Our Bible is full of the judgements of God coming upon His enemies and the nations that openly oppose His ways. God even appears to judge people of faith and His favored nation.
Since the Eternal One is pure Light and Love, (a) [See endnotes for NASB Scriptures] neither darkness nor any sense of disdain can exist in Him. While God created the natural universe as a realm that functions with many productive “good” and destructive “evil” activities, He is not vindictive and no destructive activity can come from Him. So we wonder; how does God judge us?
Over All, Through All, In All
While the Spirit of God is invisible to the natural eye, His spoken word (Greek-logos) became a visible man. (b) God’s habitation is beyond the universe He created, so He functions outside of the created natural realm and within it. Scripture says He “is over all and through all and in all.” (c)
We want to remember every person is a human offspring of God, an expression that God calls His “image and likeness.” (d) As the Hebrew puts it, we were created to “reflect and resemble” God. We are actually born into this life with a deposit of God’s Spirit. (e) This enables us to reflect God as a mirror displays what is viewed and resemble Him like a child resembles their parent.
God created us to partake of this natural life (f) under His guidance. Our first natural parents chose to ignore God and focus on the “good and evil” of this natural world. (g) Unrepentant, they exited the Garden of God’s presence to gain wisdom from the “cause and effect” cycles of natural life.
Without God’s insightful guidance, our life in this natural world can be a little more than difficult. Scripture proclaims: “My people (wavering offspring and responsive children) are destroyed for lack of knowledge (reflective wisdom)…people without understanding (insight) are ruined.” (h)
God always seeks to improve our perspective, attitude, and interaction. He tells us: “Those whom I love (all His kids), I reprove and discipline (correct); therefore be zealous and repent.” (i) Scripture then encourages us: “My son (child), do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father, the son in whom he delights.” (j)
God always seeks to improve our perspective, attitude, and interaction.
God’s Tool of Correction
We know God is far better than the best earthly dad, because He continually teaches, trains, and disciplines us, so we can better reflect and resemble (image and likeness) Him. Our attitude keeps us acting like good, not so good, and even bad reflective resemblances of His nature.
Our Eternal Father tends to test, chasten, and refine His human offspring with a clear purpose. He says: “I will (appear to) go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” (k) God’s judgments are intended to have a corrective effect that teaches us how to live better lives in this world.
Concerning David, the Eternal One said: “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men.” (l) God actually says His correction can come through the actions of men.
When the nation of Israel continued 
to ignore God’s ways, He allowed the Babylonian King to destroy (ruin) the national experience. God even called the ruining King, “My servant.” (m) Then, for Babylon’s iniquity, God allowed the Persians to destroy and ruin the kingdom of Babylon.
Remember, it was our first parent’s choice to seek wisdom from natural activity that thrust humanity into this process. God allows the ill actions of people to act as a corrective tool.
“O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have smitten them, but they did not weaken; You have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent…your sins have withheld good from you.” (n)
It is our mistaken attitudes and activity that keeps us from the blessings God provides in this life. Since our focus is more on the good and evil – positive and negative activity of natural life, God allows the “cause and effect” principle of this world to function as a tool of correction.
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (o) When we turn toward God’s guidance, the corrective action we suffer under can be considered a blessing. (p) For “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (q) Thus, our perspective and how we relate matters.
God’s judgments are intended to have a corrective effect that teaches us how to live better lives in this world.
Corrective Judgments
What is the motivating factor in God’s judgment? Corrective action is meant to improve our immature character, attitude and personality (CAP). God’s love for us keeps Him involved in our development. He wants us to partake of the Garden of His presence and learn how to think and react.
Are we starting to get the picture? God’s corrective judgements come during this life and more often than not, we are our own instruments of afflicting correction.
There is one passage often quoted which says: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” (r) The word “comes” is not in the Greek text, but is added by translators. The word “judgment” in this verse is translated from the Greek (krisis) which means “separation.”
This verse really says: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this, is separation.” When we physically die, we are separated from natural life. While we can consider death a judgment, this verse does not say we are judged after we die. It says we are separated from this natural life.
Here is another example of how we misinterpret Scripture’s intent. When Jesus spoke of, “all the nations…He will separate them…as the shepherd separates sheep from the goats…and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (s)
This text does not speak of individuals, 
but of nations and their function as sheep and goats. The Greek (aion) translated “eternal,” actually means “age.” Nations are not judged eternally. They are judged in time and cease to exist, while righteous nations tend to continue. Again, we see God’s chastising judgements are in this life.
Scripture is really quite clear; “Neither death, nor life, nor angels…nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers…nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is (shown, demonstrated) in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (t)
Nothing can change God’s loving nature. We can ignore, deny, and even run from God, but His love remains. We can count on His steadfast love for us remaining even after death.
The perception that God is a condemning judge, either in this life or the next is not scriptural. It is a “tradition of man,” (u) that is used to scare people into submitting to our perception of God.
“The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.” (v) Our natural errors are judged in this temporal life many times by “cause and effect” activity. We overcome many judgments in this life by repenting and staying tuned to God’s presence and guiding insight, today!
We can ignore, deny, and even run from God, but His love remains.
a) 1 John 1:5; 4:16; b) John 1:1, 14; c) Ephesians 4:6; d) Genesis 1:26;Acts 17:28-29; e) Genesis 2:7; Job 32:8; f) Genesis 2:8, 15; g) Genesis 3:1-7; h) Hosea 4:6, 14; i) Revelation 3:19; j) Proverbs 3:11-12; k) Hosea 5:15; l) 2 Samuel 7:14; m) Jeremiah 25:7-12; n) Jeremiah 5:3, 2; o) Hebrews 12:11; p) Romans 8:28; Job 23:10; q) Job 23:10’ Psalm 7:9; 11:5; r) Hebrews 9:27; s) Matthew 25:32, 46; t) Romans 8:38-39;11:32-33; u) Mark 7:7-8; v) Psalm 19:9
Keith Carroll, “The Relationship Guy”
Relational Gospel Founder
Created To Relate author