THE FIVE JUDGMENTS OF THE BIBLE

1)  The Judgment of Sin upon the Cross 

God is holy and God must punish sin and judge sin. The Bible tells us the good news that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3).  This means that Christ was punished instead of us!  As a guilty sinner, I am the one who deserves God's judgment, but God's judgment fell upon my Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am the one who deserves the death penalty.  I'm the one who should have hung on a cross for my crimes, but my Savior died for me taking my place.  "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom.5:6).

2)  The Self-judgment of Christians

This judgment is described in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32:  "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."  See also 1 John 1:8-10:  "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us."

 

3)  The Judgment Seat of Christ

This judgment involves believers.  This judgment has nothing to do with the believer's salvation because this has already been settled when the believer was saved.  The issue involved in this judgment will be the believers' works:  "Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:12-15).

 

4)  The Judgment of the Nations

This judgment takes place following Christ's Second Coming; it determines who is permitted to enter Christ's Millennial Kingdom.  Matthew 25:31-34, 41 says, "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:  and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'"  "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'"  This judgment is totally based upon how the nations treat Christ's "brethren" (Israel) during the seven year Tribulation (see vs. 40, 45).

 

5)  The Great White Throne Judgment

This is the final judgment for all the unsaved individuals who have ever lived.  It will take place following the Lord's 1000 year reign (the Millennium), and it is described in Revelation 20:11-15.  In 2 Peter 3:7 it is called "the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."  All whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is called the "second death" (Rev. 20:14-15)!