In 1847, there was a physician named Ignaz Semmelweis who worked in a hospital in Vienna. At the time there was little to no understanding of germs and bacteria. Semmelweis made an observation that the doctors working in postmortem were working directly with the living patients as well. The infections and death rate among the living patients were extremely high, so he decided to have all the doctors who were circulating from the morgue over to the hospital wash their hands in a bowl of chlorinated water. The mortality rates before the hand washing were 18.3%. After his ward started washing it dropped to as low as 1.2%. He asked other hospitals to start implementing this procedure, but they did so with half-heartedness and faulty methodology. The medical community disputed his claims and unjustly discredited Semmelweis. He became irate at those who opposed his new theory. Eventually, because he became so erratic and combative, he was put into a mental institute and spent the rest of his days there raging about doctors not washing their hands (Fitzharris, 146).
Sadly, the man who longed to save lives was bullied by the medical community and suffered tremendously, ultimately dying alienated and scorned by the public he was trying to help. And the medical community elites misjudged Semmelweis’s theory based on their narrow minded thinking and pride. These incorrect decisions brought suffering and loss of human life. God is pained by these earthly injustices. When the All-Wise-God makes distinctions they are always based on truth, and with a heart full of mercy and love.
“Acquitting the guilty and condemning the just – both are detestable to the Lord” Proverbs 17:15.
We all long for true justice. Unfortunately, earthly judicial action is only practiced through imperfect people. Whether you like it or not, a biased and imperfect person will judge you by your actions. It might be your peers, family, spouse, coworkers, or a jury. Their earthly eyes can only see the outside of the situation. The scriptures teach that God can see the heart. His justice is supreme and perfect, above the flawed and superficial decisions of earthly jury members.
“All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord” Proverbs 16:2.
I think the question, “Is God going to judge me?” comes from two fears. Firstly we are afraid of being punished for violating a law that we had no intention of keeping in the first place. Or secondly, we are afraid of being punished for something we did not do or that we do not feel guilty of violating. Both of these come from fear of punishment and not from a true concern for justice. It is hard for many of us to imagine a God who is all powerful, full of holy fire, and holds the full authority to judge us, but who also wants to approach us with a tender voice, a soft touch, a merciful glance, and a peaceful presence.
Can we expect humans to always judge correctly? No, we cannot. Just like Ignaz Semmelweis’s story, we see that people make horrible judgments. We can only judge off the evidence presented. And the evidence is not always clear. Or we misjudge others out of our own small mindedness. In such cases, what makes the human judge any more correct than those they are judging?
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.
This scripture is quoted often, and rightfully so. Each of us have sinned and fall short, everyday, of God’s glory. But that verse does not end there: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” Romans 3:23-24.
God is a great judge, a perfect distinguisher of right and wrong. But he makes his judgements out of love. He wants you to be whole and redeemed, not punished, and thrown away. That is why Jesus was sent—to take our place when the verdict was given. The verdict was death, and Jesus took that punishment. It was only through Jesus that we could run back to the father (John 14:6). There is now no need to fear punishment because he stepped in the way of it. Instead of asking, “Is God going to judge me?” Now we can ask, “God, will you search my heart and teach me to distinguish correctly between good and evil for myself?”
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139: 23-24.
We can let God search us, for he is the one who formed us. He is a loving Father who sees our good and our bad and accepts us as we are. He helps transform and renew us (Romans 12:2). He works gently on our hearts, helping us to be more like him—"like father, like son (and daughter).”
“Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay; you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” Isaiah 64:8.
God does not make distinctions haphazardly, nor does he abuse justice. He makes the clear distinction between the evil and righteous actions of our hearts. But he does it with gentleness. We need to relearn what it means to have a loving Father who can discipline us perfectly, but who already took care of the punishment that we all deserved.
We must see God in the fullness of all his true character. He is a holy, loving, powerful, kind, all knowing, distinguisher of the righteous, and all forgiving Father.
Works Cited
Fitzharris, Lindsey. The Butchering Art; Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. New York: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2017.
Tags: compassion, discipline, fear, heart, judge, punishment, distinction, motivations, verdict
