Judgment: Punishment or Restoration? | Rethinking Hell, Week 5

Welcome to the Kingdom Family Podcast, where

we rediscover our identity as sons and daughters

of Yahweh and learn to live the life of the Kingdom.

Let's jump in to today's episode. Well, hey,

guys, welcome back to week five of Rethinking

Hell. This week, we jump in to the discussion

of judgment. And I want you to ask yourself when

it comes to the word judgment, is it punishment

or is it restoration? I would go on a limb to

say that another word that has been deeply misunderstood

is the word judgment. Um, the same with, uh,

as we discovered with last week's episode on

fire and that fire is not just destructive, but

that fire is also refining. Is that to dismiss

the concept and the truth that fire can be destructive?

Absolutely not. But again, we have to ask ourselves

what is fire actually destroying and then what

other purposes does fire serve? And so the same

is true with the word and the concept of judgment

and I like how I believe it's Damon Thompson

I heard this from several years ago that if you

want to know what the judgment of God looks like

We have a book in the Old Testament called judges

Maybe we should look at that because if you consider

a judge in scripture Judge is not the Western

concept of a judge. It's not someone sitting

in a black robe in a courtroom with the defense

attorney and all that. That is not what the word

judge or judgment would have meant in Scripture.

So just take a step back for a minute before

we dive in too much. Just when you hear the word

judgment, what do you yourself picture? Do you

picture punishment or do you picture restoration?

And I think that's important for us to consider.

And as soon as we dive into this, just to start

off here, if you look at the word judgment in

the Greek, it's the word crisis, and it means

decision, evaluation, separation, discernment.

It's actually where we get the English word crisis.

Originally a crisis was not simply a disaster.

It was the decisive moment where everything changes

the point at which a decision or an outcome becomes

unavoidable. And so let's look at the scripture

as we start this out. Let's look at John chapter

John 3:19

3 verse 19 and it says and here is the basis

for their judgment. The light of God has now

come into the world, but the people loved darkness

to conceal their evil The mirror a paraphrase

says this and this is the crisis the light is

here now Rightness, excuse me. The light is here

right now yet people are so addicted to their

own darkness that they prefer a life of labors

annoyances and hardships So if you look at just

what Francois Dutois says here in the mirror

paraphrase, that people are so addicted to their

own darkness that they prefer a life of labors,

annoyances, and hardships. So this is the crisis.

This is that judgment, that the light is here

right now. Yet people are so addicted to their

own darkness that they prefer a life of labors,

annoyances, and hardship. So you have to begin

to ask the question here, what is the judgment

coming to do? What is it coming to remove? And

again, I think if you look at the mirror paraphrase,

you can kind of begin to see some truth into

what that judgment is coming to deal with. Because

this is the judgment. that light is here right

now but yet for some reason even when light shows

up people are still so addicted to their own

darkness that they prefer a life of labor's annoyances

and hardships instead of allowing that judgment

to come in and deal with the things that are

causing the labor's the annoyances and the hardships.

They would rather stay in that darkness than

allow light to come in and deal with these things.

How many times do we do that even in our own

lives still today? That we went when his light

shows up and I like to say it this way this way

Whatever he reveals he intends to heal but that

means you and I have to be willing That when

the Holy Spirit comes to reveal something that

we allow him into those areas to heal Just something

for us to think about and to wrestle with when

he when he brings light to expose something in

our life, his intent is not to bring any kind

of devastation. It's not to bring any kind of

destruction, but it's not meant to bring any

kind of punishment. No, it is meant to come and

restore. So again, the word crisis is often translated

as judgment, but it also is a decisive moment.

It's the opportunity. And again, think about

what we just read. It's the opportunity for change.

The word for evil. is Pinaros and it translates

full of hardships, annoyances and labors. So

that's just something for you to think about.

