to die once, and after that to face judgment. Final judgment is one of the things of which we can be absolutely certain. We may not live to see the morning, but we will certainly stand before the Judge of the earth. These inevitable events produce a natural fear in the heart of man. In general people do not like to think about such things as death and the day of judgment. They are experiences that are foreign to us, and we are always naturally afraid of the unknown. Moreover, death almost always involves pain. Very rarely does a person die quietly in his sleep. Usually death is caused by a terrible accident, a heart attack in the midst of activity, a stroke, cancer, AIDS, or other deadly diseases. Modern medical advances have made death less painful than it perhaps has ever been, but nevertheless death is a result of sin, and it is not a pleasant experience in and of itself. Beyond death lies judgment for us all. As we look toward that final day, if we examine ourselves and compare ourselves against the righteous standard of God Himself, we all feel as though we should be condemned to eternal destruction. No one has ever lived up to God’s standard of holiness but our Lord Jesus, and all of us have a natural fear of judgment because we know that we are sinners and deserving of condemnation. This fear of final judgment is not only natural, but it is also reasonable. Men, if they are to stand before God and be judged on the basis of works, will all be condemned. No one is righteous. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:9-10, For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one.” Everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, are all sinners before Almighty God. To stand before God in that condition will result in nothing but everlasting torment. Paul goes on to say in Romans 3:19-20, Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight. There is great depth to that passage, but the essential part for our focus is this: by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight. No one is righteous, and all our works will never allow us to be justified, that is, declared righteous and guiltless of sin, in the sight of God. No matter what we do, we know that we all fail to live perfect lives. Even if we can deny the voice of conscience, we cannot deny the Word of God, which states plainly in 1 John 1:8, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. The Apostle John reminded us at the very outset of his letter that all of us are guilty of sin. All of us have sin in us and stand guilty before a holy God. No one can claim innocence or ignorance. Because of our sinful condition, which the Word of God so clearly explains over and over again, fear of final judgment is rational, logical, and reasonable. There are those, however, who do not fear the day of judgment. They feel as though all will be well; they cry, “Peace and safety,” because they think that God is slack concerning His promise to judge the world. Or perhaps they deny the reality of their impending doom and destruction. They believe that since God is love then He certainly will not eternally condemn any of His creatures. This is the most foolish position to be in. Nothing is more foolish than to live your life without coming to terms with this ultimate, final judgment. It is not a scare tactic used to control people. It is not fanciful speculation, and in the heart of every man the cry, “Justice!” goes forth. Every man knows that a day is coming when the wrongs will be righted, and God will be vindicated and take vengeance on His enemies. There are also those who do not fear the day of judgment, and they need not fear it. These are the people with whom the Apostle John is concerned in this text. Who are the people who need not fear God’s judgment upon the world? Who are those who do not need to fear the wrath of God, inflicting eternal punishment on sinners? In this section the Apostle explains that those who are in Christ do not need to fear the day of judgment. Those who abide in love, who have the love of God as the controlling factor in their lives, do not need to fear this ultimate judgment, and, in fact, they ultimately cannot fear it when they understand and believe the Gospel of Christ as God’s Word presents it. John has gone about presenting this truth to us in this way. First, he exhorted us to love one another. That is the theme of this passage. We ought to love other Christians. The Church ought to be characterized by love. In verses 8 through 11 John shows us that because of the manifest love of God – Jesus Christ – we ought to love one another. It is the logical response that we should have to seeing God’s love for us in His Son. Secondly, the Apostle goes on to encourage us to this Christlike love by showing us that it is only when we love this way that we can be certain of our fellowship with God. We have not seen God, nor will we ever see God in our mortal, temporal bodies. We cannot have fellowship with God face to face, and we do not know Him through visions and physical experiences. How do we know Him? We know Him when we intimately experience His love working in and through us. As we see the love of God played out in our lives we become intimately acquainted with the heart of God. If we want to have fellowship with God that is authentic and intimate, one of our priorities must be to love one another. As we love other Christians, we prove that we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us (4:16). As we demonstrate the love of God, we prove that we have known His love and believe in it. It is living this life of love that proves that we abide in God and that He abides in us. Now, in this third section, verses 17 and 18, we see that this life of love is in fact the goal God has for us. We ought to love one another, as John has exhorted us to do in verse 7, because it is as we abide in love, as we love one another, that God’s purpose in salvation is achieved. God has saved us, as we saw last week, to conform us to the image of Christ. God’s goal is to make us like Christ, and to be like Christ is to be like God. In 2 Peter we read that we who are