Talking Sheep & Goats: Not An Afterlife Documentary

Adapted from Chapter 4 of Heaven for Skeptics © 2009 by Bert Gary

I’ve watched shepherds in Israel. A shepherd who has both sheep and goats in his flock has a challenge. To get sheep moving he must call their names and lead them. But to get goats moving he must drive them in front of him by yelling and throwing rocks. So what does the shepherd have to do to get them moving with him at the same time in the same direction? I’ll come back to that question after we look at Jesus’ herding parable.

Look at what a serious-minded religious tract illustrator has done with a line from the Parable of the Talking Sheep and Goats:

“You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels . . .” (Matthew 25:41)

Can you believe it? Without explanation, a gigantic, faceless omni-god casts out a naked, terrified man on his knees. If the artist had bothered to actually read the parable from whence he quotes, he would have known that a shepherd-king casts out a bunch of talking goats all at once, not one man at a time. And he would have known that the blessed sheep were at the shepherd’s right and the cursed goats were at his left. The unapproachable omni-judge in the illustration is pointing the wrong way! This tract is also pointing the wrong way.

Most disturbing to me is the possibility that after all of Jesus’ teaching on unearned love and amazing grace, that, if the tract illustrator is correct, our salvation might come down to our behavior after all. If we do acts of charity, we earn heaven? If we don’t, we earn hell? Does your afterlife destiny hinge on how good a do-gooder you can be? Hardly. The tract could not be more misleading.

Here's my outline of Matthew 25:31-46. Color-coding it reveals surprising symmetry:

INTRO ³¹ "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

I. ³³ and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

A. ³⁴ Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

1. ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'

2. ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'

3. ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,¹ you did it to me.'

A'. ⁴¹ Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

1'. ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'

2'. ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?'

3'. ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'

I'. ⁴⁶ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

• I and I' (red) enclose the parable. I reveals separate places in the judgment, and I' reveals separate places in eternity. 

• A and A' (orange) are the judgments pronounced on the separated ones; they get very different sentences. 

• 1-3 and 1'-3' (yellow, green, purple) mirror one another revealing the causes of these judgments.

Getting to the heart of it, Jesus placed an unexpected twist in this parabolic vision of judgment day. These verses are the keys:

'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (italics mine) (NIV - Matthew 25:40)

'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' (italics mine) (NIV - Matthew 25:45)

And the key word is “these.” Who are these least brothers of the king? The obvious answer is that the least brothers are the unfortunate ones who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, or in prison. But there is a less obvious answer. An answer with a twist. Let’s view some of these least ones as goats! Some of the talking animals in the parable do turn out to be goats, and goats are certainly least on my affection list. Hey, can you love a mean old goat? As it turns out, that’s the key question. Can you?

Gathered before the shepherd-king (see Jesus’ face rather than an imposing, impersonal, ogre-judge) are all the people of the world. All nations are represented (Matthew 25:32). All people who have ever lived are before the throne. Now, some are put to the shepherd-king’s right and some to his left. Some are revealed as being sheep already and some as being goats already. He will speak to the sheep first.

He turns to the ones on the right and addresses them as those already blessed by his Father to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. He identifies them as sheep. Why are they identified as sheep? Because they acted sheep-like on this earth; that is, they tended to the needs of the least of these brothers of the shepherd-king.

Then he turns to the ones on the left and addresses them as those already cursed (not cursed by his Father or by him—check it yourself), and commands them to go away into a place not prepared for goats and sheep (humans), but for the evil one and his angels. These people he identifies as already goats. Why are they goats? Because they acted goat-like; that is, they did not tend to the needs of the least of these brothers of the shepherd-king.

This is what’s eye-popping. The guy on the throne, the Son of Man-shepherd-king guy, didn’t judge anyone. (See my blogs, “The Father Judges No One - 1" and "The Father Judges No One - 2") Contrary to the tract and popular opinion, he didn’t reward anyone or judge anyone. He didn’t praise or condemn anyone. Let’s get the facts straight.


