The Most Logical Thing in the Universe

James Montgomery Boice, on Matthew 25:

First, there is to be a day of future reckoning for all people. That is so obvious both from the stories of Jesus and from our experience of life that it seems almost juvenile to stress it. But it must be stressed, if only because most people think in precisely opposite categories. Jesus spoke of judgment being obvious, but they think of judgment being the most irrational and least-to-be-anticipated thing in the world. What do most people think of when one speaks of dying? Most probably do not want to think of it at all, of course; they are not certain what, if anything, lies beyond death's door. If they do speak about it, assuming that something does lie beyond this life, most people today think of the afterlife in good terms. At the very least they think of something like a continuation of life as we know it. Or, if it will not be that, it must be something better. Very few consider that it may be something worse. They cannot imagine God to be a God of judgment.

That relatively new development has caused R. C. Sproul to speak of the current doctrine of "justification by death." It used to be that Protestants and Catholics argued over justification. Protestants said that it is by faith alone (sola fide). Catholics said that justification is by faith plus works (fide et operae). But today that disagreement is outmoded in the minds of most people. To get to heaven all one has to do is die. One is "justified" by death alone.

In that our contemporaries are irrational, as they are in most other spiritual matters. This is an evil world. All sins are not judged in this world, nor are all good deeds rewarded. The righteous do suffer. The guilty do go free. If this is a moral universe, that is, if it is created and ruled by a moral God, then there must be a reckoning hereafter in which those tables are balanced out. The good must prosper, and the evil must be punished.

In most theological volumes on eschatology (the last things) there are three great points of emphasis: the return of Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the final judgment. But of the three, the only one that is truly reasonable is the last. There is no reason why Jesus should return again. He came once and was rejected. If He should write us off and never again give so much as a thought to this planet, it would be totally understandable. It is the same with the resurrection: "Dust you are and to dust you will return" (Gen. 3:19). If that is all there is, who can complain? We have had our lives. Why should we expect anything more? There is nothing of logical necessity in either of those two matters in and of themselves. But judgment? That is the most logical thing in the universe, and both of these stories say quite clearly that there will be a final day of reckoning.

From The Parables of Jesus