That's Francois Dutoy's note on the mirror paraphrase

here. But if you look at this and John 3 19 is

Jesus speaking. And Jesus in this passage, he

never says anything about judgment being God

becoming angry. He defines it as light exposing

reality and people end up revealing what they

love or let me say it this way. They end up revealing

what they think they love. The judgment is the

unveiling. That's what the judgment is. It's

the unveiling of now you get a choice. Which

one do you love? And listen, I know we have scripture

that says that sin is pleasurable for a season.

But you know what love continues to do just like

with my own children love will continue to show

up and Continue to expose and to reveal and ask

you permission to heal Ask your permission. Well,

my light is coming to expose this area of your

life Will you allow my judgment to deal with

it? Go listen, it's fascinating go read the book

of Judges in the Old Testament if you'll go do

that You will see that every time Israel falls

away and walks away from God and then begins

to ask for God to step back into the picture

and help them There is always God always raises

up a judge to come against what not come against

Israel It's to come against and like to say it

this way. I got it from Damon Thompson It's to

come against whatever interferes with you and

love essentially What what is interfering between

you and the love of the father? That's what he's

coming to deal with. That's where his judgment

is aimed at and you see crisis can often be understood

as the moment when truth exposes reality and

calls for a response Judgment in this sense is

not is not punitive, it is the revealing and

separating work of truth. Light shines, motives

are uncovered, and reality is brought into the

open. And what follows depends on the context.

Sometimes it results in restoration, sometimes

it's vindication, sometimes it's correction,

sometimes condemnation, but only when the context

indicates the outcome. And so I think that is

why this passage is important as Jesus is not

defining judgment as God's wrath falling from

heaven He defines it as the light entering the

world. It's exposing hearts and forcing a decision

That nuance can change how we read many New Testament

passages about judgment that light enters our

world it exposes hearts and then a decision is

A decision is almost demanded in that moment.

What would you do? My light has showed up. My

love has showed up. My light has showed up into

this moment. It's entered your world. It's exposing

things. Now what are you going to allow me to

do in this moment? Are you going to allow me

into this area to heal it? Or are you going to

continuously try to hide this and allow darkness

to settle in in this moment? And let me tell

you this, this is where it begins to affect us.

Because the harder that you choose to make your

grip on it, the more that you're going to feel

the effect of when the Father comes to remove

whatever this is. But if you willingly, when

the Holy Spirit brings light and exposure to

an area, if you will willingly lay that down,

and be like, okay, here it is. You do whatever

you need to do. If you willingly lay it down,

it becomes much easier. And trust me, I have

been on both sides of that. I've been on the

side of willingly laying something down and it

was much easier than me trying to hold on to

something and to have the notion that, well,

I don't know, I'll deal with it when I'm ready

or I can fix this by myself because we can't.

That's just the truth. We can't we can't there's

nothing that I can fix on my own. I Don't have

that that power That's why again. It's the Holy

Spirit that brings transformation into our lives

It's the Holy Spirit who who reveals more and

more of the Christ inside of me who exposes and

allows me to look at the face of Yeshua and then

realize that I'm found in that reflection Just

think about that as powerful Alright then we

got John chapter 5 verse 22 and it says the father

John 5:22

judges no one for he has given to the son all

the authority to judge and then we jump down

to verse 24 and it says I speak to you in eternal

truth if you embrace my message and believe in

the one who sent me you will never face condemnation

in me you have already passed from the realm

of death into eternal life. Think about that

statement. In me, you have already passed from

the realm of death into eternal life. Inside

of Christ, you that's why and I probably mentioned

this before in an earlier podcast, I don't know

if it was for this this series or another one.

But you go back and look at when scripture says

that it's appointed for man once to die. I would

like to say congratulations. If you find yourself

in Christ, you have already died. You were co

-crucified, co -buried, co -resurrected, co -glorified,

and now you're co -seated with Christ in the

heavenly places. You're not seating next to Christ.