The sheep are blessed of the Father from the beginning of all things.

“Come, you that are (already) blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . . .” (Matthew 25:34)

And the goats are accursed not by the Father or the Son. They are accursed by their own actions, and told to leave and go to a place not prepared for sheep or goats, but for Satan and his angels.

“You that are (already) accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels . . .” (Matthew 25:41)

Again, this bears repeating. Neither the Father nor the shepherd-king-Son did the cursing. The throngs’ sheep-ness and goat-ness, if you will, were already apparent to the king. At first glance he could see what they already were. He doesn’t curse them on the spot or bless them on the spot. He doesn’t wave a magic wand and turn them into sheep or goats. Neither does the Father. The shepherd identifies what they already are. He easily distinguishes the two species, and he separates them by kind.

But prior to the shepherd’s identification, prior to their lives on earth, the Father blessed all sheep “from the foundation of the world.” Get this, because it’s critical. Apparently originally there were only sheep! All were blessed from the beginning as sheep. All were prepared for the kingdom (not the place where the devil and his angels go). But later, tragically, some of the sheep became goats. And goat-ness is a non-sheep state of existence.

This cursed state as goats is a result of the ex-sheep’s own choices. Consequent to the blessing that they were given up-front as sheep, they chose to become non-blessed. These goats-by-choice did something or some-things that cursed them. They cursed themselves. They are self-judged. How? Simple. They judged! Specifically, they judged some as unworthy of their charity. In other words, they ended up judged as goats because they themselves judged others as not worthy of food, drink, clothing, and visitation. Their judgment boomeranged.

Do you see it? It’s beautiful. The goats are former sheep because they decided some of the “persons” in the flock were unworthy of their humanitarian—or should I say sheep-itarian—charity. They showed partiality in their love. God’s love is impartial. He loves all the sheep the same. Thus the ex-sheep damned themselves. They chose eternal goat-ishness by picking and choosing who to help rather than helping indiscriminately.

They labeled some as goats, and by doing so unwittingly revealed themselves as goats.

So what’s the shepherd-king to do? He can’t put goats in the sheep-dom. The sheep-dom is for sheep. So, the king honors the decision made by some “persons” to be goatish, and sends them to a place where sheep (humans) were never meant to go. It’s a place where “people” who play God and play judge (as Satan and his angels do) can hobnob with other judgmental pompous religious elitist goat-ites who glory over their own superiority. 


[Created and played by Dana Carvey, The Church Lady (pictured) is a skit character named “Enid Strict”, who is the uptight, smug, and pious host of her own talk show, Church Chat. Enid is a spoof of “holier-than-thou” Christian churchgoers.]

Why do we fail to appreciate the wicked humor in Jesus’ parables? Why do we take everything so literally and seriously? I guess humor is wasted on the humorless. Look, the parable says you are a sheep or a goat. What a choice! That’s like saying you’re dumb or dumber! And the sheep and goats talk! And look, Jesus portrays himself as a herdsman sorting out livestock in the sheep-dom of heaven! And look again; eternal blessedness comes to those who are generous and compassionate to goats! Surely many of “the least of these my brothers” are mean old goats. And eternal cursedness comes to those who are calloused and careless to the least of these his brothers, including the goats—especially the goats. Sheep treat everybody like sheep, as does the shepherd. Goats discriminate.

So, how do you become a goat? Treat someone like a goat. Isn’t Jesus’ humor obvious now? Do you see the boomerang of self-judgment?

Look at the parable one more time, please. The dumb sheep don’t even know they’re sheep. The dumb goats don’t even know they’re goats. Neither can tell a sheep from a goat (though the shepherd can).

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food . . .’ (Matthew 25:37)

Then they (the accursed) also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' (Matthew 25:44)

Jesus uses this barnyard cartoon of the Jewish cult afterlife to elevate simple acts of charity to the level of ultimate punishment and reward. But—and this is so important—Jesus robs from this reward and punishment model any calculation or comparison or strategizing by the sheep and goats. How? By making the sheep and goats oblivious. The sheep have no idea in the end how they succeeded. They’re shocked and confused. And so are the goats. They haven’t a clue how or when they failed.

