Deeper Reflection
God is the ultimate reality and this God is the Judge of humans created by Him. The end of a human life is not the end of reality. What follows is an ultimate reality: Judgment of God – “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). In Daniel’s vision, it is “The court sat” (v.10). This is the eschatological Divine Court where God will execute His ultimate judgment on all peoples and nations “from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds” (Rev 20:12).We ought to live our lives bearing in mind that God will judge us – for better or for worse. This is one critical way of living with the end in mind. Believers in Christ are “made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ”, and God has “freed us from the penalty of our sins” (Rom 3:22, 24, NLT), and delivered us from “the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous judgment” (Rom 2:5). However, God still judges us in how we live as believers in Christ. God judges us in the present – like He did to certain wayward Corinthian believers, “so that we will not be condemned along with the world” (1 Cor 11:30-32). And God will judge us in the future (Rom 14:10-12). Along with God judging us is us examining ourselves and judging ourselves rightly (1 Cor 11:28, 31). We judge ourselves rightly by the “living and active” Word of God that is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).