John 3:17-18
​​”God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (NLT)

I distinctly remember when the solar eclipse happened in 2017. I was working at a local hospital—which, as you can imagine, wasn’t a place that afforded a lot of free time to wander around outside. But that day, doctors, nurses, and administrators all gathered in the parking lots and used either jury-rigged viewing apparatuses or special glasses to experience the eclipse. If you didn’t know, there’s another total eclipse in April this year, and most of us will get to see a really cool, near-perfect eclipse!

The way people gathered and looked up at the eclipse that day is similar to how I imagine the day of judgment, based on the various ways it’s described in Scripture. This past Sunday, Scott did a great job covering the way God will render His sentence at judgment. It’s a heavy topic for sure, but one with a powerful story of grace and truth flowing through it. Like we talked about yesterday briefly, justification is the goal—but the nature of judgment is what allows for God to be truly just. Unfortunately, unbelievers are judged in a way that correlates to the way they lived: apart from God’s plan. They’re judged by their good and bad actions, and I can say if that was my fate, I would know the verdict without a doubt. But today, I’d like to focus primarily on how believers can find comfort in judgment because it’s a testament to the goodness of God and His plan.

Like many of us will do during the eclipse in April, God views us through a “lens”—that lens being the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Because we believe in Jesus, our bad “bucket” is empty at judgment. Jesus took all the bad—our mistakes, mess, and brokenness—allowing us to be justified by faith. Our good, righteous pursuits are what we are judged by, but knowing those things come from a lifelong pursuit of God, we can rest in the fact that our eternity does not hinge upon them. We can find comfort in knowing that on our worst days, we’re still just as saved as we are on our best days. Our salvation isn’t a metric of our ability or actions—it’s only about the work Jesus did on our behalf.

Wednesday’s Reflection

Are you wondering if baptism may be the right next step for you? Have questions about it? Learn more and start that conversation today! Side note: We’ll have a special baptism opportunity during each of our Easter services this year—learn more about that here!