You're seated inside of Christ at the right hand

of the Father. Think about this you were co -crucified

stop stop having this belief that you need to

crucify your flesh Your flesh has already been

dealt with that Adam that first Adam nature has

already been dealt with There is no there is

absolutely no sin nature There is a thing called

original sin, but there is never a thing called

sin nature And I'm here to remind you that sin

was dealt with effectively by the finished work

of Christ He defeated the power of guilt he defeated

the power of shame and he defeated the power

of sin in our lives if we will allow that victory

to resonate inside of us and to reign over our

life. Then we understand that in him, we have

already passed from the realm of death. And guess

what? Right now, this this moment that you're

in this, this this moment that you find yourself

breathing in what I would term as Christological

air. Again, another Damon Thompson reference

there that We are inhaling and exhaling Christological

air. If we would understand that we've already

passed from the realm of passed through from

the realm of death into eternal life, you can

stop waiting to get to eternity and understand

you are right now inside of eternity. Big stuff,

I know challenging, I know to hear about, but

just wrestle with these thoughts. You see, judgment

is not God losing control. Judgment is God making

things right. Alright, let's look at another

scripture here. Let's go to Hebrews and we're

going to look at chapter 12 and I'm going to

read chapter 12 verses 5 through 11. So just

bear with me, follow along with me, get your

Bible out. and it says this have you forgotten

his encouraging words spoken to you as his children

he said my child don't underestimate the value

of the discipline of the Lord or get depressed

when he has to correct you for the Lord's training

of your life is the evidence of his faithful

love and when he draws you to himself now pay

attention to the language here when he draws

you to himself Means you can stop striving to

get to Christ and understand that he is the one

who's doing the drawing to him It proves that

you are his delightful child Fully embrace God's

correction as part of your training for he is

doing what any loving father does for his children

For who has ever heard of a child who never had

to be corrected We should all welcome God's discipline

as the validation of authentic sonship For if

we have never once endured His correction, it

only proves we are strangers and not sons. And

isn't it true that we respect our earthly fathers

even though they corrected and disciplined us?

then we should demonstrate an even greater respect

for God our spiritual father as we submit to

his life -giving discipline our parents corrected

us for the short time of our childhood as it

seemed good to them but God corrects us throughout

our lives for our own good giving us an invitation

to share his holiness now all discipline seems

to be painful at the time yet later now pay attention

It will produce a transformation of character,

bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace

to those who yield to it. So let's look at the

difference between punishment and discipline.

Punishment is motivated by revenge. Punishment

is focused on pain. Punishment seeks payment.

Discipline on the other other other side here

is motivated by love it focuses on correction

and it seeks growth and I can say this because

I've been on both sides of this as a dad and

becoming a better dad each Each day each moment.

I don't always get it right, but I'm on that

path to becoming the dad that my kids need There

was a time that I did focus on the punishment

side instead of discipline. I know what both

sides of this coin looks like. I've been the

one to punish my children instead of disciplining

them. And so now I'm in this area now where I'm

allowing Holy Spirit to try to help guide me

to teach me more how to discipline them and not

to punish them because punishment does not do

anything, in my opinion, but reinforce that sinful

behavior and that sinful identity that you have

to now do something to for acceptance, for example.

I hope that makes sense. but a loving father

disciplines not to destroy a Loving father will

discipline to do one thing and that is to restore

All right, then we have Let's look at the father's

heart as far as it comes to judgment So let's

consider Luke chapter 15 and I'm not gonna read

Luke 15 · chapter mention

all of that. I'm just going to summarize it basically.

I think you can go read it. If you've grown up

in church, you have probably heard the story

of the prodigal son, which is fascinating because

we've made this story more about the son than

it is about the father. And I just leave that

alone for now. But if you look at the father's

heart in judgment and look at Luke chapter 15,

Luke 15 · chapter mention

let's just think about what happened. The the

child the son essentially treats the father as

he's dead When he's asking for his inheritance,

he says I want mine here and this is my version.

I want my inheritance I want it now. I'm leaving

you. I'm good. Just good riddance Just give me

my half and let me get out of here And so what

does the father do he hands over his inheritance

to him and the son takes off The son takes off

and he goes and waste every bit of the inheritance

and eventually finds himself eating what the

pigs eat. And then he begins to be reminded and

begins to come into remembrance of how his father's

servants were treated even better than this.

