The Judgment at Christ’s Coming

Date: March 9, 2025

Title: The Judgment at Christ’s Coming

Passage: 2 Thessalonians 1:6-12

Revival.

Heavy passage.

2 Thessalonians 1:5–12 ESV

“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

INTRODUCTION

In the passage before us today, we’re brought face-to-face with the reality of God’s justice—that God is a God who gives people what they deserve. Now, obviously we recognize that by the grace of God we can receive the free gift of salvation, which is something we don’t deserve… but if we reject that free gift of God that is offered to us in the gospel, then we will pay the just penalty for our own sins, because God is just.

Sin must be dealt with… Either you accept Christ who paid the penalty for your sins, or you reject Him but bear the consequences for them yourself; but in either case, justice will be, and must be, satisfied.

This is the consistent testimony of scripture. As D.A Carson has rightly pointed out, “The Bible insists that God is entirely just, and that therefore ultimately justice will be done, and will be seen to be done.”

And that’s just the truth of the matter. Justice will be done, and will be seen to be done. God will vindicate His people, and He will vindicate His very own just character before the entire watching world, on the last day history.

God will do this!

Now in the meantime, of course, God is being patient with sinners during this present evil age. He’s being very patient… We live during the period of delay when the principles of God’s common grace are being extended to all people alike, but be that as it may, a day is coming when God’s common grace will be replaced with His holy wrath! And on the day, when Christ returns - justice will be served - vengeance will be feared - punishment will be delivered - and relief will be granted!

You know, a moment ago, I mentioned how this passage is a heavy passage… and that most certainly is true—it really is, but at the same time, it’s also an extremely comforting passage because it reminds us that those who walk with God by faith now, and who endure much hardship in this life, will one day be glorified.

Paul addresses both realities in this section of scripture: (1) He speaks about the coming destruction of unbelievers, (2) but he also speaks about the coming glory of the children of God.

So, there’s a couple of things going on here… And since these are the two main issues he addresses, we want to make sure we hit on both of them as well.

And so, as we look at this passage as a whole, I want us to first consider what the lot and destiny of the non-Christian will be, and then after that we’ll consider what the lot and destiny of the Christian will be.

So, I got two points for us this morning, the first of which is what I’m calling:

1 - The Penalty for Rejection: V. 8-9

What is the penalty for rejecting Christ? Well, in V. 6-9, Paul tells us that it involves a few things like: (a) Affliction, (b) Vengeance, (c) Punishment (d) Divine abandonment; all of these things are manifestations of the Lord’s just repayment.

And Paul highlights how this is so in V. 6. Look at what he says…

And as we take a look at this, I just want to remind you not to forget the context set up in this passage. Remember how last week we saw how the Thessalonians were suffering for their faith in Christ. They were afflicted, which Paul interprets as evidence of the righteous judgment of God, which as we saw last week, represented the beginning stage of judgment.

Judgment always begins with the household of God, which is to say, it begins with God purifying His people through trials and tribulations in this life, but, though, that is where judgment begins, it is not where judgment ends.

And the main difference is that when judgment is directed towards the people of God, it has a positive, and saving, and sanctifying, and purifying purpose. But when judgment is directed towards the enemies of God, the end and goal of such judgment is destructive in nature.

Well, in V. 5-6, Paul is moving from where judgment begins to where judgment ends. According to V. 5, it begins with the household of God being purged of sin and unbelief in this life; but according to V. 6-9, it ends with the destruction of the wicked as a just repayment for their sins in the age to come.

And you can see how Paul traces out this order in V. 5-6, beginning first with the sufferings of Christians, to then address the ultimate outcome of those who inflict those sufferings on Christians.

He says, “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.”

Well here we can see that justice involves repayment. ‘Those who afflict you, Paul says, will be afflicted by God.’ In other words, punishment will fit the crime: an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth; affliction for affliction. This is the principle of retributive justice: people will get what they deserve.

