"Investigative Judgment 2"
Have you heard of the investigative judgment? Adventists have a wide spectrum of reaction to the investigative judgment. Some wholesale embrace the doctrine, others feel various forms of discomfort with pieces of it, a few quietly reject the idea, and the vast majority appear to be unaware of how the doctrine applies to them. But the end of Hebrews 9 provides a good explanation of the investigative judgment that addresses all the aforementioned situations, and it does so by looking at the concept through the lens of Jesus' humanity.
Last week we looked at what Hebrews 9 says about the investigative judgment and Jesus' incarnation. This week we'll look at what it says about the investigative judgment and Jesus' second coming. Hebrews 9:27-28 says, "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him" (NIV).
One of the fascinating aspects of this passage is that it sets up a sequence or chronology of events regarding a pre-advent judgment. Sometimes even Adventists think the only place in the Bible that talks about a pre-advent (or investigative) judgement is in the book of Daniel, but Hebrews 9 does so, too! In Hebrews 9:27-28, two sets of events are analogously compared with each other: people die and then face judgment (verse 27), and Jesus died a sacrificial death to bear peoples' sins and then returns with salvation after he has taken care of sin (verse 28).
According to Hebrews 9, there's a similarity between how people die once and then face judgment, and how Jesus dies sacrificially, then deals with the sin that brings judgment on people, and finally returns to bring salvation to those who trust in him. For those who bear their own sins, they face judgment. For those who let Jesus bear their sins, however, he first takes care of their judgment and then comes again with nothing but salvation for those who are waiting for him. And Jesus' humanity is the key to all of this: Jesus dies a human death, Jesus' human death is once for all, Jesus' human death takes away our sins, Jesus' human, resurrected life enables him to discharge our sin, and Jesus' return for all his friends takes place in his glorified humanity.
Friends, it's the humanity of Jesus that carries you through every sin, every judgment, and into every salvation - so rejoice ecstatically in Jesus!
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
