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There is a big difference between our judgment and God's judgment.
When we judge, our motives always come from limited and biased perspective tainted with selfishness. So we use judgment of others as a tool to shame them or induce them through force of threat to change.
God does not operate the way we do; He does not use shame, guilt trips, force or intimidation to convert the heart. His motive is always positive and based on attraction through love. His light is revealing of everything opposed to it and that is what real judgment means. His warnings are not given as threats of arbitrary punishments but as reality checks to make us aware of the fatal danger of resisting love and the inevitable consequences of violating natural law.
Our type of judgment is not life-giving. It is self-justifying in nature and seeks to paint ourselves in a better position morally than those we are judging. In doing so it is also self-deceptive in that when we judge others it becomes more difficult to see the faults in ourself. That is why we find it so hard to accept what Paul is saying about those who judge others being guilty of the same sins. Our self-justifying nature strongly objects to such assertions and we protest that in fact we really are not as guilty as those we are judging.
We also seem to believe that our judgments serve the purpose of forcing others to admit their guilt and think this will bring them to repentance. But our judgment does not convey the spirit of kindness so it does not lead to true repentance. We may be able to force confessions of guilt from others by exposing their sins to the light of public knowledge, but instead of softening their hearts with the oil of grace we callous their hearts with more scar tissue from the wounds we inflict on them. Tragically, we do all of this in the name of God and thereby blaspheme and misrepresent Him and further alienate the very ones He is trying to draw to repentance through the riches of His own kindness, tolerance and patience.
Man's judging is always based on false ideas about God that are really reflections of the character of Satan, the accuser. Sin started when Satan accused God of not being kind, tolerant or patient, and when we judge others we take up his litany and join in his lies about God. We believe we are helping God when we try to bring conviction into someone else's life, but in fact we are actually usurping the function of God's Holy Spirit and are acting as an anti-Christ. We bear the name of Christ while utilizing the tools of His arch-enemy.
Paul asks a very perceptive question in Romans 2 verse 3 - “do you suppose that when you pass judgment and do the same that you will escape the judgment of God?” Built into the very nature of our judgment of others is the hidden agenda of avoidance as well as self-justification. (Remember, the original Greek, words for our judgment and God's judgment are different.) Somehow we think, either consciously or subconsciously, that by exposing the faults of others we are going to be able to vindicate ourselves as being righteous and not guilty ourselves. It is a very common occurrence to see people loudly proclaiming the sins of others only to later be exposed as being just as guilty or worse themselves. And yet we continue to believe that that only applies to other's situations and that we are different. That is the power of the deception of human judgment; we always believe that we are the exception and that somehow we will not be found guilty ourselves or that the light of truth can be avoided indefinitely.
But when we begin to truly understand to nature of God's judgment and that it is fundamentally very different than what we are used to thinking about judgment, it will start to become plain that no one can avoid the revealing nature of Light itself. To think that we are not guilty and that Paul was just over-stating the truth to make a point, is to trust that darkness will protect us from ever being exposed by light. It is also to remain in the darkness of misunderstanding of what constitutes light.
When God judges, He offers life and hope in His kindness. His convictions when accepted are empowering and have inherent in them the links to His power so that we can be transformed and saved. God's judgments are gentle but insistent but by necessity become more forceful in their intensity to try to overcome our resistance. They are not forceful in the sense of violating our will but in their desire to win our affections. God's judgments lead us to repentance which is simply a turning around from running away from God. Repentance is a change of heart in our perceptions and attitudes towards God's heart. It is acknowledging that our ways are out of harmony, out of synchronization, with true reality and the unavoidable principles in the universe that reflect God's character.
I think it will do us well to remember how meticulous God was and why, in His instructions for the Old Testament sanctuary to emphasis that no one was to ever attempt to introduce fire that had not been originated by the literal flame of God's presence. This was termed “strange fire”, and to try to bring into God's service a fire (passion) that was originated by humans was “punishable” by death. Many have come to believe that this demonstrates the arbitrary nature of God's “punishments” and vindicates their lies about Him. However, what it does reveal is the radical difference between the truth about what God's passion is like and human perceptions or interpretations of His passion. The nature of God's passion, His fire, His light is described in verse 4 very clearly. It is demonstrated by kindness, tolerance and patience and it is magnetic in nature.
What is even more revealing about the natural results of resisting this critical truth about God is explained in verse 5. Resistance to the truth about God is described as stubbornness and unrepentance. This is very relevant because really is the kindness of God that leads one to repentance, so refusing to believe in the kindness of God leaves one without repentance. The real tragedy is that choosing to believe these lies about God and resisting acceptance of these truths in favor of our common religious assumptions about Him is the very thing that stores up wrath for ourselves that will become self-destructive in the day of full revelation. That is the real truth about “punishment”.
This leads us to challenge our many false assumptions about the “day of judgment” and the “day of wrath” that all the world is warned about. No one will be able to escape that day, but it is extremely important that we receive a correct concept of what that day is really all about. The typical assumptions about the day of judgment are all based on lies about what God is like and how He relates to sinners. The day of judgment is usually viewed with great fear, but fear based on threats of an angry, vengeful God who will use His superior power to crush His enemies and vent His pent-up (human-style) wrath in torturing those who did not previously succumb to His pressure on them and be “converted”. But that kind of fear is based on the brand of fear produced in Satan's kingdom and originates with the enemy of God. To continue to cling to such false concepts of God after He has revealed Himself in a totally different light is to set one's self up to experience the consequences that appear to vindicate those very lies.
But God's judgment is very different in nature from our judgment. God's judgment is better understood in the Gospel of John and his other epistles. God's judgment always is in the context of unaffected love and is revealing of truth. This truth is not just the compilation of correct facts but is a revelation of the hidden things of the heart, the secrets that we harbor in not only knowledge of our personal lives but in our attitudes and beliefs about ourselves and about God. God's judgment is a light that simply reveals to everyone whether we are willing to be brought into harmony with what God has revealed about Himself to our heart, or whether we are still clinging to our resistance of His love and kindness and choose to believe the enemies lies about Him.
Judgment day is therefore a time when nothing will be secret anymore and the natural consequences of every being's choices will come to fulfillment. It is called a day of wrath because this wrath as used in the Bible simply means passion, and that day will be the ultimate revelation of passion, both good and bad. Romans 2 is a strong warning to people who claim to be followers of God but still have the wrong kind of passion influencing their relationships with others. Paul is warning us that we should not believe that our passion, our judgments, our criticisms are reflective of the truth about God.
Moses was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land because he made the mistake of displaying the human kind of passion and wrath while representing God to the world when he struck the rock in anger. We are no less responsible to represent the truth of God to others than was Moses. God is preparing a people made up of anyone who is willing to be transformed by His kindness, tolerance and patience to represent Him correctly before a world of people who only know lies about Him. He plans to reveal His real righteousness to the world in advance of the final day of judgment - “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
