Matthew 25:31-46 is Jesus' description of what will happen on Judgment Day. If you read it, you might recognize it as the familiar story of "The Sheep and The Goats."

Many people read that and conclude that Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, is a very cruel God. He tells one group of people they served him and he rewards their service and he condemns another group of people whom he claims didn’t serve him. But both groups never even realized they were or weren’t serving him. "This is lunacy!" is the objection. "What so-called loving God would be so cavalier about people’s eternal destination? 'You go to heaven, you go to hell!'" They hear him thundering from the pages of Scripture: Keep in line! Do this! Now do that! Live this way! Now live that way! And they conclude that God must be a hateful, angry being, who only motivates by fear. That’s what a sinful unbelieving person must conclude because to that person God doesn’t make sense.

You know better, though. You know that God is a loving God. Or do you? Isn’t there a part of you that agrees with what we just said? Isn’t there a part in all of us that is afraid of God, that dreads to stand before the Son of Man on Judgment Day with hair as white as wool, sitting on a throne blazing with fire, a river of fire flowing beneath him and the Books of Life opened to our page? Isn’t there a part of us that says, “I had better shape up or else I’m done for”?

Yes, there is that part in all of us. But faith knows better. Faith knows the true nature of God. Faith knows you have nothing to fear about Judgment Day. Faith knows that your Judge is also your Savior - Jesus Christ.