And in this case, Paul is reassuring the Thessalonians’ that their persecuters will not get away with their persecution. They will be tried, they will be sentenced, and one day the wages of their sin will be given them in full.

Now sure, they may not have received it yet. In fact, you may even be tempted to think otherwise because as far as we can see, sometimes it really feels and seems like the wicked world can do whatever they want and get away with it.

But don’t be deceived, because the reality is, things will not always continue on as they are, for as Paul makes explicit in V. 8, a day is coming when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, and in flaming fire, He will inflict vengeance “on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

And by the way, just a brief note here: when Paul speaks about those who don’t obey the gospel, he’s talking about those who do not believe the gospel. Because keep in mind, the call of the gospel is a call to to repent and believe, and so when we fail to heed that invitation, then we are disobeying it’s divine call.

Maybe some of you are in that state today.

You’re spiritually lost. You don’t know God. You’re enslaved to sin. You haven’t experienced the joy of salvation. You hear the call of the gospel, where God is inviting you and indeed commanding you to come to Him to experience life, but you don’t heed His call. You just keep saying, No! You keep neglecting your soul and you keep rejecting Him.

But friends, you got to understand that you can only reject Him for so long before He rejects you. Yes, God is being patient with you now, wishing that you would come to repentance and turn to Christ for salvation, but the clock is ticking!

His judgment will only be postponed for so long. The age of grace is winding down, and when it finally reaches it’s end, at that point, Christ will be revealed from heaven to inflict vengeance on those who never entered into a saving relationship with God.

But there really is a day of judgment coming, and the terminology the Bible uses to describe that day is terrifying!

I mean His coming will be attended by mighty angels! It will be in flaming fire! There will be the outpouring of divine vengeance! The awsomeness of His presence will be disclosed! God will defend His just cause so that the weightiness of His glorious wrath will be revered as holy. As Carson said, ‘His justice will be done, and will be seen to be done!’

So, this is not a day to make light of.

It’s not a day to ignore or brush aside, for as Lord says, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.”

This is not a day we can escape; whether we’re alive at His coming or not, we will be there, and when it arrives, judgment will be exacted on those who rejected the only remedy for their sin.

And in V. 9, Paul describes the particular form that judgment will take. He says two things about: (1) the vengeance of God will involve the punishment of eternal destruction.

This is a horrifying reality to contemplate. There’s no annihilationism here. You don’t just go into the ground and that’s it. There’s no annihilation; there’s no extinction; there’s no temporal judgment; there’s no none of that.

This is eternal destruction.

And look, we can do all we want to evade the reality of it—we can put a finger over our ears to silence any real talk about hell; we can pretend it’s just one of those doctrines those radical fundamentalists believe in; we can play that pretentious game, where we do everything we can to put our consciences at ease; but none of that is going to get rid of reality.

Hell is just as much real as heaven is.

Indeed, it’s even a place where the presence of God is in some sense removed. (2) This is the second thing Paul points out about the execution of divine vengeance.

V. 9, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”

Now, whenever we read about the absence of God in scripture, we need to understand that it’s not talking about God’s spatial presence. God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere. There’s no place God cannot be in a spatial sense, but there are numerous ways in which the Bible can still speak about God being absent or present in other ways.

Beyond God’s universal presence, there is God’s manifest presence; God’s relational presence; God’s indwelling presence; God’s heavenly presence; God’s judgmental presence; God’s favorable presence. There’s a rich array of terms the Bible uses to depict God’s presence, and the way in which it is used is usually dependent upon what God is doing.

Well, since hell is the place of God’s judgment, then that would mean everything about His favorable presence, there, is totally absent.

In other words, to be away from the presence of the Lord is to be away from Him as the source of all goodness and blessing.

In effect, it’s the reversal of the Aaronic benediction… Remember what Numbers 6:24-26 says?

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Well, hell is the exact opposite of this reality. There’s no peace there; there’s only chaos and confusion. There’s no divine benedictions there; there’s only divine maledictions.

