In the life story of Jesus recorded in the gospels, we hear that Jesus talks about judgment ofter. He, in one place, says: "all judgement is given to the son", in fact, He says: "The Father has committed all judgement to the Son". But on another hand He says: "The Son Judges no one!"
So the question that arises is, has God given all judgement to the Son or not? And if the all judgement is given to the Son by the Father, so why is that Jesus says that the Son judges no one?
Is this a contrary in the scriptures or maybe there are two kinds of Judgment that the Son can do. One judgment He has come to do but another type of judgment He doesn't do.
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Major Points
✔️ True Judgment was executed, once for all, on the Cross, and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since then, the revelation of that Judgment is bringing freedom to the prisoners.
✔️Any future judgment of God is not going to be against what has already been executed in God’s court, on the Cross.
✔️ Jesus came to save mankind from their own judgment against themselves.
✔️ Man's judgment is against God's judgment because they judge according to appearance, according to the flesh: what the see, hear, feel.
✔️ God has never judged according to appearance. If it was so, Jesus wouldn’t be laying down His life for people.
✔️God’s judgment is according to Jesus Christ, meaning Death and Resurrection of the whole creation with Him. This is the good news of the gospel.
✔️ The cry of forgiveness that came out of Jesus’s inner being, on the Cross, is the cry of God the Father for man, since the Garden of Eden.
✔️ The Judgment of God is Life, to revive what is dead, to heal what is lame, to feed the hungry, to show mercy to the weak, and to restore that which was lost.
✔️ Understanding the judgment of God, will initiate a joyful expectation of it.
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What is Judgment that is given to the Son?
[The following is the full transcript of this teaching from our new YouTube series ‘What Jesus Meant‘. Please note that this video features Rose and Masoud speaking unrehearsed – they are unscripted and unedited, filmed in one take.]
Masoud: Hey guys, thank you for joining us. Today we have another session with another question. A question that seems to point at a contradiction between two things that Jesus said. But we are going to see what they are and what they mean. So the first one is in Matthew 7, where Jesus clearly said:
Do not judge that you may not be judged.
But at the same time, In John 5:22, He says:
The Father has committed all judgement to the Son.
So we want to see if this is true, that we are not to judge anyone, or maybe we are to judge. So just to understand what a judgment is, and to see what is our position, we need to know, first of all, what did Jesus do? What did Jesus come to do and what is our role right now? So, Rose is going to explain to us the difference between the two, or maybe it's not a difference at all, it's just a better understanding, looking at it from a different perspective.
Rose: Yeah, exactly. The concept of judgment actually has been very questionable, because all of us have grown up in the world, among people, who had told us, don't judge, or why are you judging. And we can see that even in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus says: “don't judge”. But interestingly, when you come to the gospel of John, we see something completely different. In John 5:22, Jesus says:
All judgement is given to the Son.
Therefore, there is a certain judgment that the Father has given to the Son. We can see here, that the Son is actually a judge, who is supposed to bring the judgment. So, if the Father judges no one, and the Father has given the judgment to the Son, and the Son is not to judge, so how could we see Psalm 96 fullfilled?
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the LORD. For He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.
In the Bible we see the judgment has this great part in the life of the sons. And when we get to the book of revelation, we find that, in chapter 20, there is a group of people that are sitting on the throne, judging. It's where a certain judgment is happening. As we can see in Rev 20:4 that they reign with Christ for 1000 years. Judgment is executed by the sons of God.
All the Righteous Judgment is given to the Son
Now that we've seen these verses, let's take a look at a couple of verses to see what kind of judgment we are not supposed to do and what kind of judgment we are supposed to do. Because in Matthew 7 Jesus says, "judge not or you shall be judged and with the same measure that you use, it will be measured to you". But if we go to John 5:30 Jesus says:
I can of myself do nothing. as I hear, I judge.
So, He is hearing something which causes him to bring judgment. He is bringing judgment based on what He hears.
If we go back in the same chapter, in verse 22, we read that all judgement is given to the Son by the Father, right? And in verse 30 again, ”I can of myself do nothing. As I hear I, I judge, and my judgment is righteous”.
So He's talking about a judgment that is 'righteous' and this righteous judgment comes by hearing. So because He's hearing something, then He's bringing some kind of judgment and He calls that judgment, righteous.
So we need to pay attention that He doesn't say I judge because I see, but I judge because I hear.