So this is not by any means a “how to” parable. This is no lesson or strategy on “how to get into heaven.” So if Jesus’ parable of the Talking Sheep and Goats isn’t a teaching on the afterlife, then what is Jesus getting at?

I hear Jesus saying that God is personally related to all people everywhere. He is everyone’s Father. That makes Jesus everybody’s brother. That makes you everybody’s brother (or sister). How you relate to your brothers is inseparable from how you relate to Jesus your brother and God your Father. We’re not talking about love as a feeling, but love as impartial treatment. Generosity and care and respect to all—whether you think they are a sheep or a goat, whether you think they deserve it or not—is an expression of knowing God’s impartial treatment of you. Knowing God is eternal Life which equals heaven. (John 17:3) Greed plus hardheartedness equals spiritual death which equals hell. Peter Kreeft put it like this:

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’” C.S. Lewis in Kreeft, p. 164

Yet Jesus is saying that nobody knows nor can anyone assume their own ultimate status before God. Hellishness is the result of merciless presumption. Heavenliness is the result of merciful trust. Compassion and generosity to neighbors here and now is part and parcel of your relationship to God the Father. Don’t assume. Don’t even wonder. And certainly don’t worry. Just live and love. The key question that this parable asks is:

Don’t you realize that trying to figure out who is and isn’t a goat is goatish behavior?

Luke sums up his entire gospel with these words Jesus spoke:

“ . . . [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” (Luke 6:35)

Let that one soak in. God’s love is perfect, the scriptures say, because it is impartial. God blesses the whole flock. God is kind to goats! God scatters grace on everybody like a farmer throwing seed in every direction, showing no distinction between the road, the rocks, the briars, the weeds, and whatever good soil they may find. (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8) This is God’s love, says Jesus.

for [your Father in heaven] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (italics mine) (Matthew 5:46)

If God imparts grace on everyone indiscriminately, then who are we to make judgments and show distinctions? Only goats do that.

What makes sheep sheep? What makes goats goats? It’s this very thing: Loving your neighbor with tangible acts of kindness no matter how trivial, or not. A wave. A nod. A lift into town. A dollar to a drifter. It’s fruit of the Spirit that we’re talking about. (Galatians 5:22-23) It’s the good things that come from goodness inside. (Matthew 7:16-20, ..12:35..) These verses remind us that we don’t earn Life by doing good; doing good flows naturally from the gift of Life.

“We do not do good to get to Heaven; we do good because Heaven has already got us.” (Kreeft, p. 209)

I’m afraid that some, however, read the Parable of the Talking Sheep and Goats quite differently. I give you the all-too-familiar legalistic, literalized, afterlife version of Matthew 25:31-46:

1. Whenyou die you “go” to stand alone and naked before “God” to be judged.

2. If you’ve done a bunch of good stuff, you’ve earned your way into the pearly gates. The judge blesses you. Poof, you’re a sheep. You get on the “up” escalator.

3. If you’ve failed to do a bunch of good stuff, then “God” curses you; poof, you’re a goat; a trap door opens underneath your feet—I mean your hooves; and you slide down the shoot into a lake of fire.

Now you have your legal “God.” The “God” of legalism’s default setting is hell. So, legalistically, the burden of proof is on you alone. You are guilty and going to hell until proven worthy of heaven, and it’s up to you to prove it. You get what you deserve. Everybody get what they deserve. And it’s all up to you.

Notice that a savior is not needed in the legalized, literalized interpretation of this parable. Jesus is unnecessary because by your performance you determine your own fate. You save yourself, or you don’t get saved. In this model, Jesus doesn’t have a job.

So, the legal “God” aside, what’s the real moral to Jesus’ smart story? I think it’s this:

Judge instead of love, and you will die; love instead of judge, and you will live. That’s how God does it. Those who love him are called to do the same, and are driven to do the same.