And so he begins to want to make his way back

home and he knows that he needs to just tell

his dad that I'm not even worthy to be called

a son anymore. Just let me be a servant. So he

goes, heads home, he starts rehearsing the speech.

And then when he shows up and his father sees

him, his father does the unthinkable and begins

to run toward his son. Just go study that on

your own. Why is he running? The importance of

that. Because in that culture that should not

have been a thing But the father takes off running

toward his son who has now come home And he tries

to get his speech out tries to get his letter

of acceptance out if you will To say this is

my rundown of you know, how horrible I am, but

please accept me just as your servant and His

father doesn't want to hear any of that Instead,

in that moment, his father begins to tell the

people around him, go get me the ring, go get

me a robe, go get me something to put on his

feet, and then go kill the fatted calf. So there

was something already, in my opinion, this is

just how I take when I read that story now, there

was something already set aside for when he made

his return. His father said, that's the one that

we're going to celebrate with. So just think

of this story from Luke 15. The father never

in this story punishes the son. What does he

do? He won't even let him get his apology out

before telling him, just hush son. I don't want

to hear all that. That's not who you are. The

important part is you're home now. And what does

he do? He doesn't punish. No, he begins to restore

him back to sonship. Think and just think about

this this this truth here When the Sun is out

in the far country wasting it all in eating with

pigs in That very moment. He is still a son His

sonship never changed His circumstances may have

the position that he was in and he found himself

in may have changed, but he was always a son

in the father's eyes. And so when he shows back

up on the scene, begins to take off running,

calling for the ring and the rope and all that

stuff has significance. You can go study that

on your own. But what is he doing? He's restoring

him essentially as if he had never left. Wrap

your mind around that. He's essentially is restoring

him. back as if he had never left the home. Man,

this is good news. This is the gospel, my friend.

This is the word we have to it. I want to say

something very challenging, but I want you to

hear it and hear it from the heartbeat of the

father. The person taking a needle out of their

arm right now is just as holy, just as anointed,

just as righteous as you are. Listening to this

podcast just as holy just as righteous Just as

loved as I am recording this podcast right now

There's the only difference is you and I are

beginning into come into alignment with that

and maybe they just don't know that truth yet

Can I help you understand that the Muslim? the

Democrat, the Republican, whatever separation

that you want to try to use and understand this.

I heard this from Tommy Miller this week. It

was kind of talking about this. But understand

when you begin to put labels on things and begin

to look down on people because they're this or

that What you are effectively doing in that moment

is beginning to grab on to the belief that their

life is less important because of x y and z and

That you matter more than they do because you

think rightly See a problem in this But instead

if you would look at these individuals, whoever

you disagree with, whoever gets on your nerves

the worst, whoever you think is too far gone,

and understand the truth that that individual

is just as holy, just as righteous, just as everything,

just as set apart, just as chosen, just as worthy

as you are. Then you begin to see people as Christ

sees them All right, let's look at Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 1:25

1 verse 25 it says I will put my fiery hand upon

you and Purify you with fire into something clean

The NLT says this this he said excuse me NLT

says I will raise my fist against you I will

melt you down and skim off your slag. I will

remove all of your impurities Judgment removes

corruption so that righteousness can remain.

Again, think back to last week's teaching on

fire. What does fire do? I understand fire can

destroy. Again, ask yourself, what is it destroying?

But fire also purifies. Fire calls this thing

to come to the surface so that the impurities

can be scooped away. There can be no perception

of the world in God without radical repentance

and without a continual change of mind. We are

to see each stone, each leaf, each blade of grass

Each frog, each human face, for what it truly

is and all the distinctness and intensity of

its specific being, true mysticism is to discover

the extraordinary in the ordinary. Think about

what I just said. True mysticism is to discover

the extraordinary in the ordinary. To see the

Christ in the individual that you think is the

lowest. The one that you can't stand. The person

that gets on your nerves. The group of people

that you think are completely wrong. And discover

the extraordinary in the ordinary. No existing

thing is despicable. For as God's handiwork,

each has its unique place in the created order.

