When we sin, God knows. You can’t slip things by Him. Because we don’t see God, we sort of forget that He sees. It is similar to what happens to us in a hotel. We get into an empty hallway and we feel all alone even though possibly every room is full. So we talk loudly as if no one is there to hear. But everyone hears us.
God knows our sin, but for those who are connected to Jesus through faith and baptism God sees Jesus, and we live as forgiven for as long as faith remains. In a way, we have been judged as righteous from the moment God connected us to Jesus
For as long as we live, forgiveness through Jesus is possible for anyone whom God can bring to faith. Their fate has not been sealed. You can’t plan on it, but even on a death bed it is possible for somebody to be saved and avoid the permanent judgment of God.
Is death the line in the sand, the point of no return? Or is Judgment Day when eternal fates are sealed?
The Bible clearly indicates that some kind of judgment accompanies death. With our death, we either enter Heaven because we are forgiven and therefore righteous or we enter Sheol (see my other blog entries about Sheol), because we are sinners without a Savior. Is that the final judgment?
Hebrews 9:27-28 is often evoked on this topic:
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
The understanding of most is that the judgment accompanying death is immediate and final, but what is the function of Judgment Day in that scenario? Is it merely a technicality? The passage is making the point that Jesus doesn’t die multiple times for sin. To bolster the point, the writer appeals to the fact that we don’t reincarnate. Hebrews 9 doesn’t technically answer our question. 1 Peter 4:6 may speak to our question better. I’m quoting New King James here because NIV is a lousy translation of this passage.
For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
The uncomfortable yet literal understanding of this passage is that the Gospel was preached to dead people with the end goal of having them live or, in other words, be saved. The context of this passage is Jesus’ descent into Hell (Sheol) mentioned in 1 Peter 3:19. If we are to understand this passage as the Gospel was preached to living people who have subsequently died, then the second half of the sentence doesn’t make much sense and you are not literally translating the original text. You are adding (now) dead, which is what the NIV does.
Could it be that Judgment Day is the line in the sand, the point of no return? We are given marching orders to spread the Gospel to the living. It is of urgent importance that people hear about Jesus’ death and resurrection and the promise of salvation through that event while they live. I cannot go to Sheol to preach to the dead. But did Christ do that? Does He still do that? The ancient church, particularly in the East believed that He did. I hope so, too.
afterdeathsite 