Judgment with Mercy

[Christsfreeservant]

“The Lord utters His voice before His army;​

Surely His camp is very great,​

For strong is he who carries out His word.​

The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome,​

And who can endure it?​

‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord,​

‘Return to Me with all your heart,​

And with fasting, weeping and mourning;​

And rend your heart and not your garments.’​

Now return to the Lord your God,​

For He is gracious and compassionate,​

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness​

And relenting of evil.” (Joel 2:11-13 NASB1995)​

Many people professing faith in Jesus Christ today are walking (in conduct) in deliberate and habitual disobedience to the Lord, in sinful practices. For they are not believing in Christ Jesus with biblical faith, but with an altered and diluted faith which makes no requirements for death to sin and for walks of obedience to our Lord in surrender to his will. For they are believing the lies of the enemy which tell them to surrender to their darkest dreams, and to let their fantasies run wild, and to give in to their darker side, and to commit the sins they so desire, for God’s grace, they say, covers it all.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

The grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return. For Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (See Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

And we learn in 1 John 1-3 that if we claim that we have fellowship with God, but yet we walk in darkness (sin), we are liars. If we claim that we know God, but we do not obey his commandments, in practice, we are liars. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

And so God is calling out to all who have forsaken him and his commands, and who have gone their own pathway, instead, for whom sin is what they practice and not righteousness, holy living, and obedience to our Lord’s New Covenant commands. If they want to escape the judgment of God and to be assured of eternal life with God, then they must repent of their sins (to turn from; to have a change of mind and heart resulting in a change of behavior). And now they must follow the Lord in obedience and in daily dying to sin.

But this isn’t just about the final judgment when Christ Jesus takes his faithful bride to be with him for eternity and when God casts out the disobedient from his presence, and they spend eternity in hell separate from God. For there is a physical judgment coming upon the nations of the world which is against all who have rejected and denied Christ as the Lord (Owner-Master) of their lives by the life choices they made which were in direct contradiction to God’s commands and to his will and purpose for our lives.

But God is not without mercy. No matter how badly you may have sinned against God, and regardless of the amount of evil you have done in this life, or for how long you have resisted the Lord and yielded to your evil, instead, if you will now humble yourself before God, and truly turn from your sinful practices, with sincere hearts, God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness, and he will forgive you and save you from your slavery to sin so you can serve him the rest of your days.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Recording Via Gerry Peters, music producer and arranger

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

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Judgment with Mercy
An Original Work / September 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love