God's Judgement according to Jesus

What is judgement? What do you think of? Man's judgement is common. We think of courtrooms and black robes (at least in the U.S. which is were I know it from). We think of arguments, Perry Mason, Matlock, and untold number of other characters on TV. Police, detectives, etc, etc... We judge each other on a daily, perhaps hourly basis. We keep up with the Jonse's, we cut down those who have more than us. We talk about those with less.

Is is so very strange that we have a difficult time accepting the forgiveness of the Lord? We have such a strong tendency to think of Jesus as simple as we are. But He is so much more than we can ever be. He is part of the Holy Trinity, the Uncreated One. To think of His judgement as anything like ours is not only foolish, it's demeaning to Him.

But we have only our own way of doing things to compare His way to. If we have such a difficult time forgiving the minor transgressions of our neighbors, how can He possibly forgive us the terrible things we have done? If you're in recovery, you are probably facing some pretty horrible things that you've done. Maybe you lied to people you loved, or stole from them. Maybe you've been abusive in any one of a number of ways. These are things that our society not only frowns on, some will see you ostracized or imprisoned. Some things are considered so bad that we say you should be tracked and mark yourself out as someone to be avoided. I pray that you haven't done anything THAT bad. But the truth is, some people do those kinds of things.

Some of the things we've done have been directly against all the Christian faith holds dear. We've blasphemed against Him, hated Him, told Him to look away while we do things. I still feel shame over things I did while in the depth of my addictions. When we hold our sins up against the Jesus we think we know, the one that we like say thinks like us, we're in big trouble. How could He possibly forgive ME? After all I've done and said? After the way I abused myself? Stole to support my habit at times? Being verbally abusive towards the very people who love me most? Lied about myself, to myself.

I could go on this vein, easily, but I'd wager that somewhere along the way I struck a chord with some of you out there. So, what does the bible say about His forgiveness? How deep is His love for us?

Romans 8:39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 speaks volumes to us. He GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever BELIEVES in him shall not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE.

Romans 8:39 states very clearly that NOTHING will be able to separate us from the love of God.

So, what is God's judgement for us? When our bodies finally give way, and we are standing in the courtroom of the Lord, what will he say about those terrible things we did? Those things that haunt us, make us start awake with their mere memory in the dark of night. Those things we keep close to our hearts lest anyone find out about them. Well, there it is, isn't it. If we are holding these things so closely, we haven't given them up to Him. But, if we give it up to Him, repent, ask for his forgiveness, He will give it and cast our sins as far as the east is from the west. We will be purified and clean in the eyes of God.

He wants it all to be forgiven, the big, the little, it's all the same to Him. There is nothing so bad that He won't forgive you for it. So when you stand in the court of the Father, and you are laid bare before Him, there will be nothing to keep you from entering the gates of heaven. When Jesus comes to judge the quick (living) and the dead as stated in Revelations, He will look at you with love and judge you clean because you accepted, loved, and followed Him.

This, to me is the ultimate purpose of step 4. When you do a personal inventory, if you are honest about it, you expose your faults, flaws, and sins. If you do a thorough job of it, you expose your assets, too. Once exposed to the light of day, you can then hand them to Jesus. Then He will cast them away and it will be as though they never happened.