Christ Knows His Own at the Final Judgment

Second to Last Sunday| Matthew 25:31-46| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| November 17, 2024

The day is surely coming when all peoples of every nation upon the earth will stand before Christ for final judgment. The dead will be raised. The living will be gathered. Every last soul will stand before Him as Scripture clearly says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) This is a reality which should form our way of thinking and our way of living. You will stand before Christ to be judged by Him. You will give an account for your works, your words (Matthew 12:36), and thoughts (Luke 2:35).

And at this final judgment, Christ will know who are His. He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous, like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. It is just as Jesus says in John 10, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me.” While we live on this earth, the sheep and the goats mingle. The righteous live among the unrighteous. Not only in the secular world, in which we must conduct our business, but also within the church of God, as many hypocrites and false Christians sneak in as tares among the wheat. While we sojourn in this world, the wheat must grow among the tares and the sheep must graze among the goats. But the day will come when the Lord will send forth His angels, and He will separate His true Christians from the ungodly, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, as harvesters separate wheat from tares, and as fisherman separate good fish into containers, but throw out the rotten fish (Matthew 13). The stakes cannot be higher. Those whom Jesus recognizes as His own will enter eternal life. The wicked, however, will be cast into eternal punishment.

Yet, how will Christ recognize His own? Well, in fact, Christ has recognized His own from before the foundation of the world, because God chose them in Christ from before He created the world. Christ says to His sheep on His right a very similar statement as St. Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus. Here Christ says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34) St. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” (vss. 3-4)

Christ will recognize His own because God the Father chose them for Him before the foundation of the world. Jesus says in John 10, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (vss. 27-29) Before you were created, before you were a twinkle in your father’s eye, God knew you. He chose you to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, to be His dear child through faith, to walk in good works, which He prepared for you beforehand (Ephesians 2:10). This means that you are saved by grace alone. Grace means God’s undeserved love for you. You do not deserve to be chosen by God. It is not as if God looked in the future, saw that you would be such a good Christian, and He chose you in light of that foreknowledge. No. Rather, if God had not chosen you, you would never choose Him. You would still be dead in your sin, dead in your unbelief, a hater of God and of Christ if God did not choose you in Christ from before the foundation of the World. But because God chose you in Christ, Christ knows you. And He will know you on the Last Day.

This does not mean that God does not desire to save all people or that Jesus did not die to save all people. St. Peter tells us in our Epistle lesson, “The Lord… is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) And God did not choose anyone from the foundation of the world to be damned. While Christ tells the righteous that their inheritance was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, He tells the unrighteous that their eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. God didn’t prepare the fire for them. God desires to save all people (1 Timothy 2:4), which is why He sent Christ to make propitiation for the sins of all people (1 John 2:2). Yet, only those chosen by God are saved, as Jesus says, “Many are called; few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14) This is a mystery, which has confounded theologians and philosophers from the beginning. We must leave the mystery to God. God desires to save all people. Yet, He has chosen His elect to be saved. Their salvation is certain and cannot fail. God is not to blame for those who reject Him. He has called to them, but they in their own stubbornness have refused Him. And we too would refuse Him, had He not chosen us by grace.

The elect are saved through faith in Christ alone. They are not chosen apart from Christ. So, only those who have faith in Christ can claim to be chosen by God. The elect are not without sin. According to your own works, you too deserve to go to hell. Yet, Christ will tell you and the rest of the elect to inherit the kingdom prepared for you, because He was hungry and you fed Him, He was thirsty, and you gave Him drink, He was a stranger, and you welcomed Him, naked and you clothed Him, sick and in prison, and you visited Him. How can this be? If we are sinners, how can we enter eternal life? And if we are saved by grace apart from our works, why does Jesus mention our works?

