Oct 6

Written by: gfackre
10/6/2008 7:37 PM

“He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” The Apostles’ Creed links “the return of Christ” and “the final judgment,” a conjunction with far-reaching implications. We treat these two stained glass windows portraying two “Last Things” in their creedal unity.

As noted earlier, the when, where and how of the matter are not the core theological assertions of the Great Story we are tracing, although some commentary has treated them as such with intricate speculative scenarios, premillennial and postmillennial, pre-trib, mid-trib and post-trib and the like with their timetables, maps and charts. The Storyline we are following has to do, rather, with the “that” and “what” of the End and its aspects.

That there shall be a coming again? Yes. The End of the Story will entail, as the creed says, our meeting with Jesus Christ in the transfigured world promised by the Storytelling Spirit. The “again” is usually interpreted as the “second coming” of Christ to an earth he once trod as the Galilean carpenter, albeit then in a fallen old world, not a raised new one. Yes to that too. But can “return” mean even something more? What of the creed’s own allusion to Christ’s “descent to the dead” and his meeting there with the deceased? We shall have much more to say about this when we speak about the “intermediate state” as part of eschatology and the passage from 1 Peter that speak of Christ’s preaching to the dead and its implications for “those who have not heard.” (So developed in detail in What About Those Who Have Never Heard? A trialogue on the subject with John Sanders as editor, InterVarsity, 1993). As such was the case, the description of this return as the final judgment suggests an earlier one associated with that meeting of Christ after death and before the End. Of course, most Christians believe that to be the case, except for those who espouse “soul sleep,” as we all face our Maker at our death. But we shall strive to see yet another dimension of this in the “interim” section of the doctrine of consummation.

The Jesus Christ we meet, whatever the occasion, is “the same, yesterday, and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 ). This is a crucial teaching when we say that he “will come again to judge…” The judgment we shall, finally, face is one consistent with the Jesus we know from the New Testament accounts of who he was on earth and what he did. That Jesus was the love of God incarnate, the second Person of the triune Life Together, the God who, as such, is Love (1 John 4:8).

What does it mean for the sinner to meet face to face with pure Love? That Light before us will surely expose every nook and cranny of our lives, every sin of omission and commission which we thought hidden or forgotten. Did Paul anticipate the burning of Love when he enjoined Christ’s followers to love their neighbors and so “heap burning coals on their heads” (Romans 12:20)? Is it any accident that “burning coals” and fiery pits became images deployed in medieval painting for hell itself?

Who then” can stand’ this exposure (Revelation 6:17)? What is true in life is no less true in death. So, again, the same Paul: “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). That same Love that burns also heals, indeed, has healed the rift between God and the world in a saving Work, a reconciliation offered to all for reception by faith alone. We bring nothing to this final judgment to prove ourselves worthy, only faith in a Savior and what he has done for us in his birth, life, death and resurrection. Where there is this “Yes!” in this world to God’s Yes! in Christ, so also are its echoes in the world to come, a final saving by grace through such a faith.

And as on earth the Love that heals but also burns cannot but in its refining fires (Malachi 3:2-3) cleanse the dross that clings to even the most faithful, so preparing them for the perfect life together in the Kingdom that awaits them.

But what of those who face Judgment Day while still in the Night? Are those without faith headed for hell? And just what is “hell?

Copyright ©2008 Gabriel Fackre

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