The beauty of God’s face will not be seen there. And on that point, it is interesting to note that even in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, when Paul speaks about being “away from the presence of the Lord…” The word for “presence” there could equally be translated as the “face” of the Lord. You see, Paul is speaking about the presence of God’s face.

And the face of God in scripture is a very rich concept. The face of the Lord is way of speaking about the effulgence of God’s transcendent glory. It’s associated with the beatific vision, or the blessed vision, or the happy vision, when the people of God are finally given the capacity to behold God in all of His heavenly glory!

It’s the Aaronic blessing par excellence. It’s God lifting up our countenance like we’ve never seen so that He can finally unveil the splendour, and majesty, and beauty of His glory in all of it’s fullness!

Friends, that’s what heaven will be like. We will see Him face to face.

But in hell, God turns His face away.

This is the ultimate malediction. This is the curse of all curses. This is the summative imprecation that brings about desolation and death.

I means the wicked will literally be banished from God’s holy abode, where the blessedness of His presence permeates everything.

Which means, everything that’s beautiful, everything that sings and smiles, everything that’s lovely and delightful to our senses, everything in all creation that lifts up the countenance of man, leading them to rejoice and be glad, will be gone!

It will be forever gone!!

This needs to weigh heavy on us.

This should produce a great deal of brokenheartedness in each one of us.

Because the fact of the matter is, here in this passage, we are being clearly taught that the glory of God’s intimate and favorable presence, including the glory of His might particularly as it’s expressed in the extention of His grace, love, mercy, and kindness, will one day be forever removed.

This is the penalty for rejection.

Given that it is…

Plead with you to make things right with God today.

You can literally be saved in your seat right now.

Salvation is a free gift of God given to those who believe.

Trust in Christ.

Ask Him to forgive you.

He will be merciful.

He will save you.

And one day, when Christ returns, He will deliver you entirely.

That’s a promise you can count on.

This leads us to point # 2. First, we considered the penalty for rejection…

2 - The Promise of Relief: V. 7, 10-12

After Paul, in V. 6, spells out the just repayment God will exact on those were afflicting the Thessalonians, in V. 7, he then goes on to describe what God will do for His people.

“And to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.”

This is the good news. When Jesus returns, He will grant His people relief! In other words, they’ll experience true rest.

Now, something interesting about this verse that I would point out to you, is that you’ll notice how Paul in this passage holds out the possibility that, he, Silas, and Timothy, including all the Thessalonians may have been alive to witness this event during their lifetime.

Paul clearly believed that those living at the time of Christ’s coming would be granted relief from the trials and troubles inflicted upon them in this present age.

In his context, this was specifically relevant to the Thessalonians. If Jesus returned in their lifetime, then they would’ve been granted relief. But you know, technically speaking, the same thing holds true for the church in any age.

That’s why the promise of relief that was first uttered to the Christians living in Thessalonica, can actually be said to Christians living in any age… And the reason for that is because if this age is marked by trials, troubles, and tribulation, then no matter when Christ comes back, it can always be said that the church at that time will be granted relief.

Now, this actually plays into the whole NT concept of what theologians sometimes call the imminent return of Christ, but without delving into that discussion, what I want to point out here is that whenever Christ returns, at that point the church will be granted relief from her trials.

And this is what Paul is pointing the Thessalonians towards. He’s saying, ‘look guys, I know it’s difficult right now, but keep your eyes on the finish line; don’t lose sight of the blessed hope, because when Jesus returns, all of these difficulties will be removed, and you will be granted total and complete rest.’

This is a glorious promise that will one day be fulfilled.

And I think what Paul says here needs to be reiterated again and again, especially in our day and age today, when there’s a lot of discussion about the future being had in Christian circles.

Whatever we make of the future, Paul never gave any indication that the people of God should be looking forward to a time when all the natians will be Christianized to such an extent that the church will enter into a golden age of peace and prosperity.

To look for such an idea is to look in vain.