But let us see, what He hears: “I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent Him”. So what He is saying is this:
Because I hear the the Father, I know the will of the Father, and I seek His will. Therefore, what I declare, is what I hear, and that's what makes my judgment not to be self-righteous. That's how I bring the Righteous Judgment of God to mankind.
So, going back to verse 22 and link it to verse 30 we find that the Father judges no one and all judgement is given to the Son, and also, the Son knows the will of the Father, and seeks the will of the Father.
So then, the Son executes a certain judgment called 'the will of the Father', which is also called the 'righteous judgment' of God. We will come back to this verse again later, but let us take a look at a couple of verses first.
Masoud: So to just emphasize a point here, the only way to bring that judgment is to hear the voice of the Father.
Rose: That's right. And I'm going to talk about this shortly.
All the Judment that the Son Will Do
We need to find out, 'What is the will of the Father, that by us declaring it on earth, we play the role of a judge, and by doing so, we bring the righteous judgment of God?'. What I want to do today is to clear that WE ARE CALLED TO JUDGE.
One day when I was exercising at Gym, I saw a huge sign that was hanging on the wall, with these words written on it: 'Do not judge'. I started to laugh and I felt the Lord saying to me: "No, you're supposed to judge!".
But what kind of judgment are we supposed to do, and what kind should we avoid?
God had made us from the beginning to reign and rule on earth. If you don't judge, reigning and ruling will never happen. So that's why we are all called to judge. But we need to understand, ONLY the righteous judgment is allowed, and that's to simply bring the will of God on earth. We are going to see this shortly. But before that, let's see what kinds of judgment we are not supposed to do.
Let's go to John 8:15. Jesus says:
You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.
But we just read, in chapter 5, that He said:
I JUDGE and My judgment is righteous.
On on hand He says 'I judge no one', and on the other hand, 'I judge'.
Why? Because He says you judge according to the flesh, I'll judge no one according to the flesh. So, here's what He says: My judgment is not according to the flesh, and I will never judge anyone according to the flesh.
Masoud: So 'according to flesh' is not the way we judge! Anytime we say no judgment, what we mean is no judgment 'according to man'. Nobody is given the right to judge another according to human rights, perspective and understanding. But Jesus makes this clear that the only way we're supposed to judge is by hearing from God. So then we'll understand His will, and then declare it.
Rose: That's right.
Now, if we go back to chapter 7, you will notice that He mentioned it in a different way. John 7: 24 says “do not judge”. Okay, wait! In Matthew 7 He told us the same thing, "do not judge or you will be judged". And we can find it right here. So, In John 7 He completes what He said in Matthew:
Do not judge ACCORDING TO APPEARANCE, but judge with righteous judgment.
So now, let us understand Matthew 7 in the light of John 7:
Do not judge [according to appearance, according to the flesh, according to what you see with your own eyes, and what you hear with your fleshly ears] or you shall be judged.
If you bring that kind of judgment on your brother or on anything, the same judgment will come upon you. If you judge in flesh, you will be judged in flesh. You know why? Because when you judge someone, you put yourself in a position of a judge and you say, I am a judge and according to my law, this is the judgment that should be made. And next time, when you're in a similar situation, you have the law already set by yourself! Because you have already judged someone according to the flesh, according to your own judgment, then you will bring the same judgment on yourself. You just defined what are the rules!
I just want you to pay attention to what I have come across. Some people quote, “don't judge or God will judge you”. This is NOT what it says! The judgment of God is righteous, according to His will, not human behaviors. Matthew 7 says when you judge another, you'll be judged by yourself, not God! Because, the moment you start judging according to the standard you've defined, you'll judge yourself the same way too. But now Jesus tells us not to judge this way, according to appearance. Don't judge anything according to what you see with fleshly mind and fleshly eyes, and fleshly ears. We ought to bring the righteous judgment of God.
Let's go and see this in Romans 2. I want all of us to see a scripture here that has been misquoted many times, and then we'll come back and talk about the will of God.
Masoud: Before going there, I want to again emphasize on this verse, “do not judge according to appearance", and then "as I hear, I judge.” He says, not according to appearance, but according to what I hear. What is He trying to say?
When you see a person, when you see the actions of a person, all you know about them is what you see. You don't know anything beyond that. You are not the all knowing God. So, you don't know what has caused this person to be in this situation. What has caused this person to be in this sin? What has caused this person to be in this weakness? What has caused this person to be angry, to be mad, to be jealous, to be covetous. Covetousness or any of those things that we can easily point finger at, are not what we're allowed to focus on.
