judgement of jesus in matt 25 mqac

Judgment of the Nations

(25:31–46)

10

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (25:31–46)

The Bible makes clear that all sin is known to God and that all sin must be punished. Moses declared, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23), and the writer of Proverbs testified that “adversity pursues sinners” (Prov. 13:21). Moses also wrote, “Thou hast placed our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy presence” (Ps. 90:8). In other words, what may appear to us to be secret is actually in the full, clear view of God. No sin escapes God’s notice or God’s judgment. The consequence of sin is like a shadow that cannot be shaken, and what the wicked “deserves will be done to him” (Isa. 3:11). Judgment for sin is inevitable.

Paul sums up that basic truth in his letter to the Romans: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (1:18, emphasis added). Later in that same letter the apostle wrote, “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil” (2:9, emphasis added). No sin and no sinner is exempted from God’s judgment and punishment.

Not even the sins of Christians are exempt. The marvelous and gracious privilege granted to Christians, however, is to have had the judgment and punishment for all their sins placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who died as the substitute for sinners. By God’s divine grace working through their obedient trust in His Son, believers have the guilt and penalty for their sins nailed to the cross with Christ, who made atonement sufficient even for the sins of the whole world.

But those who do not receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior must bear the penalty for their own sins, which is spiritual death and eternal damnation. The warning to unbelievers is stated over and over again in Scripture by word and demonstrated by direct acts of divine judgment. When Adam committed the first sin, there was judgment of massive proportions, confirming for all time the seriousness with which God views evil. That sin committed by one man not only devastated the human race but the entire created universe with it. During the time of Noah, iniquity had become so widespread and vile that God destroyed all mankind except for the eight righteous souls in Noah’s immediate family. Sodom and Gomorrah became so utterly wicked that God destroyed those cities simultaneously with fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:24–25). Throughout history God has chosen sovereignly to judge certain nations, cities (see Matt. 11:21–24), and individuals, and those judgments stand as divine signposts to mankind, warning that no person or group of people, no matter how powerful by human standards, can sin with impunity (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6–12).

God’s judgment is a repeated theme both in the Old and New Testaments. The judgment emphasized in the Old Testament is primarily temporal, whereas that in the New Testament is primarily eternal. With significant exceptions, the Old focuses on punishment suffered in this world and the New on punishment suffered in the next. The Old more often speaks about God’s physically destroying nations, punishing cities, or afflicting individuals because of their wickedness. The New on the other hand, more often speaks of judgment that lasts through all eternity.

No one in Scripture spoke more of judgment than Jesus. He spoke of sin that could not be forgiven, of the danger of losing one’s soul forever, of spending eternity in the torments of hell, of existing forever in outer darkness, where there will be perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth. No pictures of judgment are more intense and sobering than those Jesus portrayed.

Yet nothing Jesus said or did was inconsistent with His gracious love. He wept at the impending punishment coming on Jerusalem’s people (Luke 19:41–44). His warnings of judgment and punishment were acts of love, divine appeals for men to turn from their sin in order to escape the condemnation that would otherwise be inevitable. One of love’s supreme desires is to protect those it loves from harm, and Jesus therefore spoke so much of judgment because, in His infinite love and grace, it was not His wish nor the Father’s “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). What more important and loving warning could there be than warning about the eternal damnation every human being faces apart from Jesus Christ? Jesus sought to draw men to Himself not only through the attractiveness of salvation but through the horrors of its only alternative.

Jesus’ closing words in the Olivet discourse-a sermon on His second coming given privately to the disciples after His last public teaching in the Temple-were one of the most severe and sobering warnings of judgment in all of Scripture. Pictured as the divine separation of the righteous sheep from the unrighteous goats, that judgment will occur just before Christ establishes His millennial kingdom on earth. Not only will it determine the ultimate, eternal destinies of everyone living at the end of the Tribulation but will also determine who will and will not enter the kingdom. Only those who belong to the King, believers who have been born into God’s spiritual family and been made citizens of His spiritual kingdom, will enter His glorious kingdom.

The judgment of the sheep and goats is not mentioned in any of the other gospels, no doubt because they do not focus on Christ’s kingship, as does Matthew. For that same reason Matthew places much greater emphasis on all aspects of the Lord’s second coming than do the other gospels, because it is at His return that He will manifest Himself as King of kings and Lord of lords in consummate regal glory and power (Rev. 19:11–16).

