He Describes the Judgment to Come

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It was still Tuesday in the last week in the life of Christ. It is late and He has been teaching them about things that relate to the Kingdom of Heaven. In these verses He describes the "judgment" that was to come. This type of discourse is not considered to be a parable. It is called delineation. Delineation is the act of representing, portraying or describing graphically or verbally, a situation. Two situations are being so described in these verses. One, symbolism of the sheep and the goats for the lost and the saved, and second, the dialogue between the Judge and the people on judgment day.
The discourse establishes 5 facts about the judgment:

There will be a judgment. Every person that ever lived will be judged at that time. Some to everlasting misery and some to everlasting happiness. They will be first judged by what they did with Christ.
The Judge on that day will be the Son of Man, Jesus The Christ. Luke says in Ch. 17:31, "To Christ, all judgment is committed." When Jesus is spoken of as a judge, He is always called the Son of Man, a term only He called Himself. He is to judge the sons of men because He Himself was of the same nature.
Christ will appear, as Judge, with great glory and splendor.
When He comes, He will bring all His Angels with Him. Notice their duties: They will be His attendants and His ministers of justice. As His attendants, they will attend His every need as they have from the beginning of time. As His ministers of justice, they will:

Call the court together.
Gather the elect.
Bundle the tares.
Witness to the Saints glory.
Witness to the sinners misery.

He will set upon the throne of judgment and glory.

Then Jesus describes what will take place.

All will appear before Him. All who have lived from the beginning of time until that day.
They will appear in two groups. Here, the wheat sand the tares dwell together. Often they are not distinguishable from one another. We are told not to separate them in this world, less we destroy some of the wheat by mistake., but in that day, they shall be separated.

In the second parallel, the saved and the loss are symbolized by sheep and goats. Jesus is again the Great Shepherd. The sheep and the goats are allowed to graze together, but at night, they are put in separate folds. Here it says that He will put the sheep, the saved, on His right, and the goats, the lost, on His left. All other aspects that divide us in this world, will be abolished.
The second situation in this delineation deals with the dialogue between the Judge and the people on Judgment Day. Notice the order of business. The saved will be dealt with first. We saw this in the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. Part of the torment of Hell was to see the reward of the Saints.
Notice what He says to the saved:

"Come, Welcome, be with me forever."
"You are blessed by the Father." Given salvation by Grace through faith.

Notice their reward. They inherited the Kingdom of Heaven that had been prepared from the beginning of time. Heaven was conceived and prepared for the Saints in the beginning in the work of creation. Those who will be in this group were fore-known and their names were written in the Lambs Book of God. We get a little insight into Heaven in this story. The Father designed it for them from the beginning with thoughts of love. The Son purchased it for them out of love, and our place there is by inheritance, it is a gift, an act of love, surly undeserved.
Verses 34 thru 40 may give the idea that we worked our way into Heaven if taken out of context. We fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, welcomed strangers, and clothed the naked. But these acts of kindness did not save us but were the outgrowth of what did, the love of God, a gift to the sinner when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, done out of love, not to obtain salvation. Matthew Henry calls them "evidences" of the new birth.
Notice the works was divided to imply 3 things that must be found in the saved.

Self-denial and contempt for the world. The world's goods are accumulated so as to allow us to do good with them.
Love of the Brethren. We must give proof of this love by our willingness to do good.
A working attitude for the sake of Christ. Relieving those in need for Christ's sake. Paul says in Col. 3:17, "Good works will be accepted when they are done in the name of the Lord."

We often wonder if crisis in our lives are the acts of God, or acts of Providence or fate or bad luck. Here we see that hunger, loneliness, sickness or even imprisonment are conditions that exist often by our own doing but sometimes by the doing of others. Matthew Henry says, "Providence so variously orders and disposes the circumstances of God's people in this world that while some are in the condition to give, others are in need to receive." We who are in a position to give will be held responsible for charity as proof of our love.
Notice they question their own works. All Saints will be surprised when their works are revealed. Some pleasantly, as these were, and some disapprovingly, believing they did better than the records will show. But, as Paul says, all Saints will be saved, it will be their works that will be lost. Here, Jesus is speaking of the lost and the saved. Some loss people will be surprised when they find out that their "good works" will not save them. To these, Jesus will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." They would not come to Christ in this world and receive a blessing so now they must depart and receive a curse. Notice the curse. "Everlasting fire." Isaiah said it was prepared of old and fore ordained for the lost, an everlasting fire, torment forever.
It is interesting to note that Hell was never prepared for sinners as Heaven was prepared for saints. Hell was prepared for Satan and his angels but the lost obtain it by association, which leads to the sin of omission. Not what they did, but what they didn't do. Not for wasting their talent, but for burying it. Notice they were condemned for the omission of that good that was in their power to do.
Notice they do not understand why they were so judged. They had closed their minds here on earth to the needs of the poor, had removed the nerve from their conscience, until even now, they do not know what they did that was wrong. But there is no time for rebuttal. Sentence is executed speedily. The wicked will be made to go away into eternal punishment, for they will not go voluntarily.
So in conclusion, notice this. All people have eternal life. Where they spend that eternity will depend on what they do with Jesus Christ and the evidence of it.

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