30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 21 25-28 WATCH AND PRAY IV 05 Luke 21 27 The righteous judgment of God
📖 Luke 21:25-28
*FRIEND OF GOD*
09Jun2021 - *The righteous judgment of God* - _Luke 21:25-28_ - WATCH AND PRAY IV (05) – Bible reading:
When the Lord returns with power and great glory, there will be judgment. As His people, we must be conscious of the judgment that is to happen, for there will be an evaluation of our lives in the presence of God.
We, therefore, need to give ourselves to the work that has been entrusted to us. We are here to run our race with endurance. We must gird up our minds to accomplish what God expects of us, also in the way He expects our lives to be.
_Luke 21:27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with *power and great glory*._
_Matthew 25:31-32 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then *He will sit on the throne of His glory*. (32) All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats._
He will sit on the throne of His glory and that throne on which Jesus will sit is the judgment throne of the King. He is King and He sits will all rights, privileges, authority, to judge the world.
Judgement before God will be, fundamentally, on the basis of us meeting the righteous requirement of God. As in any court of law, the matter will be decided on the basis of whether the requirement of the law has been upheld or not.
We must fulfil the righteousness of God if we need to be cleared before His judgement throne. The Lord saw that we were not able to meet His righteous requirement, on our own. *God the Father provided His Son to enable us to meet His righteous requirement*.
_Romans 10:3-4 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. (4) For *Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes*._
_II Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, *that we might become the righteousness of God in Him*._
God looks at every person, who stands before His judgement throne, and He evaluates if we have met His righteous requirements. He sees if we are in Christ Jesus, His Son. *When He sees that we are in Christ, He declares us as righteous before Him*.
What does it mean to be in Christ, to be declared righteous before God?
_Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those *who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit*.(NKJV)_
In some versions, half of _Romans 8:1_ has been dropped. This is unfortunate. When we read the entire eighth chapter of Romans, we see that the teaching that Apostle Paul gives here is about being led by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh.
When we have come to faith in Christ Jesus, then the life of Christ operates in and through us. This is the life of the Holy Spirit. We ought to be conscious that once we have come to faith in Jesus, we are to be living out of the Holy Spirit and not out of our flesh anymore.
The Christian life is not just a one-time experience or an event that took place in our lives, where we repented and believed in Jesus but it is an ongoing current reality, where *we are operating out of the Spirit and not out of the flesh*. *This will be the judgment*.
What is the righteous requirement of the law of God?
_Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE. (30) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' This is the first commandment. (31) And the second, like it, is this: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."_
This is the summation of the law of God.
The fulfilment of the righteous requirement of the law of God can only happen in and through Christ.
_Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes._ I have explained earlier that belief is not an intellectual affirmation but a life of commitment, surrender and submission to whom and on whom we have believed. *Jesus has to be the Lord of our lives. This is belief in Jesus*.
_Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit._
Coming to faith in Jesus is not just a one-time event that we hang on to, claiming that we are righteous before God, but faith in Jesus is a continuous, ongoing, lifetime experience of walking in the Holy Spirt and not in our flesh. This is the judgement that will take place when Jesus returns in power and great glory.
_Romans 8:4-6 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (5) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) *For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace*._
Death is separation from God. Belief in Jesus must cause us to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. *If we are walking in the flesh, we face death, eternal separation from God*.
This is the judgement that is to take place.
*Thought to ponder*
```Many of us are claiming ourselves to be born again Christians but we are still living out of our flesh, not by the Holy Spirit.```