When I hear the words “final judgment” uttered in a religious setting, my stomach gets a little twisty. Maybe you know what I mean. The phrase is often used as a theological bludgeon as if to say, “You’d better be good or else you’ll get it when your father comes home.”
But what if “final judgment” didn’t mean that?
What if “final judgment” meant the finality of judgment? Better put, the end of judgment.
If we interpret Scripture through a Christ-centric lens, this is exactly what it means.
Christ Jesus gave God a body and became the mouthpiece of the previously hidden God. He gave voice to God, the Father, who had previously been hidden in abstraction.
And from the cross, he utters the final judgment.
Father, forgive them.
Utter and complete forgiveness IS the final judgment.
And with that,you and I can stop judgingourselves, each other, and the worldso harshly.
God’s unconditional love has the first and final wordeven in the midst of our loathing and projected violence.
In this final word, God has died to God’s falsely perceived wrathand in the resurrection, a loving God has been givenfor you.
Grace + Godspeed,Jonas