But what we do see is, Paul, constantly directing his readers to look to the second coming of Christ… why? Well, it’s because that’s where our hope lies; that’s when the restoration of all things takes place; that’s when all things will be made new; and thus, that’s what we should be focused on, because the truth is, only then will we be granted relief, and in addition to that, only then will God’s work in us be fulfilled so that the ultimate goal of glory will be attained.

This is the testimony of God that needs to be believed. Paul spoke about it in V. 10-12.

In V. 11-12, he explains how our future glorification should affect us in the way we live now. It should transform us. And he prays earnestly about it! Paul prays that God would be so at work in the Thessalonians now, so that in everything they say and do, the glory of Christ’s character would be reflected in them. And that this would all redound to the praise of God’s glorious grace!

So, in V. 10-12 Paul links the future to the present, but for our purposes this morning I want to emphasize the future aspect of our salvation that’s highlighted in V. 10.

According to V. 10, we are told that when Jesus comes back, He is coming back to be glorified in His saints! And the emphasis there, as Greg Beale points out, “is not so much on the glorification of the saved inasmuch as it is on the glorification of the Saviour in the saved.”

In other words, it’s almost like we’ll be a clear sheet of glass placed right in front of Jesus so that when people look at us, they’re seeing the glory of Christ shine in us and through us.

This is the day for which we await. It’s a day that will cause us all to marvel. We will be astounded by it! The work that God’s begun in us now, which no doubt is amazing in it’s own right, will not be able to compare to the glory with which we will be glorified, in Christ, on that day!

This is the plan and purpose of God for your life, and rest assured, He will bring it to pass.

I love the way that Beale summarizes V. 10-12.

(I know I quote him a lot… he’s the best!)

“God performs his artwork upon his people throughout their lives and throughout history (see 1:11), which is finally brought to perfection at the very end of time. At Christ’s coming, they will be perfected pieces of art, like sculptures, perfectly reflecting God’s marvelous handiwork and radiating back upon Christ the glorious virtues that Christ, together with the Father, worked in them. This is why saints will “marvel” at God on that day.”

Brothers and sisters, when Christ returns, God is going to complete His painting once and for all, and it will be the most beautiful portrait ever to be seen.

And believer, be encouraged by this, because the good news is that you are part of that portrait… Your name’s written on it…. A complete makeover is coming your way! God is going to so refashion you. He is going to transform you through and through. All your sins, all your struggles, all your blemishes, all your imperfections will melt like wax before a blast furnace on that day. Christ Jesus will adorn you with His very own character so that you are made to reflect His glory!

This is what He will do for us… this is what He will do in us… and make no mistake, all of this will be done according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

Well, given that this section ends with an emphasis on the grace of God, I think that’s probably a good cue for me to do the same.

So, let me close by reminding you that we all stand in need of grace.

We’re all sinners.

We’ve all broken God’s law.

We all deserve judgment.

We all have a mess that we can’t clean up.

That’s why grace is so needed! Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve.

And that’s important for us to remember, because how ill advised would we be to actually think we’re going to heaven because we earned it!

God forbid we ever think such a thing!

Nobody goes to heaven to enjoy perfect communion with the living God because they earned it.

And so, the major difference between the end of the Christian and the end of the non-Christian, then, isn’t a matter of Christians being better or more deserving.

We’re destined for glory because we’re recipients of grace!

Grace is the only path that leads to the celestial city.

If you want to escape the coming judgment of God that will result in eternal destruction, then plead with God to be gracious to you… You need to ask Him to forgive you, pardon you, cleanse you, and save you. These are all works of God that He will graciously perform in your life if you humble yourself and put your faith in Christ.

Don’t postpone it for another minute. The stakes are high. The clock is ticking. Christ is coming back. Eternity is on the line.

Make things right with Him today. He’s a merciful Savior, who will in no wise cast out those who simply come to Him in faith, and who believe in the sufficiency of His grace to save, even a sinner like me.

May God give us eyes to see it.

Prayer.