Only God Can Judge Me: Part 1

Only God can judge me.  We here these words constantly. It's Miley Cyrus' catchphrase- it's a lot of people's catch phrase. This phrase is typically followed by something like "Don't judge, just love", or "What gives you the right to judge?". But I wonder, what is the reason for all these declarations? Why are people constantly feeling like they are being judged? Is it because people are cruel and rude? Sometimes. But if we are honest with ourselves, it is very easy to say those things when we know we aren't living rightly before God. The Bible says that people will know that we are Christians by our fruit. If we are living like hell, doing what we want, and saying "only God can judge me", we may need to re-examine our hearts and lives...

We are all pretty selfish when we take a bigger look. Why exactly do we say what we say and do the things that we do? 9.5 times out of 10, it's because it will benefit us. In fact, we are so self-centered, and so focused on ourselves, that we don't even realize how sinful we are.

The Bible says that we are broken. Our eyes are blinded to the path of life and peace. And as Jonathan Edwards famously said, without Christ, "we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God"! If we were left there- sinful, self-seeking, and always meandering our own way- we would be doomed. But praise God for his love and mercy upon us. He was once far away, because of our sins, but He desired so deeply to be close to us that He gave His only Son to die on a cross for us. He suffered a gruesome, horrendous death, with blood gushing from his side, pain rippling through his body, and nails piercing his hands and feet.

Would you die a slow, agonizing death, being suspended in the air by only nails piercing your flesh if you didn't love someone? I didn't think so...neither would I.
But that is what God did for us, through His Son, Jesus.

And then, all of a sudden, we didn't have to be sinners in the hands of a scary and angry God. Instead, we can be sinners who are saved, washed clean, and made beautiful. We can now call God our own Father, and we can now be with him always. This is the only thing that keeps us from being judged by God. Sure, He still technically judges us, but now when He looks at us, He sees Jesus' sacrifice, and that Jesus took our punishment. Now instead of being angry and disappointed with us, He smiles upon us; He sings over us (Zephaniah 3:17). And all of a sudden, we can be confident before God when He judges us.

So what is so bad about Miley Cyrus saying "only God can judge me"? Well, in a literal sense, nothing at all. But if we take a deeper look at scripture, we will learn that once we are saved through Jesus' sacrifices, we are called away from sin. We should never use our salvation as an excuse to live a life of sin....and if that is what we are doing, God is not pleased.

*This is a new series about God's wrath, God's salvation, and what it means to judge sin correctly and incorrectly. For more information on these topics, keep an eye out for my next post in this series.