Response

“Follow Me.”  “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”

Have you ever wondered how Jesus will judge us when we stand before Him?  I have.

I have always had a deep interest in justice and judgment.  I have always been a defender of equality.  I have always had a passion for universal fairness - especially fairness toward me!

I think this fairness passion was born in my childhood when I experienced what I considered a lot of unfairness at the hands of others.  I think I wanted those people to really have to pay.

This perceived or real unfairness produced in me deep anger and a desire to judge.  I became really good at judging others in my own anger.

Because of this poorly begun passion for justice and fairness, I have had a tendency to be harsh toward others and ever more harsh toward me.  As a result I have both longed for and hated the idea of the final judgment of all humanity.  I have on some level feared the concept of final judgment because I didn’t understand how it would work and I was not sure if it would be fair to me and to others.

Over time I have come to see that the judgment by Jesus at the end of times will be completely just and fair.  Jesus is the judgment.

Being in His perfect presence is and will be the perfect judgment. In a way, I am already being judged perfectly as He abides in me right now.  I am being treated fairly by Jesus moment by moment.  So are you.

Think of the words,  “Follow Me” and “Abide in Me”. When you read the Gospels you will find Jesus starts with “Follow Me” and ends with “Abide in Me.”  These two commands are the entire judgment.  Both of the these commands can be translated into one command - “Respond constantly and exclusively to Me.”

The judgment of all humanity will be based on how consistently and constantly we each responded to Jesus. What anyone else did or did not do to us will not be in our personal judgment equation.

The fruit of our lives will be determined by the quality and consistency of our response to Jesus - especially His constant love for us.  The fruit that came from our lives will tell the undeniable story of our personal response to Jesus.   Response to Jesus will be our judgment.  Response to Jesus will be everyone’s judgment. Jesus is the judgment.

I believe I will stand before Jesus and be judged by a simple statement:  “Bud, here is how you responded to Me.”

Responding to Jesus well right now is my best preparation for the judgment.