The Setting of Judgment

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; (25:31–32a)

The Judge

But when the Son of Man (25:31a)

The sovereign Judge over the separation of the sheep and goats will be Christ Himself, the Son of Man. Jesus had earlier declared that “not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (John 5:22). God the Father has delegated all judgment authority to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The most common title Jesus used of Himself was the Son of Man. That title affirmed His incarnation, His identity with mankind, His time of humiliation and sacrifice. It reflected His condescension, His submissiveness, His humility, His meekness, and His gracious love for fallen humanity.

That title also tended to be less offensive than “Son of God.” To have referred regularly to Himself as the Son of God would have aroused additional and needless hostility from the Jewish religious leaders, and they would have given even less heed to His teaching than they did.

In a similar way, to have referred regularly to Himself as King would have aroused the hostility and opposition of the Roman authorities, who were quick to suppress any hint of insurrection.

In addition to those reasons, for Jesus regularly to have used any such exalted title of Himself would have tempted His followers to be presumptuous and arrogant, missing His message of spiritual salvation. It would have greatly increased their already staunch conviction that, as Messiah, He would soon overthrow the Roman yoke anti establish His earthly kingdom on the throne of David.

In addition to those reasons, His referring to Himself as Son of Man provided a profound contrast with the titles and roles He will have when He comes in glory. It suggested a clear distinction between His two comings.

On the other hand, His referring to Himself both as Son of Man and as heavenly King (vv. 34, 40) reinforced the truth that He is indeed both. The condescending, humble, and humiliated Son of Man will return one day as the glorious, sovereign, reigning, and judging King of kings and Lord of lords.

Until this point in His ministry Jesus had never directly referred to Himself as King. He had told a parable about a king who represented God the Father (Matt. 22:1–14); but not until now, talking privately to the Twelve (24:3), did He speak of Himself as King. Even when Pilate asked, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied simply, “It is as you say” (Matt. 27:11). But Pilate did not take that claim seriously, at least not in a political sense, as evidenced by the fact that he offered the Jews an opportunity to secure Jesus’ release, knowing “that because of envy they had delivered Him up” (vv. 17–18).

For a long while the Jewish people, and certainly their religious leaders, knew that Jesus claimed to be a kind of king, because He claimed to be Messiah (see Luke 23:2). It was because they hoped that, as Messiah, He would conquer Rome and reign over a delivered Israel that they had acclaimed Him during the triumphal entry. There was no misunderstanding among Jews that Jesus claimed to be Messiah, the coming great King. Nor could there be any misunderstanding that He claimed to be God’s own Son. But publicly, Jesus nevertheless was always judicious in the way He made such claims. He did not want to needlessly incite the ire of His enemies.

Now, however, in privacy with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He unambiguously declared that He, the Son of Man, would one day take His rightful place as the great King and Judge. The point of this account is that, sitting “on His glorious throne” (v. 31), He will reign over the earth and that His first act as sovereign Lord will be to decide who enters His millennial, earthly kingdom and who does not. And because His kingdom will encompass the entire earth, it is obvious that those who are not allowed to enter will not remain on earth. As Jesus explicitly states, “these will go away into eternal punishment” (v. 46).

The certainty of God’s ultimate judgment of the wicked was prophesied even by “Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam.” Through divine revelation, that ancient man of God declared, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (Jude 14–15).

In light of the utter and perfect holiness of the Almighty and the persistent sinfulness and ungodliness of man that Enoch pointed out, it is not the Lord’s coming in wrath to render judgment that is amazing but rather His first coming in grace to offer salvation. The wonder is not that Jesus will some day come in glory to judge the world but that He first came in humility to save sinners. The marvel is not that God promises to condemn sinners for their sin but that He first offers them deliverance from it. In coming to save those who trust in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated His great love for the unlovely by bearing the penalty of their sin, dying the death they deserve. What is remarkable is that He came to redeem sinners who are worthy only of His judgment.

The Time

comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, (25:31b)

The time of judgment will be Christ’s return, when He comes in His glory. Although we do not know at what precise time in history that event will occur (Matt. 24:36, 42, 44, 50), we know that He will appear “immediately after the tribulation” (24:29).

