Judging the Judge

Judging the Judge

I am thinking about God as Judge. It is something that God is, not just something that He does. Yes, God is other things alongside of Judge, such as Creator and Redeemer, but He is still Judge. For God to fail to function as Judge, it would be an instance of Him not being who He is. He would cease to be God. Is that what you want?

A friend complained that God should “practice what He preaches” when I mentioned Sunday’s passage, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” (Matt 7:1). He had observed that God Himself judges, so He should not tell others not to judge. I’ve been a little fired up ever since. My friend does not understand that there is a difference between man and God. He seems to think that God should abide by man’s rules, and that God’s judgments and ours are similar. They are not.

We make judgments, but they are based on limited knowledge and most often self-interested. God is Judge, and His ability to Judge is not compromised in any way. He is not swayed by rhetoric or frustration. He does not judge more severely when He has a bad day. His judgments are always perfectly righteous.

A metaphor of the potter and the clay is used in the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is not difficult to understand. God is the potter; His people are the clay. Note what Isaiah says: Is. 45:9 “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker — An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? Now let me apply this to our “judge” discussion. God is the Judge, and we are those standing before the judge. God sits in judgment against us, but we do not stand in judgment against God. He has an authority as “God” that we do not have. It is part of what is contained in the word “God,” a sovereign being who rules from heaven. We believe in one, true God who is sovereign. Part of this is only logical. Two gods cannot be sovereign, because the sovereignty of one will impinge on the other. There can only really be one sovereign, and thus, one supreme Judge. And, it is not me or you.

So for a mere human, no matter how rich or smart, to stand in judgment of God - it is just foolishness. But it is not a slaphappy kind of foolishness. It is of the tragic kind. Because we can go through life and decide how God has shorted us one way or another; how He hasn’t been fair; or how God has failed to acknowledge our sterling qualities. But all of that is standing in judgment of the very God before whom we will one day bow. He is the Judge; not me.

This all reminds me of the atheist who was carrying on about the non-existence of God, but then blurted out, “and I hate him (God) so much.” I wonder if that is not buried in the mindset of the person who objects against God’s prerogative to judge in a way that supersedes our frail judgments. I wonder if we have a sneaking resentment that God is God and I am not. Is it possible that we would rather have the
world bow to ourselves rather than us living in a holy fear of God which produces a humility so that we would bow before His judgments?

We should be glad that there is a Judge with a righteous standard. This Judge will hold all evil accountable to His judgment and punishment. We should also be glad that this Judge is also a Savior, and that He has provided for forgiveness for those who submit to His salvation in Christ, and thus escape the condemnation due to those who have lived their lives faulting God instead of examining themselves in the light of God’s Word.