31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”
The Great Divide is coming, the final judgment. The event will be binary in nature, that is, there will be, at the most fundamental level, two outcomes. If there is one thing Christianity teaches absolutely, it is the final judgment of everyone who has ever lived. Jesus here depicted it in metaphorical, agricultural terms. The Apostle John, inspired by the Spirit of God, later described it in visionary form as the Great White Throne judgment (see Revelation 20:11).
The picture is magnificent: Christ, called the “Son of Man,” is seated on a throne described as glorious. The “kenosis” or “emptying Himself” of glory (to which Philippians 2:7 refers) will have come to an end. The answer to Jesus’ prayer of John 17:5 will be in full evidence, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” In His first coming, Jesus’s ministry was not one of judgment but of grace for salvation, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). At His second coming, He will sit with His Father on the throne of judgment. It will be a glorious time, for true justice (which is the catchword of our times) will be evident in all its glory. God will be seen as the one true, just Judge.
Furthermore, “all the nations” will stand before God. This means every single individual within every nation. No one will escape, for He is, “… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12b-13). All religions, all faith systems, everything human, we will all be judged by the same objective standard, the living Word, Jesus Christ Himself.
The division will be simple, like a shepherd separating out the sheep from the goats, the sheep going on the right and the goats on the left. All that matters to us humans is on which side we will find ourselves. It is one or the other, no in-between. No purgatory, no limbo, no half-way. Jesus often reduced things to such a binary perspective. You are either “for me” or “against me,” He would say. The criterion remains to this day. Which side are you on?
Lord, out of genuine “fear” of You, I have cast my eternal destiny into Your nail- pierced hands. Thank You for already taking the judgment that I deserved.
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