Christ, the Judge

Christ as man will judge mankind at the last day. Our Lord is God the Son who became man by assuming human nature. When His true humanity is emphasized, scripture calls him”the Son of man.” And we read (John 5:27): “He hath given him power to do judgment because he is the Son of man.”Christ is our Lord and master because he is God; but he is also our Lord and master because he redeemed us by dying for us asman. Hence, as man he has authority to judge us.

In Isaias we read (65:17): “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be in remembrance.” And the Apocalypse says (21:1): “I saw anew heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven, and the first earth was gone.” The earth will be renewed after the last or general judgment. All bodily things were created for man, and when man is renewed in the resurrection of the body, the earth should receive a splendor of renewal for renewed man.

Christ will come “with great power and majesty” (Luke 21:27) to judge mankind. He will come in the glorified body in which he appeared after his Resurrection. He who came in weakness and “in the body of our lowness” (Phil.3:21) to be our redeemer, will come in strength and majesty to be our judge.

“Time shall be no longer,” says the Apocalypse (10:6). It appears then that the movement of the heavenly bodies must cease, for it is this movement which enables man to measure time; the movement itself is the reality oftime.

At the final judgment the wicked will behold Christ as man,and, at the same time, will thoroughly realize that he is God. But they will not behold his divinity directly, for, if they did, they would be filled with joy, which is contrary to their condition and their perverse will.

After the last judgment, the renewal of the earth will find its counterpart in a new splendor of the heavenly bodies. Isaias says (30:26): “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall besevenfold.”

As we have noted, all bodily things are for men and will somehow reflect his glory in heaven. There will be brightness in all common things. Earth will gain a transparency; water will beas crystal; fire will have the beauty of the most wondrousstars.

Plants and animals will have no place in the renewed world; no living things except those that are deathless will be there.