Series: The Judged
Message: You Idiot
Preacher: Damian Chandler
Reflection: Sam Millen
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Zan Long
Live Purpose: Jessyka Albert
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Romans 2:1-11in the New International Version (NIV). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: I've had a bad habit of, shall we say, trying to race my guardian angel when driving. Because of this tendency, I have faced judges on numerous occasions, hoping for a reduced speeding fine. Most of the judges were lenient (with one notable exception in Michigan). The last judge to show me kindness was a member of a Methodist church in town. When the Methodist pastor was away and asked me to fill the pulpit, I was able to tell the entire congregation how thankful I am for this merciful judge. He took it all in good fun, but I knew he still expected me to slow down!
I don’t know if it’s entirely accurate to think of God as merely a kind, merciful judge. He is a perfect judge. Perfect judgment requires impartiality between Jews and Gentiles. Perfect judgment also cannot be lenient. The reason God can be a perfect judge and show remarkable kindness, mercy, and grace at the same time is because he absorbed the cost for sin himself. Not just your sins and mine, but the consequences that evil has caused on a cosmic level. God saved us by letting sin do to Him what it ultimately would have done to us—destroy us. On one level, Jesus was crucified by evil men who were prompted by the "evil one," but ultimately it was all a result of evil in the world. God absorbed the results of evil for us—cosmically and individually. We cannot fully comprehend this, but I prefer the term "self-substitution" used by Tim Keller when referring to Jesus on the cross rather than "penal substitution."
In his book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Tim Keller uses a simple economic example to illustrate this concept: “Imagine that someone borrows your car, and as he backs it out of the driveway he strikes a gate, knocking it down along with part of a wall. Your property insurance doesn’t cover the gate and garden wall. What can you do? There are essentially two options. The first is to demand that he pay for the damages. The second is to refuse to let him pay anything. There may also be middle-of-the-road solutions in which you both share the payment. Notice that in every option the cost of the damage must be borne by someone. Either you or he absorbs the cost for the deed, but the debt does not somehow vanish into thin air. Forgiveness, in this illustration, means bearing the cost for his misdeed yourself.”
“'Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t God just forgive us?' This is what many ask, but now we can see that no one ‘just’ forgives, ... Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it.” We can face God’s perfect judgment with confidence because He has borne the cost of what our sins have caused.
Recalibrate: Is there someone you need to forgive by absorbing the pain he or she has caused, rather than trying to (or hoping someone else will) inflict the same pain to get even?
Respond: Pray for all the judges in the land to have wisdom for more perfect, fair, and impartial judgements.
Research: Read Chapter 12 of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller.
Remember: "For God judges all people in the same way" (Romans 2:11, ICB).
Sam Millen is an Australian whose self-imposed exile in North America started 20 years ago. He has been a school chaplain, Bible teacher, youth pastor, associate pastor, and district pastor in conferences across the United States and Canada. As the current pastor at Anacortes Adventist Fellowship, Sam is utilizing the Washington State Ferry system to commute between Orcas Island (where he lives with his wife, Angie, and their three kids) and Anacortes.
Make a fruit salad with your little one today. Using a selection of fruit, name and hold each fruit. Cut or peel the fruit so you can see the inside. A kiwi fruit is a good example of something that is hairy and rough on the outside but smooth and silky on the inside. Watermelon is hard on the outside but squishy on the inside. Experience the textures with your child. Let them squish and peel and touch all the different textures of the fruit. Tell them that God knows what is going on inside and out.
Make a tasting plate with a selection of different foods. You may want to include something salty and sweet, maybe something savory like cheese, and something sour like a lemon. Taste each food and see what you like. Try putting two items together and see what that tastes like. Try putting three together. What these things do together is often far more interesting and tasty than what they taste like on their own. God has put us together to complement each other, to make each other better. Whom has God put you with this week and how can you work with them to make things better?
What are five things you couldn't do without this week? Unlike many people in this world, assume that you will have clean water, good food, and warm clothes this entire week. What would be the extras that you would need? Everything we own can be used as something for our own benefit or for the benefit of others. Think about the five things that you chose. What do you need them for? In what ways could you use those things the rest of the week to honor God and to care for others? Journal about an experience you had with one of those things. Maybe you let a friend use your cell phone charger even when your phone was about to die. Or maybe instead of watching a TV show you let a friend talk to you about a really hard time they are going through right now. Remember that you can use the tiniest thing to honor God and care for those around you!