As I said, I’ve watched shepherds in Israel. It looks like to me that a shepherd with both sheep and goats in his flock must drive the goats ahead of him (by throwing rocks at them!) and call the sheep by name, which then follow. Maybe this is the purpose of the Parable of the Talking Sheep and Goats. Perhaps Jesus’ parable is intended to drive goats into loving indiscriminately here and now, and to call sheep into continuing to love indiscriminately here and now.

That being the case, Jesus deals with goats on goats’ terms. It’s the only way goats will respond. He drives them to love impartially with a parable that, to goats, is as hard as a rock upside the head!

But what if a goat is yelled at and kicked and pelted with rocks and he still resists the direction of the shepherd? Will the shepherd give up on the goat? No. Will the shepherd force the direction of the goat? No. Will the goat be allowed to suffer the consequences of his own choices? Yes.

The stiff-necked goat is graciously allowed by the good shepherd to graze in Gehenna! (See my blog, “Hell Defined 2.”)

You may be wondering, why are we talking about this life instead of the afterlife? That’s where your religious training can get in the way. Far from being a documentary on the afterlife, Jesus’ barnyard parable about talking sheep and goats is about loving in this life. Today is the day of judgment and salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2 See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

Jesus gives us a parable that elevates our everyday actions to the level of eternity. Failure to love produces eternal goats. Love produces eternal sheep.

Sheepness and goatness are everyday choices for those who are given eternal Life in the kingdom here and now. In the Bible, Jesus emphasizes at every turn the here-and-now-ness of Life eternal in his all-encompassing kingdom of heaven. It’s how we respond everyday to this gift, this present and coming kingdom, this Life more abundant, that makes our species recognizable to our shepherd-king.

I hope he doesn’t return when I’m having a ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-d day.

For more on Jesus' parables see my blogs The Absurd Parable of the Unforgiving Slave, The God Who Gambles, Parable of the Vine and Branches, The Crooked Manager, The Friend at Midnight, Heaven Is Like a Crazy Farmer, He Speaks Of . . ., Salted With Fire, Talking Sheep and Goats, Is Your Eye Evil?, Two Prodigals and Their Strange Father, The Lazarus Parable Is Not About the Afterlife,and Jesus Used Parables Like a Sieve.

The Father Judges No One -- 2

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Adapted from Chapter 3 of “Heaven for Skeptics” © 2009 by Bert Gary for FaithWalk Publishing

What must I do . . . ?

You might be saying to yourself right now, “Yeah, Bert, you’ve written a lot about what Jesus has done, but isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?”

At least two biblical characters asked Jesus that very question. Here’s one of them:

Luke 18:18-27 A certain ruler asked [Jesus], "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ²⁰ “You know the commandments . . .” (Jesus is brushing off the legalist. What the man wants is a do-gooder list. Fine. Here’s your do-gooder list.) ²¹ He replied, "I have kept all these since my youth." ²² [Jesus] said to him, "There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have (now) treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." ²³ But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. ²⁴ Jesus . . . said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." ²⁶ Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" ²⁷ He replied, "What is impossible for mortals is possible for God." (emphasis mine)

The disciples wondered: If a rich do-gooder can’t do enough to inherit the kingdom, then who can? Nobody can, Jesus says. It’s impossible to do anything to get the kingdom. But what’s humanly impossible, is divinely possible, because the kingdom can’t be earned. Neither is it for sale. It’s a gift. The Father makes it possible not by making a deal, but by giving it away. And it’s already yours to enter into and live, as you will see in Chapter 8.

Luke 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (italics mine)

Did I answer the question? “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?” There is one thing. But it may not be what you think. It certainly has nothing to do with doing a good job of obeying the Ten Commandments.

Don’t I have to be well-behaved?

If it were possible to save the world by legal correction or threat of punishment, then the Ten Commandments would have done the trick. And the New Testament is firm about this: They (the laws) did not and cannot make us right with God. The Apostle Paul wrote about it clearly:

Romans 3:21 . . . apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed . . .

Romans 3:28 . . . a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Galatians 2:21 . . . if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Galatians 5:4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ ...

The reason (hopefully) that you don’t cheat on your spouse is because you have with him (or her) a relationship of love based on trust. If you don’t betray him/her because you’re afraid you’ll get caught, that’s the same as saying that the reason I don’t commit adultery is because the Ten Commandments warn that I shouldn’t. (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18) A relationship built on threat does not produce relational love and trust.

Do you see what the Scriptures are getting at? If the only reason you don’t cheat is because of religious prohibition and the fear of God’s punishment, then you don’t have a loving, trusting relationship with your spouse.

Jesus spoke to this in what’s called his “Sermon on the Mount,” but what he says is shocking. He’s not very selective when it comes to this adultery issue. Have you ever committed adultery? Some of you say No? Think again:

Matthew 5:27-28 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

“Judge Jesus” has spoken. We’re all adulterers. Murderers too:

Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder;’ and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment . . .”

His point? We’re all guilty as charged. We’ve all broken God’s laws—in our hearts if not in our actions. No one is innocent.

Romans 3:10 There is no one who is righteous, not even one . . .

Romans 3:23 . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .

Therefore no one has a right to brag about his moral performance.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

I suggest you throw yourself on the mercy of the court. We’re all guilty by judgment of the law. Jesus himself made this very point when in John’s Gospel he is recorded as saying to his legalist opponents:

John 5:45 “. . . your accuser is Moses on whom you have set your hope.”

If you want to keep score on how good you are at carrying out the laws of Moses, then Moses is your accuser. He accuses you because you are incapable of keeping his laws. If you hope on the law for your “ticket to heaven,” then there is no hope for you.

Paul wrote, however, that the law—good in itself—was given to his people as a kind of babysitter (paidagwgo,j paidagogos—schoolmaster) until they were grown up enough for grace to come, replace the law, and thus free them from the law:

Galatians 3:24-26 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian (paidagwgo,j paidagogos—schoolmaster) until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. (italics mine)

For the sake of argument, however, what would it mean were God to be more interested in threat and punishment than in a Life-infused relationship of love based on trust? It would mean that God’s amazing grace is a lie, and the only way to please your judge is by excelling in rule-keeping.

Do you prefer a judging God?

Do you prefer a judging God? Some people do. Maybe you feel you’re a good person, and that should count for something on judgment day. You figure you’ve done more good than bad in your lifetime. If the judge weighs the good and the bad on balance scales, surely it will tip in favor of the good. Is that what you think?

Some people prefer a condemning judge to a forgiving savior. What does that say about them? What does it say about any Christian when he prefers a God of threat and punishment over a God of love? Here’s a tough answer to a tough question.

It might say that such a Christian has not yet seen the scariest thing of all. While the condemning god-voice that some people like is scary, the light of God’s love is scarier still. For some people it may actually feel safer to take your chances with the hanging-judge than to have to honestly look at yourself as you are bathed in the truth of loving, forgiving, exposing light.

Many people, including Christians, it seems to me, have created a legal-god, an accuser-god, because he’s safer than the one who exposes your brokenness, your hurtful deeds, and your deepest pain. You can keep the ogre-god at arm’s length. You just appease him by avoiding bad stuff. No relationship necessary. You just try to please him with acts of devotion, like fasting or worshiping or giving money. Whatever. You can play religious games with the scorekeeper-god. But you don’t have to get close to him, nor do you have to stand in the exposing light of his loving truth.

If God’s not a legal God who will judge us, however, what about God’s law? Didn’t God give Moses the Ten Commandments [according to the Book of Exodus]? Aren’t they God’s legal expectations of us? In a just and civilized society, aren’t we supposed to be law-abiding?

Again, allow me to answer a question with a question. What would you think of someone who called the Ten Commandments ‘the ministry of death’? What if a person were to call the Ten Commandments ‘our curse’ and ‘the power of sin.’? Blasphemy, right? Who would dare? The Apostle Paul, that’s who.