Christians are even partakers of the divine nature. We see then that this must necessarily include living a life of love toward God’s children, since God is love and manifested His love among us. This is God’s goal for us, to make us like Himself. He is love, that is His nature, and therefore when we live in love God’s purpose in our salvation is met. John put it like this in verse 17, By this, love is perfected with us. By living this life of live – abiding in love – love is perfected with us. What advantage does this bring? How is this helpful to us? Why should we be concerned to have love perfected with us, or to have love reach its goal with us? John gives us two reasons, and they both concern the day of judgment. The first we saw last week. We ought to live this life of love because it raises confidence. Abiding in love raises confidence on the day of judgment. When we live in love we are like Christ in this world; we are imitators of God when we walk in love, and we know that if we are like Him we will not be condemned. It is this likeness to Christ that raises our confidence. John wrote, By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. When the day of judgment comes, and it will come upon us all, we will have confidence because we are like Christ. We have lived as models of Him in this world; we have made the unseen Christ visible to those around us. And we will have confidence. That is John’s point in verse 16. When we come to verse 17 we see the other result of having love perfected with us: Fear is removed. Not only does abiding in Christ raise confidence in the day of judgment, but it also removes fear. These two statements are equal and opposite statements. One who has confidence is, by definition, someone who is not afraid. Boldness and fear are incompatible. And so, as he customarily does, the Apostle shows us the negative equivalent of the positive statement. He wants to bring us to a point of decision and a definite conclusion, so he gives both halves of the argument. We saw this same style of argument in verses 7 and 8. He wrote positively, Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And then in verse 8 he gave us the equal and opposite truth: The one who does not love does not know God. “There is no middle ground,” is essentially what the Apostle is trying to communicate. Either you love or you do not love. Either you know God or you do not know Him. You cannot sit on the fence. You cannot have one foot in and one foot out. And so the Apostle does the same thing here. Either a person fears or he has confidence. Either he has boldness toward God in the day of judgment, or he shrinks away from Him in shame at His coming. It will be one or the other. And so this morning we are now examining this negative side of the statement: fear, terror, trepidation. The Apostle’s fundamental proposal to us in these verses is that abiding in the love of God (v. 16) raises confidence (v. 17) and removes fear (v. 18). And so how should this remove fear? The first thing we must do is define what the Apostle has in mind when he uses the term fear. What is he trying to communicate to us? He says, in verse 18, There is no fear in love. And the immediate question that comes to mind is, “What about all the verses in the Bible that tell us to fear God? If there is no fear in love, don’t we have a contradiction here?” First, we must admit that the Bible commands us over and over again to fear the Lord. The book of Proverbs puts it like this in 1:7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 9:10 puts it like this: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you want to have real knowledge and real wisdom, then you must fear the Lord. In fact, fearing the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. It is the first step. No matter how wise or intelligent a person may think he is or others may think he is, if he does not fear the Lord the Bible says that he hasn’t even known the very beginning of knowledge and wisdom. The most erudite scholar who does not fear the Lord is not a fraction as knowledgeable as the illiterate person who does fear Him. The scholar may have more of what the world calls knowledge, but in the end, on the day of judgment, all of his knowledge will be proven to be nothing but foolishness and vanity if he does not fear the Lord. Proverbs 10:27 says, The fear of the Lord prolongs life. Once again, fearing the Lord is important for our well-being. When we fear the Lord, the general truth is that we will live a longer, healthier life. Now, there are exceptions to this, and we see them in our own experience and in Scripture, but in general this is true. When a person does not live an immoral lifestyle, he is less likely to die of a disease. When a person is not a drunk, he is less likely to die young of liver disease or other dangers that come from drunkenness. The fear of the Lord, all things being equal, prolongs life. Perhaps the most comprehensive statement on fearing the Lord is found in Ecclesiastes 12:13, where the Preacher writes, The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. The Preacher goes on to explain that the reason we ought to fear is because of final judgment. So how do we reconcile these truths with 1 John 4:18? I think the key phrase is in 1 John 4:18 where the Apostle explains what he means by fear. He says, Fear involves punishment. The type of fear he is dealing with is a type of dread. It is terror. It is fear of punishment. It is a slavish fear. It is not holy fear, reverent awe, but rather it is the type of fear a slave has of his master. And most importantly, this type of fear has to do with punishment. This word punishment is a rare word in the New Testament. It occurs only twice as a noun. The other instance is in Matthew 25:46, and there it is directly connected to the day of judgment. Jesus, explaining the fate of the wicked, said, These will go away into eternal punishment. That is the same word found in 1 John 4:18. Matthew 25:46 indicates that there is an eternal, never ending punishment that will come upon the wicked. They will never escape it. And I believe that John has this fear in