Apparently His judgment will be instantaneous, at the moment He appears, and when that occurs the opportunity for faith in Him will be past. As pictured in the parable of the virgins, when the Bridegroom comes the door will be shut (Matt. 25:10). When the Lord comes to earth in glory with His angels and saints, there will be no opportunity for unbelievers then living to receive Him as Messiah.

The full Tribulation will last seven years, and the second half of it, the Great Tribulation, will last three and a half years, or 1260 days (Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7; Rev. 11:2–3; 12:14; 13:5). Daniel also spoke of an expanded period of 1290 days (Dan. 12:11), 30 days more than the basic 1260 of the Great Tribulation, and then of a 1335-day period (Dan. 12:12), adding another 45 days to make a total addition of 75. As suggested in chapter 3 of this volume, it seems that the best explanation for those additional days is that they will cover the time when the Messiah descends to the Mount of Olives, creates the great valley in which the nations of the world will be judged, and then executes that judgment (see Zech. 14:4–5). But whatever transpires during those additional days, there will be no further opportunity for people to receive and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord.

Accompanying and assisting the Lord at His appearing in glory and judgment will be the magnificent host of all His heavenly angels. At that time, Paul says, “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:7–8).

When He appears, “immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels” (Matt. 24:29–31).

The Lord will come not only with His angels but with His saints. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed,” Paul assured the Colossian believers, “then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4). The Old Testament saints, the saints of the church who will have died, the saints who will have been raptured, and the saints who will have been martyred during the Tribulation will all accompany Christ and join the saints still living on earth when He descends to earth to establish His millennial kingdom.

The Place

then He will sit on His glorious throne. (25:31c)

The place of Christ’s judgment will be the earth, where He will sit on His glorious throne. Then “there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore” (Isa. 9:7). Christ will first reign over the restored earth for a thousand years and then over the newly created heavens and earth throughout all eternity.

While Mary was still only betrothed to Joseph, the angel told her, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:31–33).

David’s throne was in Jerusalem, and that is therefore where Christ’s throne will be. When Jesus returns, “His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south” (Zech. 14:4). From that passage it becomes obvious that the Jerusalem then in existence will be cataclysmi-cally transformed to be made suitable as the place of Christ’s divine, glorious throne.

When the Lord returns, “the nations [will] be aroused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,” where He will declare, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:12–14). But the decisions in that day will not be made by men but by God. The time for deciding to receive Christ will be past, and the decisions people already will have made regarding Him will determine His decision regarding them. Those for whom He is Lord and Savior will enter the kingdom, and those who have rejected Him will be forever excluded. At that time the Lord will roar “from Zion and [will utter] His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth [will] tremble. But the Lord is a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the sons of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will pass through it no more” (Joel 3:16–17).

At the ascension, an angel made clear that Jesus’ return would be bodily and historical, not figurative or merely spiritual. He told the astonished disciples, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). When He returns to earth He will reign personally on a literal throne, in a literal Jerusalem, and over a literal people.

The Subjects

And all the nations will be gathered before Him; (25:32a)

The subjects of Christ’s judgment will be all the nations. Ethna (nations) has the basic meaning of peoples and here refers to every person alive on earth when the Lord returns. Although He will have taken all believers into heaven at the Rapture, during the following seven years of the Tribulation many other people will come to believe in Him. During that dreadful time, multitudes of Gentiles (see Rev. 7:9, 14), as well as all surviving Jews (Rom. 11:26), will be brought to faith in Christ.

As Jesus makes clear later in this passage, those who are alive on earth when He returns will include both saved and unsaved, represented by the sheep and the goats, respectively. And those two separate peoples will have two separate destinies. The believers will be ushered into the kingdom and the unbelievers into eternal punishment (Matt. 25:46).

Just as death immediately crystallizes eternity for unbelievers when they die, so will the second coming of Christ crystallize eternity for unbelievers who are then alive. They will be destroyed on the spot and ushered instantaneously into judgment and eternal punishment.

