God, in the person of Jesus Christ, is to be the judge. Though God is the judge of all (Heb. 12:23), yet this judicial activity is exercised through Christ, at the last day, as well as in the present state (John 5:22, 27).
Heb. 12:23—“to God the judge of all”; John 5:22, 27—“For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son ... and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.”Stevens, Johannine Theology, 349—“Jesus says that he judges no man (John 8:15). He does not personally judge men. His attitude toward men is solely that of Savior. It is rather his work, his word, his truth, which pronounces condemnation against them both here and hereafter. The judgment is that light is come; men's attitude toward [pg 1028]the light involves their judgment; the light judges them, or, they judge themselves.... The Savior does not come to judge but to save them; but, by their rejection of salvation, they turn the saving message itself into a judgment.”
This, for three reasons:
(a) Christ's human nature enables men to understand both the law and the love of God, and so makes intelligible the grounds on which judgment is passed.
Whoever says that God is too distant and great to be understood may be pointed to Christ, in whose human life the divine “law appears, drawn out in living characters,”and the divine love is manifest, as suffering upon the cross to save men from their sins.
(b) The perfect human nature of Christ, united as it is to the divine, ensures all that is needful in true judgment, viz.: that it be both merciful and just.
Acts 17:31—“he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
As F. W. Robertson has shown in his sermon on “The Sympathy of Christ” (vol. 1: sermon vii), it is not sin that most sympathizes with sin. Sin blinds and hardens. Only the pure can appreciate the needs of the impure, and feel for them.
(c) Human nature, sitting upon the throne of judgment, will afford convincing proof that Christ has received the reward of his sufferings, and that humanity has been perfectly redeemed. The saints shall “judge the world” only as they are one with Christ.
The lowly Son of man shall sit upon the throne of judgment. And with himself he will join all believers. Mat. 19:28—“ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”; Luke 22:28-30—“But ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel”; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3—“know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?... Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” Rev. 3:21—“He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.”