mind. The type of fear John is describing is fear of everlasting damnation. This word for punishment also has a day of judgment context in 2 Peter 2:9. In this verse it is used in its verb form, and Peter writes, The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. The day of judgment is the exact same phrase John used in 4:17. And Peter takes the argument about punishment a step further. Not only will the unrighteous suffer eternal punishment following their judgment, but they are kept under punishment until the day of judgment. There is no period of rest for the ungodly. After they die, as they await the day of judgment, they are kept by God under punishment. Their torments begin the moment they leave this world. The word for punishment came to have such a significance regarding the day of judgment and eternal punishment, that in modern Greek the word John, Peter, and Jesus used 2000 years ago means “hell.” It is the equivalent of our English word “hell” in modern Greek. So John is here describing a fear of hell, a fear of being kept under punishment and then finally being eternally punished by the very wrath and power of God. Make sure you have that clear in your minds. We are to fear the Lord in the sense of respect, awe, adoration, and wonder at His power, His sovereignty, His holiness, and all of His other attributes, but if we are in Christ we will not have a fear of Him when it comes to being punished. We will not fear punishment. That is precisely John’s argument at the beginning of verse 18. Look at it. He says, There is no fear in love. Fear and love are incompatible. They cannot co-exist. If a person is in a mutual love relationship that is absolutely perfect, there can be no fear of punishment in that relationship. As Proverbs 10:12 says, Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. There is no fear where love exists in perfection, in maturity and completeness. That is John’s second argument in this verse. He begins by arguing that there is no fear in love, but he goes on and explains the reason for that. He says, But perfect love casts out fear. Love does not increase fear; conversely, love removes fear. It casts it outside. It moves fear out of your realm of experience. What does the Apostle mean when he says, perfect love? Well, I think it is the same thing he meant in verse 17: love that is mature, love that is complete, love that has reached its goal with you. When the love of God has grabbed your heart, and God’s plan to make you like Christ is taking effect in your life ever-increasingly, then love is reaching its goal with you. Love is perfected with you. And when this type of love has grabbed a hold of your heart and life, the result is that fear is destroyed. It is cast outside. It is not allowed in your life any longer. Why? Why should God’s love being perfected with you cast out fear? The Apostle tells us that it casts out fear because fear involves punishment. Fear has to do with punishment. And if we know that God’s love is being perfected with us, if we see that we are being made into the image of Christ, and God’s plan of salvation is real in our lives, then we can be sure that we will not be punished by God. He is not saving us so that He can execute wrath on us. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep (meaning alive or dead at His coming), we will live together with Him. Your destiny, if you are a Christian this morning, is not wrath, but salvation! Even if you die in this life, it is of no concern, because you know that our salvation means that we will live together with Christ forever. There is no fear in this promise. Why should we be afraid? What is there to fear? The love of God has been so graciously bestowed upon us in our salvation, which is a gift of God, that it is irrational and illogical to fear punishment. The logical conclusion of all of this is what John says at the end of verse 18: And the one who fears is not perfected in love. The one who lives a life of constant fear of hell and fear of God’s judgment evidences that he has not been perfected in love. Something is missing. And the simple fact is that many people do live lives of fear. They fear death; they fear judgment; they fear eternity. Why is this? In light of these two staggering verses, which proclaim to us that we need not have any fear at all on the day of judgment if we are in Christ, living this life of love, making Him known to the world, why are so many people, even church-going people, afraid of these final events like judgment and death? Let me propose to you four reasons, and I’m sure you could think of others, but I want to give you four reasons why people fear these things, even church-going people. First, they lack faith. They simply do not believe what God says. God has told them in His Word that He will not punish those who are in Christ, and we can know that we know Him when we see His love in us. And these people may believe they see evidences of God’s love working in them, and yet for some strange reason they still fear. They simply cannot believe that God will not judge them. Now, I say, this is surely nothing but unbelief. A person who feels this way ought to examine himself in light of the Scriptures all over again, and even perhaps should examine himself to see if he is in the faith. After all, isn’t the very basic fundamental tenet of Christianity that God forgives our sins in Christ? If we do not have faith that He has forgiven our sins, are we even Christians at all? There may be some who have hyper-sensitive consciences who truly are born again, but a man who says he believes in all that Christ has done, and yet lives in fear of final judgment has good cause to examine himself. Don’t think I’m overstating the case. The Apostle says, The one who fears is not perfected in love. That is his inspired judgment on the matter. Your sins are never so great that the cross of Christ cannot cover them. If you believe that Christ died for sinners, and not for the righteous, then you have nothing to do but come to Him for mercy, and believing, you shall receive it. If you think that Christ cannot forgive your sins, you discount His