But believers who are alive at the Lord’s coming in glory will go directly into the earthly kingdom in their earthly bodies. There is no indication in Scripture that those saints will experience any sort of transformation at that time. But mingling with them and ruling over them will be the glorified saints of all ages who will then be reigning with Christ (Rev. 20:4). Although their bodies will be of vastly different orders, those two groups of saints will be able to communicate and interact with each other just as Jesus communicated and interacted with the disciples in His glorified body after the resurrection.

Amillennialists do not believe Christ will reign in a literal, thousand-year kingdom on earth. They consider the Millennium to be a figurative, spiritualized picture of Christ’s reigning on earth through the hearts of His redeemed people. But what would be the purpose of God’s giving His saints glorified bodies capable of living on the physical earth if they would never have opportunity to live there? The resurrected Christ was the perfect illustration of millennial kingdom living by glorified saints, because before His ascension He demonstrated His ability to live on this earth in the same glorified body in which He would forever occupy heaven.

There will be reproduction during the kingdom, but apparently all the children born to the redeemed people who enter it will not become redeemed themselves-any more than children born to redeemed parents in any age necessarily become redeemed themselves. At the end of the millennial kingdom there appear to be many unbelievers, who will participate in Satan’s final rebellion against God (Rev. 20:7–9). Obviously, those rebels will be descendants of the saints who went directly into the kingdom at Christ’s return. We should not be surprised that there are those who will not believe in Christ even though He will be in their presence. Most of His hearers did not believe the first time He came, either.

That final rebellion against the glorified Christ and His kingdom of perfect love, wisdom, justice, and righteousness gives final and irrefutable testimony to man’s natural depravity. Although their environment will be perfect in every respect and Satan will be bound and unable to tempt or in any other way influence men, some people will nevertheless reject Christ even during the Millennium. The only possible source of their sin and rebellion will be their own corrupt hearts (cf. Jer. 17:9).

Contrary to what some Bible teachers and theologians claim, the idea of a literal, physical, earthly Millennium did not originate in modern times. As the astute German theologian Erich Sauer has well documented, belief in such a literal thousand-year, earthly kingdom was the common and orthodox view of the early church, from New Testament times through the middle of the third century (see his The Triumph of the Crucified [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951]). Early church Fathers such as Papias, Justin, Tertullian, and Hippolytus all affirmed a literal and earthly future kingdom ruled directly by Christ. It was only later, as allegorical hermeneutics became fashionable, that literal millennialism was rejected in favor of a spiritualized interpretation (p. 144).

Those who reject a literal Millennium must do one or more of three things. The first is to confuse Israel and the church, taking the church to be a spiritualized form of the ancient nation of Israel. In that case, the Old Testament curses were for literal Israel, being already fulfilled, and the promises of blessing to Israel would be fulfilled in the church, but in a spiritual, not literal, way. That kind of divided, inconsistent hermeneutics in unacceptable. The second is to make present or past what is clearly future, assuming that all the promises to the literal nation and people of Israel have already been fulfilled, making the earthly kingdom unnecessary. The third is to arbitrarily spiritualize certain Old Testament prophecies, taking predicted places, events, or persons as being merely symbols of spiritual ideas or truths instead of physical and historical realities.

In the book just mentioned above (pp. 144–53), Erich Sauer suggests five compelling arguments for a literal and historical future kingdom. First of all, such a kingdom would be the only adequate confirmation of the truthfulness and reliability of God’s promises. Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would establish an everlasting kingdom on the throne of David (Isa. 9:6–7). Paul declared that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” referring specifically to His promises to ancient Israel (Rom. 11:29). But if those promises were merely figurative, their fulfillments could never be verified and would be meaningless. In particular, the prophecies about the Messiah would have no clear meaning and could never be verified. But Isaiah himself declared that the Lord’s promises are more unshakable than the mountains (Isa. 54:10) and Israel’s endurance as a nation will be as permanent as the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord will one day create (66:22). Jeremiah affirmed that God’s covenant promises are more secure than the pattern of night following day (Jer. 33:20) and more stable than the courses of the sun, moon, and stars (31:35–36).

Second, an earthly millennial kingdom is the only explanation of the end times that corresponds to Jesus’ teaching in the gospels. For example, His promise to the apostles that one day they would “sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28) would be meaningless apart from a literal, historical restoration of Israel.

