[A believer's judgment is] not penal, but retributive, not a declaration of doom, but an assessment of worth; eternal destiny not at issue; eternal reward is; an evaluation of faithfulness and service within God's family; this judgment does not determine entrance into the kingdom, but rather the status of those already admitted.
Author: Sam Storms Source: Individual Eschatology, November 8, 2006
Fit or not fit--we must all die, and we know not how soon. As death leaves us, the judgment must find us.
God does not exalt His mercy at the expense of His justice. And in order to maintain His justice, all sin without exception must be punished. Contrary to popular opinion, with God there is no such thing as mere forgiveness. There is only justice.
Author: Jerry Bridges Source: The Gospel for Real Life, p. 43.
God's wrath arises from His intense, settled hatred of all sin and is the tangible expression of His inflexible determination to punish it. We might say God's wrath is His justice in action, rendering to everyone his just due, which, because of our sin, is always judgment.
Author: Jerry Bridges Source: The Gospel for Real Life, p. 52.
It is at the cross where God's Law and God's grace are both most brilliantly displayed, where His justice and His mercy are both glorified. But it is also at the cross where we are most humbled. It is at the cross where we admit to God and to ourselves that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or merit our salvation.
Author: Jerry Bridges Source: The Gospel for Real Life, p. 98.
This is not make-believe. You are indeed guilty in yourself, but God no longer regards you as guilty, because the guilt of your sin has already been borne by Christ as your substitute. The sentence has been served. The penalty has been paid. To use Paul's expression, you have died to sin's guilt.
Author: Jerry Bridges Source: The Gospel for Real Life, p. 177.
We must not lose sight of the fact that God's wrath is very real and very justified. We have all sinned incessantly against a holy, righteous God. We have rebelled willfully against His commands, defied His moral law, and acted in total defiance of His known will for us. Because of these actions we're justly objects of His wrath.
Author: Jerry Bridges Source: Trusting God, 1988, p. 139.
God is not content to leave all people under His wrath. Nor can he simply sweep sin under the rug of the universe. Therefore His love and His justice conspire to make a way for sinners to be saved and God's justice to be vindicated. The answer is the death of Jesus Christ.
Author: John Piper Source: Jesus Christ is an Advocate for Sinners, Sermon, February 10, 1985
God is not unjust. No one will be condemned for not believing a message they have never heard. Those who have never heard the gospel will be judges by their failure to own up to the light of God's grace and power in nature and in their own conscience.
Author: John Piper Source: Desiring God, 1996, p. 192
Having held the glory of God in contempt through ingratitude and distrust and disobedience, (those without Christ) are sentenced to be excluded from the enjoyment of that glory forever and ever in the eternal misery of hell.
Author: John Piper Source: Desiring God, 1996, p. 57
When justice is divorced from morality, when rights of individuals are separated from right and wrong, the only definition you have left for justice is the right for every individual to do as he pleases. And the end of that road is anarchy and barbarism.
[A believer's judgment is] not penal, but retributive, not a declaration of doom, but an assessment of worth; eternal destiny not at issue; eternal reward is; an evaluation of faithfulness and service within God's family; this judgment does not determine entrance into the kingdom, but rather the status of those already admitted.