Our Bible is full of the judgements of God coming upon His enemies and upon the people and nations that openly oppose His ways. God even appears to judge His favored people of faith.
Since the Eternal One is pure Light and unfailing 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 proceed from Him. So we ask the question, how does God judge us?
Knowing Our Eternal Father
We want to remember every person is an offspring of God, an expression that God calls His “image and likeness.” (b) As the Hebrew puts it, we are created to be “reflections and resemblances” of God. Everyone is born into this life with a deposit of God’s Spirit of life. (c) This enables each of us to reflect God as a mirror displays what it views, and we resemble His likeness as a child is similar to a parent.
God designed us to begin life in this natural world; (d) to develop, be creative, and mature under His guidance. Our first parents chose to ignore God and focus on this world’s “good and evil,” (e) so they left the Garden of God’s presence, unrepentant, to gain wisdom from natural life’s “cause and effect.”
Without God’s insightful guidance, our life in this natural world can be more than difficult. Scripture proclaims: “My people (responsive children and wavering offspring) are destroyed for lack of knowledge (reflective wisdom)…people without understanding (insight) are ruined.” (f)
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.” (g) Our heavenly Father encourages: “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.” (h)
We know God must be a far better parent than the best earthly dad because He continually seeks to teach, train, correct, and discipline us for our maturing good. Since God’s habitation is beyond the natural universe that He created, He is able to function both outside of this natural realm and within it. Scripture actually says our creating Father “is over all and through all and in all.” (i)
Since God is invisible to the natural eye, He sent His spoken word (Greek-logos) to be born and live as a visible man. (j) As a child of God, Jesus Christ is God’s human example of His image and likeness. The life and words of Jesus illustrate a mature reflection and resemblance of our heavenly Father.
The life and words of Jesus illustrate a mature reflection and resemblance of our heavenly Father.
God’s Corrective Action
Our Eternal Father tends to test, chasten, and refine His human offspring. He says “I will (appear to) go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt (repent) and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” (k) God’s judgements are intended to have a corrective and improving effect that teaches us how to be better reflections and resemblances of Him.
God spoke of His fatherly ways when speaking of David: “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 acknowledges His corrective action comes through the actions of men. Interesting!
When the nation of Israel continued to ignore God’s ways, He allowed the King of Babylon to destroy the national experience. God even called the destroying King, “My servant.” (m) Then, for their iniquity, God allowed the Persians to destroy the kingdom of Babylon. Destruction was to kingdoms.
Remember, it was our first parent’s 
decision to ignore God that thrust humanity into this corrective process. So, God allows the ill actions of people and nature to function as corrective tools. “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)
Our mistaken attitudes and activity keeps us from the blessings God provides. Our lack of repentant change keeps us submitted to the fluctuations of this life’s positive good and negative evil. It is our attitude that keeps us acting like good, not so good, even bad reflective resemblances of God.
Yes, “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, we begin to realize the corrective actions we suffer can become blessings. (p) For “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (q) Thus, our perspective and actions do matter.
So, God allows the “cause and effect” principle of natural life to function as our tool of correction. We want to realize the judgements of God are corrective measures that we experience in this earthly life.
What is the motivating factor in God’s judgment? His corrective action is meant to improve our immature character, attitude and personality (CAP). God’s love keeps Him involved in our maturing development. He wants us to partake of the Garden of His presence and learn how to think and act.
God’s corrective action is meant to improve our immature character, attitude and personality.
Understanding God’s Judgements
Are we starting to get the picture? God’s judgements are corrective. Our correction comes during this life. More often than not, we are the cause of one another’s afflicting instrument of correction.
Here is an example of how we miss 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” (r) This passage speaks of nations, not individuals.
Nations are judged in the earth, not in eternity. The Greek translated as “eternal” is aion, which actually means “age,” a time related factor. Unrighteous nations are judged in time and cease to exist, while righteous nations tend to continue. Again, we see God’s chastising judgements are in this world.
One passage that is quoted often says: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” (s) 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 actually says: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this, separation.” When we die, we are separated from this life. While in some instances a physical death can be considered a judgment this verse does not say we are judged after we die. It simply says we are separated from natural 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, illustrated, demonstrated) in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (t)
Nothing can change God’s loving nature. We can ignore, misunderstand, deny, and even run from God but His love remains. We can count on His steadfast love for us even after our natural death.
The idea that God is a condemning judge, either in this life or the next is not scriptural. It’s a “tradition of man,” (u) that is used to scare people into submitting to God and His way of life. Our errors in this life are judged in this temporal world and it is often a result of our “cause and effect” activity.
“The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.” (v) There is no hate, disdain, vindictive, condemning, destructive, or evil intent in God’s judgements. We overcome many judgments in this life by repenting, seeking God’s presence, and following His guiding insight.
God’s judgements are corrective.
a) 1 John 1:5; 4:16; b) Genesis 1:26;Acts 17:28-29; c) Genesis 2:7; Job 32:8; d) Genesis 2:8, 15; e) Genesis 3:1-7; f) Hosea 4:6, 14; g) Revelation 3:19; h) Proverbs 3:11-12; i) Ephesians 4:6; j) John 1:1, 14; 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) Matthew 25:32, 46; s) Hebrews 9:27; 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