Third, an earthly millennial kingdom is the only consistent interpretation of Messianic prophecy. It is obvious from the gospel records that a great many of those prophecies were literally fulfilled during Jesus’ lifetime. He was born in Bethlehem, just as Micah predicted (5:2). He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and was pierced in the side, just as Zechariah predicted (9:9; 11:12; 12:10). His hands and feet were literally pierced, precisely as the psalmist predicted (22:16; cf. 16:10), and He literally died, was buried, and was resurrected, just as Isaiah predicted (53:8–12).

Those fulfillments were so obviously literal that no one suggests the predictions of them were merely symbolic of spiritual truths. Yet many other equally specific and detailed predictions about the Messiah, such as His establishing an eternal throne over the kingdom of David, were just as obviously not fulfilled during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Therefore, to reject the idea of a literal Millennium is to maintain that some of the Old Testament prophecies were literal and some were not. And to take that position is to assume arbitrarily that all prophecies not literally fulfilled by New Testament times are to be spiritualized.

At the time they were written, all Old Testament predictions obviously pertained to the future. By what logic or authority, then, does one take some of their fulfillments to be literal and others to be only figurative?

Fourth, an earthly, visible kingdom is the best possible way for Jesus Christ to demonstrate that He is the supreme ruler over His creation. How else could He prove Himself to be King of kings and Lord of lords? How could He verify that His rulership is superior to that of all other monarchs if He had no opportunity to rule an earthly kingdom? How better could He prove Himself to be the supremely just King than by personally meting out justice to His subjects? How better could He prove Himself to be the infinitely merciful Lord than by personally showing mercy on His subjects? To do those things He would have to have an earthly kingdom, because in heaven there is no need either for justice or for mercy.

Could it be that, besides the brief time between the creation of Adam and the Fall, the world will know no dominion but Satan’s? Could it be that God will literally destroy but not literally restore this vast creation, all of which longs to “be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” and in that longing “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth” (Rom. 8:21–22)?

The perfect millennial kingdom will testify through all eternity that Jesus Christ is the supreme sovereign, who alone can bring absolute harmony and peace to a world even while it is still infected by sin.

Fifth, an earthly millennial kingdom is the only and necessary bridge from human history to eternal glory. Paul declares that in the end Christ will deliver “up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power” and that “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:24–25, emphasis added). What other kingdom could Christ deliver to His Father but an earthly kingdom? The Father already possesses the kingdom of heaven. The Millennium could not refer to the church as a spiritualized form of the kingdom, because the kingdom that Christ will deliver to the Father will include His subjected enemies, of which there are none in the redeemed church. And it will be a kingdom over which Christ exercises total authority, which could not apply to any kingdom the world has known thus far, including the ancient theocracy of Israel during its most faithful days.

The thousand-year reign of Christ can only refer to a literal, earthly kingdom that Jesus Christ could present to the Father in the way Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15. It is the kingdom of a literal earth, which Christ will literally and personally judge, restore, rejuvenate, and rule in righteousness for a literal one thousand years. And at the end of that time, after Satan is released for a brief period and then permanently defeated and cast into the lake of fire, Christ will present that earthly kingdom to His heavenly Father.

The Process of Judgment

and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (25:32b-46)

The process of Christ’s judgment will include the absolute and unerring separation of the saved from the unsaved. When all the nations and peoples of the earth will have been gathered before Him at His return, the Lord Jesus Christ will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

In the ancient Near East, as in much of that land still today, sheep and goats are frequently herded together. But sheep are docile, gentle creatures, whereas goats are unruly and rambunctious and can easily upset the sheep. Because they do not feed or rest well together, the shepherd often separates them for grazing and for sleeping at night.

In a similar way the Lord Jesus Christ will separate believers from unbelievers when He returns to establish His millennial kingdom. He will put the believing sheep on His right, the place of favor and blessing. But the unbelieving goats He will put on the left, the place of disfavor and rejection.

In ancient biblical times, a father’s blessing was extremely important, because it determined who would receive the major part of the inheritance. When Jacob was about to bless his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he was careful to place his right hand on the one who would receive the inheritance. Because the major blessing normally went to the eldest son, Manasseh was placed on Jacob’s right and Ephraim on his left. But when the time for blessing came, Jacob crossed his hands so that his right hand was on Ephraim’s head rather than Manasseh’s. Against Joseph’s objection, Jacob insisted on giving the major blessing to Ephraim, because God had chosen him over his brother (Gen. 48:8–20).