Jesus says, instead of this, you're supposed to actually hear what God says, because God is all knowing. Yes, He can see beyond. He can see where that person is bu He also knows why He created him. He knows his destiny and He knows what can change that person. So, if I could know what God knows, I could deal with this person the way God deals with this person. That means if I could hear from Him, before deciding anything, I could know what God knows. If I could hear God, I could know what He knows. Because when He speaks, He speaks His knowledge. And when I know that in my dealing with people, I don't rely on their appearance or what I can see from them, I rely on what I have heard from God. That's why we can go to somebody, that doesn't even know God, and just speak into their lives and they say, you know me better than me. Yes. Because we hear God and what we declare over them is His will.
Rose: Now that you said this, before we go to the book of Romans, maybe we should go back to John 5 and take a look at this and find out about the will of God. Then we can continue the subject from there. So in John 5:22, we read that:
The Father judges no one but has committed all judgement to the Son.
Basically Jesus says that all judgement is given to Son by the Father, It's given to Me! But the verse before this says something very interesting. It says:
For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
And then it adds:
For the Father, judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son.
In conclusion, if we read in the context and try to understand the verses before and after, it becomes clear that the will of the Father is to give life, to raise the dead, and this has been given to the Son, to bring the judgment of life.
We can even see this in John 6:40 as Jesus says:
This is the will of Him who sent Me...
...that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.
All the Judgment that is given to the Son is Life
Putting all these scriptures together, we see that, the will of God is life, and resurrection, raising the dead and giving life. This is the will of God! And this is all God does because the scripture says the Son can do nothing of Himself, but He does the same thing that the Father is doing, and what is that the Father does? The Father gives life. So, the will of the Father for the Son is giving life to the Son and to everyone who comes to the Son.
The Son is expected to judge everyone according to His will. So what we see here is every time we come to the place of judgment, we should speak life to people, it's only then, that we do the will of God. And this is how we are called to judge. This is how we bring this righteous judgment of God. But if I see someone according to the flesh, their actions, what they have done, what they have said, what they have believed or what they have gone through, and judge them accordingly, that is not called the righteous judgment.
This is contrary to our previous beliefs, before we became Christian (just as is the case with every religion), where we held a religions righteous judgment which was eye for eye and tooth for tooth. If someone has done something to you, then you do the same thing to that person. This is how we used to judge.
But when we see through God's eyes, seeing how God sees, we would realize that God does not judge us according to what we do, according to what we believe or according to what we have done, but actually His judgment is according to His own will, His own purpose, His own works. He brings a judgment that is in alignment with what He has done, not because of what we have done, and when we will come as sons of God into the picture, to judge someone, if we look at a person according to who they were, according to their outward appearance, according to their experiences, if I judged them according to what they have done, I have judged according to the flesh. Then the next time I judge myself will also be according to the flesh.
Masoud: Yes. And all of these comes to the story of the woman that was caught in adultery where we can clearly see what Jesus meant by 'not judging' and 'judging'.
There are two parties on both sides of the woman. One is the Pharisees who have the law of Moses. One is Jesus that hears God, the Father, and He knows His heart. Pharisees are condemning the woman. Jesus is releasing that woman. What is happening? Those people are bringing death to the woman but Jesus is taking that woman out of death. He's raising her, figuratively, from the death that is coming to her. So what is Jesus doing? He's releasing a judgment that brings everlasting life. That's what we saw in John 6:40, but now being demonstrated by Jesus: "this is the will of the Father that whoever believes in the Son may have everlasting life".
So the judgment of God, the righteous judgment of God, is to bring life to every area that death exists.
He is the God of Resurrection. Yes, He sees mankind in sin, but He brings them out of sin and puts them in righteousness. He sees mankind in weakness, but He brings them out and He puts them in a strength. He sees mankind in death and He brings them out, puts them in life. And that's the judgment of God. But what is the judgment of man? Death. How has mankind been judging from the beginning until now? By bringing death in every situation because he doesn't have any power to do anything beyond that. But God is bigger than that. God is the God of love, mercy, compassion, grace. And He can do above what He can see in people, He can do according to His nature. He can do according to His compassion and mercy that He can release, and that causes mankind to be changed and to be transformed.
