God our Judge

All week I have been meditating on Hebrews 2:1-4 in preparation for Sunday's sermon. It is the first of the warning passages in Hebrews and serves as a reminder that one day we will face our holy Judge who will take account of our lives. The idea of God as judge, indeed the whole notion of judgement has been dismissed by many within the ranks of evangelicalism. Brian MacLaren has written that we must put away the "metaphor" of God as judge. Rob Bell has assured us that there is no judgment awaiting the end of the age. This of course is nothing short of blasphemy and a deliberate denial of the clear testimony of Scripture.

I found the following quote from The New Bible Dictionary:

Man today rejects out of hand the idea that he must one day render account for his life and its decisions. His loss of conviction concerning an after-life, combined with the erosion of the notion of moral responsibility on the basis of popular understanding of psychological and psycho-analytical theories, has contributed to the moral indifference and pragmatism of our times. Moral issues, in so far as they matter at all, relate only to the present moment and to considerations of personal happiness. The thought that they might relate to some transcendent divine dimension, or that all men will one day be inescapably summoned to accept responsibility for these very moral decisions in the all-seeing presence of their Creator, is anathema. Unforunately for modern man it happens to be true. Judgment is inevitable and awaits us all. In face of this modern tendency to dismiss future judgment there is the greater and more urgent responsibility placed upon the Christian church tenaciously to maintain the biblical perspective.