The Inheritance of the Saved

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” (25:34–40)

Jesus here reveals unequivocally that the Son of Man who sits on the glorious throne (v. 31) is also the Son of God, the divine King. After his subjects are separated, the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Those will be the believers who have survived the holocaust of the Tribulation, and they will be ushered alive into the millennial kingdom, which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

Doubtlessly anticipating the salvation-by-works interpretations that would be made of verses 35–45, the Lord made clear that believers will not inherit the kingdom based on good deeds they will have or will not have performed on earth. Their inheritance was determined countless ages ago, even from the foundation of the world. Those who enter the kingdom will not do so on the basis of the service they have performed for Christ but on the basis of their being blessed by the Father because of their trust in His Son. They will in no way earn a place in the kingdom. A child does not earn an inheritance but receives it on the basis of his being in the family. In exactly the same way, a believer does not earn his way into the kingdom of God but receives it as his rightful inheritance as a child of God and a fellow heir with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16–17).

Prepared for you accentuates the selectivity of salvation. From before the time the world was created, God sovereignly chose those who will belong to Him. And “whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). The source of salvation is the Father’s blessing, the reception of salvation is through faith, and the selectivity of salvation is in the advance preparation of the Father made in ages past. Stressing the same truth, Peter declared, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3–5).

The good deeds commended in Matthew 25:35–36 are the fruit, not the root, of salvation. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that they are not the basis of entrance into the kingdom. Christ will judge according to works only insofar as those works are or are not a manifestation of redemption, which the heavenly Father has foreordained. If a person has not trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, no amount of seemingly good works done in His name will avail to any spiritual benefit. To such people the Lord will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).

Nevertheless, the genuinely righteous deeds Jesus mentions in verses 35–36 are measurable evidence of salvation, and He therefore highly commends those who have performed them. He is saying, in effect, “Come into My kingdom, because you are the chosen children of My Father, and your relationship to Him is made evident by the service you have rendered to Me by ministering to your fellow believers, who, like you, are My brothers” (v. 40).

The Lord then lists six representative areas of need: being hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison. The kingdom is for those who have ministered to such needs in the lives of God’s people, because those good deeds evidence true, living faith. They are characteristic of God’s children and kingdom citizens. “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,” James warns, “and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:15–17). John proclaims the same truth in similar words: “Whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in Him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:17–18). Scripture is very clear in teaching that the evidence for assurance of true salvation is not found in a past moment of decision but in a continuous pattern of righteous behavior.

The response by those whom the King commends is remarkable and is another proof of their salvation. Because they have ministered in a spirit of humility and selflessness and not to be seen and honored by men (see Matt. 6:2, 5, 16), they have seemingly forgotten about the many things they have done and are surprised that these are worthy of such mention by the Lord.

The King addresses them as the righteous, not simply because they have been declared righteous in Christ but because they have been made righteous by Christ. Their works of service to fellow believers give evidence that they are themselves the product of divine “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

The good deeds mentioned in these verses all deal with common, everyday needs. There is no mention of monumental undertakings or of spectacular accomplishments (cf. Matt. 7:21–23, where the claim to the spectacular is useless) but only of routine, day-to-day kindnesses that help meet the needs of fellow believers. Nothing more evidences conversion than a life marked by the compassion of God and the meekness and love of Christ. When the disciples of John the Baptist wanted evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, He replied by telling them not just about His spectacular healings but also about how He treated those in need (Matt. 11:4–6). When He announced His messianic credentials to the people of Nazareth, He again reflected not on the amazing but on the way He treated the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the downtrodden (Luke 4:18–19). The person who belongs to Christ will demonstrate such compassion and be humble about it.

When the King’s self-effacing servants ask, “Lord, when did we do all those things for You?” the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

The King’s addressing these people as brothers of Mine gives still further evidence that they are already children of God and do not become so because of their good works. The writer of Hebrews declared, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him,” Paul says (1 Cor. 6:17), and because of that union a believer can say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

When the disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus set a small child in front of them and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). A person who does not come to Christ in the humble trustfulness that is characteristic of small children will have no part in His kingdom at all, much less be considered great in it. Jesus continued, “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me” (vv. 4–5). The physical child standing before them represented the spiritual child of God, the person who is converted (v. 3) by believing in Christ (v. 6). The person who lovingly serves the children of God proves himself to be a child of God.