Rose: Yes. If God really wanted to judge us according to us, according to what we have done and what we have believed, then He would have never come in flesh, and gone on the cross. Because, as the scripture says, "when we were enemies, He died for us and He gave His life for us". So, if you really look at that, if He was supposed to judge us according to us, according to our behavior and actions, He would have never died for us on the cross. If the judgment according the flesh says eye for eye and tooth for tooth it also means if you are an enemy of mine then I am your enemy too. But when 'we' were enemies, He did't become our enemy in return.
The gospel of John mostly focuses on the judgment of man and the righteous judgment of God. These are two different kinds of judgments.
There's a judgement that man brings constantly on man. And there's a judgment that God brings on man.
When we come to be children of God, we separate ourselves from the realm that man rules and judges, and enter into a realm that God, the Father, rules and judges. There all judgement is given to the Son by Father. This is how redemption comes of the world. The sons of God, rise up and sit on the place of judgment, executing the righteous judgment of God on earth, by bringing life into death, abolishing the self-righteous judgment of man.
It is the self-righteous judgment of man that brings death and destruction. And if you really look at all the things that are currently happening in the world, when man wants to bring his judgment in any situation, he brings death, a lifetime imprisonment. But as Jesus said in John 5, "the Son does what He sees the Father is doing". So our judgment comes not by what we see in the world, in current events, in man's plans and decisions, but from what we see the Father is doing. And the moment we realize that we have the eyes of the Father and we see what He's doing, then we will bring the will of the Father on earth and we will bring the righteous judgment of God.
If you read the Old Testament and the prophets, the Psalms and Isaiah, you can find the righteous judgment of God everywhere, and people are joyful, that the judgment of God has come! So, the judgment of God is not something that we have to be afraid of. It is something that we have to look forward into. It is something that we need, because by judging a situation, He brings light into darkness. When He judges the situation, He brings life into death. And that's where we can judge the world around us as sons.
What about the Day of Judgement?
Masoud: Maybe I should pause here in the book of John, a little, because there could still be some questions about this subject. I think so far we have been on whether we should judge or not, which we kind of settled that yes, we need to judge and yes, we should not judge as well. We should judge according to what we hear from God, which is called according to the Spirit, and also, we should not judge according to appearance, which is called judging according to flesh. So we're supposed to judge according to the Spirit and not judge according to the flesh. Now, what about the Day of judgment, the Judgment Day? What's going to happen then? Or what did Jesus say about this? Some may say, all you just said makes sense only for the time that Jesus was was on earth. He went on the cross. He said, Father, forgive them, but maybe there is a day that He's going to do something completely something against what He has done, the so-called Day of Judgment.
But I'd answer, can this possibly be true? Would He do something against what He did?
What if the judgment of God is a 'revelation' of a judgment that has already happened, which is the proclamation of 'life' over mankind? What if what Jesus said in John 12 is true, that "now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world is judged and when I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Myself"? What if what He said is true? What if when He was going on the cross and said, now is the judgment of this world is true? What if crucifixion and resurrection are the place that the judgment was declared? And what if all we are discovering is a revelation of that judgment?
I mean, none of us knew anything about the righteous judgment of God. All we thoughts were wrapped up around this, that, God loves you, but at the same time He's just, and He's going to punish you because of your sin. But eventually when we went through the WORD, the Spirit started bringing up the truth.
How do we know all these wrong understandings of the scripture? We were told. That's what the majority of men would say. But if we allow the scripture to open itself, the Spirit of God breathing into what was written, then we can understand there's something that has happened already, and now we are discovering what happened in the past. What if what Jesus did on the cross, it's forever "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do". That's right. So why do we think that in the future this is going to change? That He's going to says something opposite to what came out of His mouth when He was on the cross?
That's the reason I said, let's look at chapter 12, where He specifically said, there is a Day of Judgment. But let's see what is going to be there. John 12:47:
And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world, he who rejects me and does not receive my words, has that which judges him?
Now let's see what judges 'him who rejects Jesus':
The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
The Word! But what has He spoken so far?! Life, always. Bringing life into corruption, into death, into sickness, into disease, into bondage, into slavery, into anger, into all the betrayal and in every other dead place. He constantly spoke of life. And we can see this clearly in verse 49:
I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me, gave me a command, What I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life.
So, He says that, 'the Word should judge you, which is the command that the Father has given me, and the command is everlasting Life'.
Rose: Yes, this is amazing!
Just take a look at verse 48 again. It says:
He who rejects Me and does not receive my words has that which judges him...