Paul called the Ten Commandments, and I quote, ‘the ministry of death.’ (2 Corinthians 3:7). He also wrote,

1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (italics mine)

And he wrote,

Galatians 3:10-13 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse . . . . But . . . Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law . . .

By none of this did Paul mean that the laws are bad. He wrote:

Romans 7:12-13 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. ¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good,

Galatians 2:16b . . . [No] one will be justified by the works of the law.

The laws are good, Paul says. But he also says they are for the immature in faith. They were given to Israel in her infancy as a babysitter until God could write a new law on her heart. The law is for the immature—like children.

Children need rules and discipline to protect them from themselves and others. But when you grow up, you need much more than “thou shall” and “thou shall not” in order to live. You need a real reason in your heart to do the right thing. The threat of punishment is not nearly enough for mature adults. Obviously it’s not enough. We fail at keeping the law every day. The law is our curse in that sense. Moreover, the laws of God are constant reminders of our failure to keep them. What a curse it is indeed to live each day under the condemnation of your own failures! But Jesus freed us from the curse:

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law . . .

Christ is the end of the law because he fulfilled the law for us as a gift.

Why this seeming obsession with works of the law, both in the 1^st Century and today? Jesus, it seems to me, was surrounded by do-gooder showoffs, as are we. Some conspicuously conscientious workaholics once asked Jesus,

John 6:28-29 “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (italics mine)

There is one thing you can do, as I mentioned above. But it’s not a law. Jesus absolutely refused to give them a legal checklist to heaven. He doesn’t approve of steps-to-salvation tracts. There are no steps. There is one single “work,” it’s not even really a work, and it’s stress-free. Scripturally speaking, salvation is the Lord’s work. So sit down and relax for a moment. Jesus is inviting you to stop being busy and burdened about the backbreaking load of moral performance, religious law-keeping, self-atonement strategies, and desperate deity-appeasing:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (italics mine)

There’s your answer to that nagging question, “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to do?” Yes, there is something. But weighing and recording your rule-keeping performance isn’t it. Running ever faster on the hamster wheel of religious busy-ness isn’t it.

Jesus says to come to him and rest. Rest; he says it twice. Let it be. Take it easy, he says. Lighten up too. And trust me. Believe in me. This IS the work of God. All that he asks is that you believe that he’s handled it all for you.

Do you accept this? It’s almost incredible. This is a whole new way of seeing God. We’re used to god-the-unmoved-judge. The omni-god, as theologian Baxter Kruger calls him, who watches from a distance, who is either disinterested in you or disgusted with you. He’s a legalist with impossible standards. You don’t measure up, and you are damned unless you can prove yourself worthy and change his mind. Do you know this scrutinizing omni-god? Can you love him as he demands?

Perhaps you’ve already made this connection, but the Father and the Son’s big plan for humanity was not to scrutinize it, control it, or condemn it, but to save it. (John 12:47b) Save it from what? From this very thing. From this legal condemnation. From futile religious striving. From the omni-god we’ve created to appease. Jesus calls our futile moral score-keeping the condemnation of Moses! He said,

John 5:45b “. . . your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.” (italics mine)

Moses’ judgment is already made. Humanity was/is utterly condemned by the law of God given through Moses. But, here’s the tang in the pudding: God used our condemnation under the law for a radical, unthinkable purpose. God turned the curse of the law on its head for all of humanity. This is the key verse:

Romans 11:32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. (italics mine)

Now if that doesn’t decapitate the little legalist inside of you, I don’t know what will. You might want to read that one again. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Of course the mercy Paul is talking about is the grace to all in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

John 1:16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (italics mine)

The New Testament letter to Titus drives this home with one swing of the hammer:

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all . . . (italics mine)

Jonah despised God’s mercy

Remember Jonah and the giant fish (The Old Testament Book of Jonah)? This story is a perfect example of the scandal of God’s mercy. Jonah despised God’s mercy and wanted nothing to do with it!

