Truth Oriented Judgment is really Unpopular

When Osama Bin Laden died it was interesting to see how many Christians blogged about how people should react to his death. Alright, I'm 4 months late but I started this thought in the summer and just recently finished it. My brother in law, Nate, had some very similar thoughts to mine so if you've read his blog you can delete mine. Does the Scripture give us direction concerning how to respond to the death of those who live unjust lives? I think it does. I think we might be surprised at God's response.

God does not delight in the death of the wicked. There's no place for exuberant celebration when the enemies of Christ or His Church die. God gave Ezekiel a message to proclaim to the Israelites. It was a message of repentance. It was a call to turn from evil and in Ezekiel 33:11, Ezekiel spoke for God and He said "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live." God himself will not take delight in the physical or spiritual death of people who hate Him. He takes delight in repentance.

God is not overwhelmed with sorrow at the death of the wicked. So many, in our day, want to fashion God in our likeness and image. How would God react? We tend to think he would react similar to the way we would react. God is incredibly different than us. The Numbers 14 tells us that God is "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." This is true, yet when Jesus Christ finally judges the "nations" of the earth to eternal punishment He will do it in a holy way. Matthew 7 says that He will say to the unbelievers "I never knew you." In Matthew 7 Jesus is speaking to a group of people who have done many good things on earth but under the microscope of God's righteousness it will be proven that their works were incredibly self serving and rather than bringing glory to God they lived a life of "lawlessness" that glorified themselves. The interesting thing about this passage is that the Righteous Judge will display no overwhelming sorrow at the justice He executes.

God calls for proper judgment based on truth. "We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things." (Romans 2:2) In this context the Apostle Paul is speaking about Osama Bin Laden. He is speaking in the context of unbelievers who have wantonly forsaken the authority of God and have lived life their own way...to the point of sexual sin, murder, strife, haughtiness, boastfulness, foolishness, arrogance etc. What will be their end? How will God judge the lawless? He will judge based on His unchanging truth. Unlike us, he will levy an truth oriented judgment without delight and without sorrow. God's judgments are always right.

Interested to hear your thoughts.