May 21 KING OF KINGS AND RIGHTEOUS JUDGE
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.--2 Timothy 4:8
In His teachings Christ sought to impress human minds with the coming judgment and its publicity. This is not the judgment of a few individuals, or a nation, but of a whole world of human intelligences, of accountable beings. And that judgment must be held in the presence of the world, that the love, the integrity, the service of man for God may be glorified and honored on the largest scale.
"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man. In His superadded humanity consists the reason of Christ's appointment. God hath committed all judgment unto the Son, for without controversy He is God manifest in the flesh.
God designed that the Prince of sufferers in humanity should be judge of the whole world. He who submitted to be arraigned before an earthly tribunal, He who came from the heavenly courts to save man from eternal death, He whom men despised, rejected, and upon whom they heaped all the contempt of which human beings inspired by Satan are capable, He who suffered the ignominious death of the cross--He alone was to pronounce the sentence of reward or of punishment. When every man shall be judged as his works have been, then the words spoken by [Him] in the judgment hall, "Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God," will appear before then as if written in letters of fire. (Manuscript 39, March 11, 1898)
REFLECTION: If we are in Christ, we do not need to fear the judgment. We have a righteous judge who will not only judge us fairly, but He will also do everything He can to "cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)
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