Jonah is in Galilee, Israel. God tells him to go northeast to preach in Nineveh. It’s an Assyrian city in what is today Mosul, Iraq. Jonah without a word goes southwest to Joppa and boards a ship headed to Tarshish, the location of which is uncertain, but might be a reference to a region in faraway Spain! That’s as far as you can go via the Mediterranean Sea, and obviously it’s in the opposite direction that God instructed. Exactly where Jonah was headed is not necessary to get the point. God said go this way. He went the other.

Jonah tells the crew of his ship that the terrible storm they are experiencing is his fault. He’d disobeyed God and they should throw him overboard. He is guilty and deserves to die without mercy. This is Jonah’s way of showing God how judgment is supposed to work! If you’re guilty of disobeying God, God should show no mercy to you. It’s as if Jonah’s saying, See, God? Here’s how you’re supposed to do your job. I’m guilty. I should be destroyed. Nineveh’s guilty. It should be destroyed. Jonah is giving God an object lesson on how to be God! And Jonah sees no room for mercy. He wants the punishment he deserves, and he’d rather die than offer Nineveh a chance.

God, however, shows mercy to disobedient, arrogant Jonah by sending a big fish to rescue him. And God leaves him in the fish three days to give him a chance to think about this mercy business.

After the fish spits him on the beach Jonah heads for Nineveh. When he gets there he preaches a halfhearted sermon to only a fraction of the city. But against all odds the pitiful sermon he preached works. Nineveh listens and responds. And Jonah is fit to be tied:

Jonah 4:1-3 [T]his was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.  ²He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.  ³And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." (italics mine)

But God shoots back at Jonah:

Jonah 4:4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

Anger is an appropriate and normal human emotion. Jesus himself got angry. (Mark 3:5) God’s not telling Jonah that anger is wrong. God is asking Jonah if he really thinks he has a right to be mad about this situation. Does he have a right to be angry that God is merciful? But Jonah doesn’t answer the question. He ignores God and the implication of what he has asked.

Instead, Jonah goes outside the city and makes a shelter to protect himself from the scorching desert heat. He sits himself down to watch God destroy Nineveh, as God should have done in the first place! He finds the idea of God’s mercy absolutely incomprehensible. Jonah never expected his pitiful unenthusiastic sermon to work. He never thought they’d listen or change. They deserve to die, and Jonah has a front row seat for the show! It’s a sit-in. It’s a protest. He is going to sit there until the God of the universe starts to act like the condemning god Jonah had created in his own mind. He wants fire and brimstone to rain down on those people. The god of his imagining would not and could not show mercy to Assyrians. They are enemies. They are evil. And Nineveh is the nerve center of the beast. If God is God, he must destroy them. Jonah sits and waits for God to repent (change his mind--metanoia) and do “the right thing”!

God, however, throws Jonah a curve ball—an object lesson of his own. He makes a shady bush grow up over Jonah to further protect him from the heat. Jonah thinks, now that’s more like it. God should reward good people (like me). And he should punish the evil people (like the Ninevites). If only Jonah had binoculars to see them suffer up close! Jonah watches in anticipation of “the show.” But God doesn’t destroy the city. Instead, God destroys the bush!

Now Jonah is really mad. He tells God again just to let him die. He can’t stand living in a universe where Assyrians get mercy, innocent bushes get smited, and God’s messengers get toasted in the blistering heat. God speaks to Jonah again about his outrage. Listen to this exchange. With it the Book of Jonah abruptly ends:

Jonah 4:9-11 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?"

And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."  ¹⁰ Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

God is scandalously merciful, says the Book of Jonah. The End.

Luke records Jesus saying, “. . . [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Then Jesus continues by telling you and me (and Jonah!) to be like that too. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:35b-36) Be scandalously merciful.

Once more: How does it work?