These are just some notes that I have here. The

contemplation of nature. means that we see all

things persons and moments as signs and sacraments

of God in our spiritual vision. We are not only

to see each thing in sharp relief standing out

and all the brilliance of a specific being. But

we are also to see each thing as transparent

in and through each created thing. We are to

discern the creator. Understand this, that creation

leads us to God and God sends us back again to

creation, enabling us to look at nature with

the eyes of Adam in paradise. For seeing all

things in God, we see them with a vividness that

they would never otherwise possess. We are to

see all things as essentially sacred as a gift

from God in a means of communion with Him. It

does not however follow that we are to accept

the fallen world on its own terms. This is the

unhappy mistake of much secular Christianity

in the contemporary West. All things are indeed

sacred in their true being according to their

innermost essence, but our relationship to God's

creation has been distorted by sin, original

and personal, and we shall not rediscover the

intrinsic sacredness unless our heart is purified.

Without self -denial, without ascetic discipline,

we cannot affirm the true beauty of the world.

That is why there can be no genuine contemplation

without repentance. What is repentance? Go back

and look at that word. It's metanoia. To repent.

Go study that on your own. What does it mean

to come into repentance? What does it mean to

repent? It's more than, I'm sorry. It's a changing

of how we think. It's coming back to our senses.

It's turning to go in the other direction. But

how do you do that unless you feed your mind

other stuff? You keep putting trash in and trash

is what you get out. You begin to feel yourself

and understand coming to alignment and to agreement

with the truth that you have been given, the

mind of Christ, that you are in Christ and Christ

is in you. Step into that revelation and see

what begins to happen in your life. Pay attention

to what it just what I just read you all things

are indeed sacred all Things all things are indeed

sacred Because I grew up in the world where there

there there was There was Secular industry and

then you had the quote -unquote Christian industry

I'm just gonna be honest with you. I no longer

support that mindset I think we are called to

be kingdom minded, Christ minded image bearers

and influence all of the world, all of creation

with the image of God to speak back to creation,

who she is and how she should respond and to

unveil the Christ hidden within sons and daughters.

Remember Romans 8, the earth is groaning and

travailing for the manifestation of the sons

and daughters of Yahweh. Get to partner with

heaven with the Trinity to see humanity and the

world redeemed. Big deal. You're a big deal.

Last verse here, let's look at James chapter

two, verse 13. And it says there will be no mercy

for those who have not shown mercy to others.

But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful

when he judges you. That tells us that God's

final word is not punishment, but it's mercy.

If judgment were only punishment, not a single

one of us would survive. But judgment in scripture,

it's corrective. And what does it remove? It

removes things like pride, like violence, like

corruption, like injustice, never people. Judgment

is God refusing to leave evil untouched. And

the problem is that so many people, myself included,

grew up terrified of judgment. But judgment in

scripture is not the rage of an angry, distant

God. Judgment in scripture, it is the love of

a faithful father. What if what if judgment is

not something to fear, but something to trust?

So. This whole episode here Was it caused you

to rent maybe have a different thought and to

rediscover? Maybe what judgment actually means

it's not about revenge Judgment is about restoration

This is not about God turning against you this

that this is God turning you back toward life

and That my friend is good news And that's where

we're going to end this episode. Listen, tune

in next week when we begin to talk about the

Lake of Fire. Yes, the Lake of Fire. We're going

to discuss that next week. But I hope this episode

causes you to rethink what judgment means and

what judgment looks like when we hear about God

judging us. Maybe you can have a different view

now. So I hope this helps. I pray you all have

a blessed week and continue to represent the

Kingdom of God. Be blessed. Thanks for spending

some time with me today on the Kingdom Family

Podcast. If this episode spoke to you take a

moment to share it and help someone else rediscover

their identity as a son or daughter of Yahweh.

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Kingdom Family Ministries. Until next time, live

loved, live free, and live from the life of the

Kingdom.