First, you are saved despite your sins, because you are forgiven. St. Paul writes in Romans 4, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count His sins.’” (Romans 4:4-8) For those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ Jesus, their sins are not counted against them, but they are forgiven. This is why St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (vs 1)

In Christ, your sins have been covered from God’s sight, drowned in the depths of the sea, removed as far as the east is from the west. Jesus took away the sins of the world, so those who believe in Him have no sins of their own. Christ has clothed His baptized believers in His own righteousness, so when God looks upon His elect, He sees no sin, but only the righteousness of Christ. This is why Jesus says in John 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (vs. 24) So, you indeed have your own sins. And you deserve to go to hell because of them. But if you repent and put those sins on Jesus for Him to wash away in His blood, there remains nothing to condemn you on the Last Day.

Yet, Jesus doesn’t say all that to the sheep and the goats, does He? Instead, He tells the sheep to enter paradise, because they ministered to Him. And He tells the goats to depart into eternal fire, because they did not minister to Him. If we are saved by grace, why does Jesus mention good works? Well, this all makes sense if you understand what a good work is. And to understand what a good work is, you need to know who is judging the good work. You are not the judge. The American public are not the judge. No one on this earth is the judge. The Judge is God alone. And how does God determine what a good work is? A good work is done through and for Christ. A good work is a forgiven work done through faith.

St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  A work may look good on the outside. And there are many such good works on this earth, which impress the masses. But they are not done in faith. They do not serve Christ. And they do not serve His Church. These so-called good works are riddled with sin, and indeed come from a sinful heart. It is impossible to please God without faith.

The works done by the sheep are pleasing to God, because they are done through faith in the forgiveness of sins. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus teaches that the person who is forgiven the greater debt, loves more, but the one who is forgiven little, loves little. Jesus’ sheep love much, because they have been forgiven much and they know it. Their works are praised by Christ, because they are forgiven works. These are not works done by the sinful flesh, but produced by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in Christians through faith. These are the works prepared by God beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). And whatever weakness our sinful nature adds to these good works are forgiven by Christ. So, for Christ’s saints, all their sins are forgiven and their good works are produced by the Holy Spirit as fruit and proof of their election.

“When did we see you in need and minister to you?” the sheep will ask Christ. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Jesus will respond. This shows us that Christ identifies Himself with His sheep. In Acts 9, when Christ appeared to Saul (better known as St. Paul), He said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians. If you persecute Christians, you persecute Christ. Yet, if you minister to Christians, you minister to Christ. In Matthew 10, Jesus says to His disciples, “Whoever receives you receives me…” and “Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (vss. 40,42)

 This shows how serious Jesus was when He said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, by how you love one another.” (John 13:34-35) Christians show their faith in Christ by loving one another. When you love your fellow Christian, you show love for Christ, because Christ dwells in that Christian and identifies Himself with that Christian. And this isn’t a hypothetical, “Oh, I’ll be kind to a Christian if I see one.” No, the opportunity to love your fellow Christian is always before you. Christian parents love Christ by serving their Christian children, feeding, and clothing them, and of course, providing for their spiritual care. Christian children care for their elderly parents. Christians minister to each other, because they live together in a community on earth. Our community is this congregation. We worship together. We pray together. We sing and rejoice and mourn together. We share in the very body and blood of Christ, so that when we depart in peace, we are departing with those in whom Christ dwells.

The stranger you welcome is often the pastor you don’t know from Adam, but whom God has sent to preach Christ to you and to shepherd your soul. Christians minister to Christ by supporting the preaching of the Gospel in their congregation. The sick and imprisoned are their fellow Christians, who are kept away from the congregation, because of poor health, age, or persecution. We do not forget them, but visit them and care for them.

Christ will know His own, when all stand before Him to be judged. And His own will be those who trusted in Him for forgiveness of their sins and who walked in the good works prepared for them. His own will be those who lived and served in His congregation here on earth. We are saved apart from our works. Yet, God has prepared great works for us to do here on earth. So, while we are here, let us walk in them in service to Christ. Amen.