In other words He says, 'I will never judge you according to what you believe or what you don't believe. If I speak and you don't believe, My judgment has nothing to do with you. I don't judge you because you didn't believe. When I speak a word whether or not you believe, you receive something, and that will judge you. And what you receive is the Word, because I just spoke the Word and you just heard the Word of God'.
Verse 50 says, the Word is the command of the Father, His will, that is everlasting life. This is what Jesus meant when He said My words are life that:
'The moment you hear them, they will start to bring judgment on you. I will never bring a judgment against you, because you didn't believe My words, but My judgment is because of the word that I speak and that word is everlasting life. So receive that life.
Different Types of Judgments
This is a good time to go to Romans 2 to see different types of judgments there as well.
The righteous judgment of God brings life, but the judgment we are to avoid, is the judgment according to flesh which brings death.
Previously we saw that Matthew and John say "don't judge according to flesh or you will be judged". Basically if you receive the judgment of man, if you judge according to flesh, you will be judged according to the flesh. You will receive the judgment of the flesh, not the judgment of God. So what do we need to do? We need to seek the righteous judgment of God in our lives, not the judgment of man. Romans 2:12 says"
For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without slaw. And as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.
Paul addresses two groups. One has the law and another doesn't have the law. The group of people that had the law, let's say the Jews, who had received the law of Moses, and there's another group, which are called Gentiles, who don't have the law but they were a law for themselves. Verse 13:
For not the hearers of the law are justified in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles, (those who did not receive the law of Moses) who do not have the law by nature do these things in the law...
Gentiles by nature do the law even though the law wasn't given to them, but in their nature, they knew they shouldn't commit adultery, they shouldn't kill, they should not steal, they should worship God.
...these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves.
So both Jews and gentiles, live according to their law. Verse 15:
Who showed the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and between themselves their thoughts their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.
The Jews were judging everything according to the law. But Gentiles, who didn't receive the law of Moses, according to their nature, by their conscience, were accusing themselves or excusing themselves, according to that kind of law that they had in their conscious.
So both groups had some kind of standards to base their judgments upon. They judge themselves according to these standards (laws) which they had set. By now, we know where the judgment of Jews and Gentiles rises from. But then Paul begins to talk about God and how He brings His judgment. Verse 16:
...in that day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel.
The judgment of God is neither based upon the Law of Moses, now human consciousness. God's judgment is according to Jesus Christ! As Masoud said earlier, that means according to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The judgment of God is not according to what you believe and what kind of law you have made for yourself. It is according to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is according to the good news, called the Gospel. It is the righteous judgment of God. When God judges us, it's the good news coming to us because it is not according to the law that I made for myself or the beliefs that I have, but it is according to the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Masoud mentioned, the judgment was done there. The judgment is finished there. But how does it apply to us? Only by understanding and having the revelation of what happened on the cross and then in resurrection of Jesus.
What I wanted all of us to see here is, whether you're a Jew or Gentile, you are under some kind of judgement made by yourself. And it is according to the flesh, according to the law, according to appearance, outward appearance, tooth for tooth, eye for eye. But when we come to God, we receive the righteous judgment of God, which is according to His will. Jesus said, I have come to do the will of the Father. I'm going to die and I will be raised on the third day. So His judgment is God's judgment for people, and it is according to His death and resurrection, in bringing light to darkness, and Life to death. This is the kind of judgment that we, as sons of God, are called to make, to bring the will of God on earth. If you go to the book of Revelation, in chapter 20, we see that some are sitting on the throne judging. A few verse later the dead are raised.
So by now we understood what kind of judgment we are to avoid, and why. Because we are looking for the righteous judgment of God in our lives, which is done according to what He has done, not according to what we have done.
Masoud: That's true. Thank you rose. And I think that brings us to the end of this session.
Concolusion
The concept of judgment is one of the most misunderstood terms in human history.
Judgment is often defined as an action "against" another. For this reason, even God's judgment is defined "against" people and nations.
But, what does the bible say about judging?
There are two different kinds of judgments:
- The judgment that is "for" someone
- The judgment that is "against" someone
God’s judgment has always been ‘for’ man, not 'against' man.
The Bible calls this the "righteous judgment of God".
Because the measuring line for this judgment is not according to what people have done but according to what Jesus has done!
Man's judgment has always been according to appearance (according to flesh).
Jesus said " Judge not (according to flesh) lest ye be judged (according to flesh).
God wants us to be judged and judge according to the Spirit, according to His righteous judgment.
