Summary
When Does God Judge Us?
Scripture teaches that every human being will stand before God. Paul declares in Acts 17 that God "has fixed a day on which he will have the whole world judged in righteousness, by a man whom he has appointed," and has given assurance of this by raising him from the dead. The Judge is Jesus Christ. The contrast is striking: the same Lord who came humbly to Bethlehem returns in glory, seated on his throne, with all the angels and all the nations gathered before him Matthew 25:31-32.
In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus pictures this final day as a shepherd separating sheep from goats, placing the sheep at his right hand (the position of honor) and the goats at the left. Two destinations are named, and only two: the kingdom "prepared for you from the foundation of the world," or "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Human beings are eternal creatures. There is no annihilation, no third option. Forever is a long time when measured against the brevity of this life, and every person will spend it in one of these two places.
Here, however, is the question that "When Does God Judge Us?" Mt:25:31-46 presses home: when does this judgment actually take place? Judgment Day itself is the formal, public announcement of a verdict already rendered. The decisive moment is the hour of death. At death, the believer is immediately with the Lord in paradise, and the unbeliever immediately under condemnation. When Christ calls the dead from their graves, he does no new research; the destiny is already settled. Paul confirms this universal accounting: "we will all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
If we imagined standing before a holy God cloaked in our own righteousness, the prospect would be terrifying. Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" pressed exactly this point on churchgoers who assumed that mere church membership saved them. Measured by the six works Jesus names — feeding the hungry, giving drink, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner — every one of us has fallen short. A sinner cannot stand even a moment in the unveiled presence of the Holy One.
But notice carefully what happens in the text. The separation of the sheep from the goats occurs before any deeds are mentioned. Those on the right are already called "blessed by my Father" and heirs of the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world — an echo of Ephesians 1:4, where God's people were chosen in Christ before creation. Not one sin is brought against them. They are justified by grace as a gift, "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" Romans 3:23-25. Justification means being declared just as if we had never sinned, because Christ bore the sin and the wrath in our place.
The six works, then, are not the basis of the verdict but the evidence of it. Where there is true faith, there are works; faith without works is dead James 2:17. When Jesus says, "you did it to me," he is acknowledging the fruit that faith inevitably bears, not weighing merit on a scale. Faith itself is gift — given in baptism, sustained through Word and Sacrament, kept alive by the God who claimed us.
This is why a Christian can face the question of judgment with confidence rather than dread. Jesus says, "I have called you friends" John 15:15. Clothed in his righteousness, the believer can even long for the day of his appearing and pray, "Come, Lord Jesus." God has befriended us in Christ — not as a sentimental companion, but as the King who has already pronounced us his own.
Video citations
- "When Does God Judge Us?" Mt:25:31-46 — To open your Bible, please, with me to the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew for our study this morning. Throughout this summer, we have been dealing in the sermon series, questions and answers.…