“He who receives you receives Me,” Jesus told the disciples on another occasion, “and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” (Matt. 10:40). Whatever believers do for each other they also do for their Lord Jesus Christ, and the person who genuinely receives and serves Christians in Christ’s name proves he himself is a Christian. The self-giving service of Christians to each other in Christ’s name is a key external mark that identifies them as God’s people. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

It is to the practical manifestations of such love that Christ the King will call attention as he ushers the Tribulation saints into His millennial kingdom. Believers during those seven years, especially during the devastating last three and one-half years, will have great need for the basics Jesus has just mentioned. Because of their identity with Christ, they will often be hungry, thirsty, without decent shelter or clothing, sick, imprisoned, and alienated from the mainstream of society.

Those who will have met the needs of fellow believers will themselves have suffered great need. Few, if any, believers during the frightful days of the Tribulation will be able to give out of abundance. Most of them will have resources hardly sufficient to meet their own needs. Their divinely inspired generosity to each other will have set them apart as the Lord’s people even before, as returning King, He publicly declares them to be His own.

The Condemnation of the Unsaved

Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been repared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” Then He will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (25:41–46)

To the lost who will be gathered on His left the King will say, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” Joining the unredeemable devil and his angels in the eternal fire of hell will be those human beings who refused to believe.

It is just as obvious that Christ does not condemn these people because they failed to serve Him (vv. 42–43) as it is that He does not save the others because they did serve Him (vv. 34–35). These are accursed because they rejected Christ, just as those who enter the kingdom are righteous (v. 37) because they accepted Him. Their rejection of Christ left them in a state where they were not able to do righteous deeds.

Jesus is speaking of eternal separation from God and from His goodness, righteousness, truth, joy, peace, and every other good thing. He is speaking of eternal association with the devil and his angels in the place of torment God prepared for them. He is speaking of eternal isolation, where there will be no fellowship, no consolation, and no encouragement. He is speaking of eternal duration and of eternal affliction, from which there will be no relief or respite.

The evidence that those rejected people never belonged to Christ will be that they did not love and serve His people. Their response to believers’ needs will have been just the opposite of those who enter the kingdom. When, vicariously through the needs of His people, Christ was hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, those unbelievers refused to minister to Him. And in so doing they proved they did not belong to Him.

Like the righteous who are received into the kingdom, the accursed who are rejected will also be amazed at the Lord’s words to them. But they will ask, “Lord, when did we not minister to you in those ways?” He will reply, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” To fail to serve Christ’s people is to fail to serve Him, and to fail to serve Him is to prove one does not belong to Him.

It is significant that the marks of lostness Jesus mentions here are not gross sins committed but rather simple acts of kindness not committed. The five foolish virgins who had no oil for their lamps were not shut out of the wedding feast because they were morally wicked but because they were unprepared for the bridegroom (see Matt. 25:1–13). In the same way, the slave with one talent was not cast into outer darkness because he embezzled the master’s money but because he failed to invest it (vv. 14–30). Also in the same way, a person who is shut out of the kingdom of God is not condemned because of the greatness of his sin but because of the absence of his faith. It is not that those who are damned to hell are equally wretched and vile; their common reason for damnation is lack of faith.

Jesus uses the same word (aiōnios, eternal) to describe salvation and condemnation. If believers will be in heaven with God forever, the lost will be in hell with the devil forever.

Since the millennial kingdom will be worldwide, there will be no place on earth for the accursed to go. They will be slain on the spot and go immediately into the eternal punishment of hell, suffering permanent, everlasting crystallization of their state of spiritual death. At the end of the thousand years their bodies will be raised (cf. John 5:28–29), and they will again stand before God for final sentencing and final condemnation in bodies suited for hell’s torments.

But the righteous will go away into eternal life, to spend all eternity glorified with their Lord and Savior. In marvelous contrast to the prospect of the accursed, at the end of the thousand-year earthly kingdom the righteous will discover that their eternal blessedness will only have begun.