holy sacrifice. You say that it wasn’t enough. And you declare that God’s work of redemption was not big enough for you. This is dangerous ground. This is too call God a liar, who has promised that everyone who calls on His name shall be saved. Everyone! Don’t ever be fearful because you don’t think the death of Christ was big enough for you. Examine yourself, and see whether or not you really believe that Christ’s sacrifice covers you. If you do not believe that it does, then you can be certain that it does not. But if, by faith, you come to Him, His death atones for all of your sins, and you need not fear. Second, then, some are fearful because they are, plainly and simply, hypocrites. They are fearful because they know their own condition. They know that God’s love is not being perfected with them, but they put on a show that it is. They are like the Pharisees, who honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. We do not need to stay long with this, as I believe it is self-evident why such people would be fearful. But if you are fearful of punishment from God, are you a hypocrite? Do you simply play the Christian game, but in your heart you have no love for Christ or the Father or His blessed Holy Spirit? Do you love the world more than the Father? If you do, the love of the Father is not in you, and you will fear until you root out that cancerous love for this wicked world. Do not play games with God. He knows your heart, and if you are fearful, perhaps it is because you know your heart, and you know that God knows it, too. Go to God, and plead with Him to circumcise your heart, and draw you to Himself, and forgive your sins because of the cross of Christ, and then go on to have His love perfected with you, so that you can be relieved of your fears. Third, some are fearful because they live under the Law. They try to justify themselves by their works, and they cut themselves off from Christ. They do not have faith in Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the world. They want to earn their way to heaven. They think by saying enough prayers they can get there, by giving enough money, or by being nice to others. Perhaps fulfilling some set of sacraments will help their plight, they think. If you are in this position, I beg of you to repent immediately. You shall never know rest from fear of judgment if you try to justify yourself. You can never atone for your own sins. You can never do enough to be pleasing in God’s sight. You have offended Him far too much to ever make it up to Him. Even if you never sinned again, something must be done about your past sins. How can you erase them? It is only by the blood of Christ that they can be erased. It is only be faith in God’s Son that you can ever be saved and have relief from your fear of eternal punishment. It is only by believing in His name. No longer try to work yourself out of a fearful state, but put your faith in God’s love manifested to us – Jesus Christ, and you will be saved and live with Him forever. Finally, and I think this is most common among Christians in our day, is that some people are fearful simply because they are untaught. They have never heard these truths that John presents to us. This group has the love of God being perfected in them, but they don’t know it as they should because they have never been taught these thrilling truths of our security in Christ. They have never heard that God has an eternal plan of salvation for them. Many do not know or understand that God predestined them from before the foundation of the world to eternal salvation, and that what He ordained before they ever existed, He will surely bring to pass. They will be saved as sure as God will be God forever and ever. This is so because God has willed it to be so, and His sovereign will cannot be overturned. He accomplishes all His good pleasure, and He does whatever He pleases. When He pleases to save a sinner, that sinner shall be saved. What a wonderful thing to know that God has so ordained things in this way! Tragically, many either do not know this or do not understand the Bible’s teaching on this subject. And because they fail to grasp this plan, this perfecting of God’s love, they don’t know what their salvation is all about, and they never know if it truly has taken effect. All of their security is based on sentiment, emotions, and feelings. It is not based on what God’s Word tells us that He is doing in this world and in His children, and then seeing that played out before our eyes in our own lives. Some would say the doctrines of election and God’s sovereignty are merely intellectual, academic arguments with no real practical application to our lives. Yet I would venture to say that not understanding these things as revealed in the Bible or rejecting them will make it impossible for you to have any real, lasting security and confidence in the day of judgment and in this life. Do you know God’s plan of love for you, beloved of God? Do you realize that He is working toward something in you if you are in Christ? Do you know that He will accomplish it because He predestined it before you ever existed? Do you realize that God will complete the good work He began, and do you know what this good work is? Christian, come to know the absolute sovereignty of God and His eternal plan of redemption in Christ by grace through faith. Study God’s decrees, His purposes, His plans as He has revealed them. And then when you see His purpose and His plan evidenced in your life, you will know that His love is being perfected with you, and fear will be cast outside. You will have no fear, but you will rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Do you have confidence in the day of judgment? Do you feel as though you are ready for it? Or do you fear it? Are you in dread of God’s righteous judgment? The Apostle tells us that if we are walking in love we must not fear God’s judgment, for we know that His plan is at work in us, and when God begins a work, He always completes it, and we shall be kept secure until the day of Christ Jesus. Let’s pray. [Home page] [ ]
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