Who will judge? The Father delegated the task to the Son, and the Son delegated it to a word that the Father commanded him to speak, and that word was Life eternal. There’s your final judge. The Scriptures ask its readers: Do you celebrate the Life that God mercifully gives to all? Are you scandalized by such scandalous mercy? Will you choose to celebrate this gift of salvation already given to you and to the whole world, this gift of rich, full, abundant, and everlasting Life? Do you accept that you along with everybody else are forgiven? Do you like this “new covenant”?

Hebrews 8:8-13 "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; ⁹ not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand (with the law as their babysitter) to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant (they broke the law) ¹⁰ This is the covenant . . . : I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹¹ And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." ¹³ In speaking of "a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear. (italics mine) (see also Jeremiah 31:31-34)

What is “Life eternal” biblically if not an everlasting covenant relationship with God not based on a human’s performance under the law, but based on God’s forgiving, saving, scandalous, amazing grace to the whole world.

2 Corinthians 5:19 . . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . . (italics mine)

Put simply, God’s not keeping score. (My internal legalist has a problem with that.) And if he’s not keeping score, why do I? (I just stepped on my own toes.)

So how does judgment actually work? If God the Father and God the Son judge indirectly by delegating it to the word of mercy—eternal Life given to the world—, then what happens when a person is judged?

The terms judge, judgment, and wrath are all used instructively by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 2:1-8 Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. ² You say, "We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth." ³ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ For he will repay according to each one's deeds: ⁷ to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. (bold and italics mine)

Paul here is making the following points:

1. We all are guilty. Therefore how can we judge others?

2. God is rich, Paul says, in kindness and forbearance and patience. This kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, that is, to change your judgmental mind.

3. But if you don’t change your mind (repent), and you refuse to soften your hard impenitent heart, and you refuse to be merciful to others, then you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

4. He will allow you to receive what you store up against others. If you judge others and won’t stop, the judgment comes right back at you like a boomerang on that day. The judgment you render on others comes back and nails you right between the eyes.

James made a similar point:

James 2:13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

You’ve thrown the boomerang of judgment at someone and it has come back and clobbered you. It happens every time. Judging others is a rejection of the Life offered to you and to those you judge.

Judged already

If you don’t think you can be judged already, check out the Gospel of John. He writes in the following verse that if you don’t receive the Life already given to you, you are judged already, that you’ve judged yourself by your response to the truth of light and Life:

John 3:18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (bold italics mine)

See Acts 13:46 too.

⁴⁶ Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles.” (bold italics mine)

Those who judge others as unworthy of mercy have judged themselves unworthy of mercy. They have rejected Life. Judgment is activated against those who judge their neighbors. It’s not that God wants to be harsh with anyone. (On the contrary.) But a person’s harshness with others is allowed to come back and bite him. Nevertheless, mercy beats judgment always and forever. It triumphs ultimately. It forever wins in the heart of God.

Mercy in New Testament Greek is e;leoj eleos {pronounced el'-eh-os}. It means showing goodwill and giving assistance. But it also means letting people off the hook who don’t deserve it. The Scriptures are clear that those who are merciful to others need not fear judgment now or ever. A key quote from Jesus to Simon the Pharisee clarifies this. He said to Simon:

^ESV Luke 7:47b “. . . he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Loving little is the inability to love perfectly, that is to love impartially without regard for whether you think the person deserves it or not. That is mercy in a nutshell. But you can’t offer love and mercy and grace to someone if you haven’t received it first yourself. How can you give what you’ve refused to receive?

Look, people who are unforgiving and scorekeeping are demonstrating the lack of forgiveness in their lives. It’s not that they aren’t forgiven—they are—but they haven’t allowed it inside. They have blocked mercy so they can keep their grudges. If they let themselves experience mercy, they wouldn’t be able to keep judging everybody. Superiority is a hard habit to break. It’s a powerful drug. The superior folk among us would rather be admired (or feared ) than loved.

That’s why control freaks are merciless. They show no mercy because they’ve rejected it for themselves. They’ll show you none (often with a crocodile smile) because they have none to show you. It’s not in them. You can’t share what you don’t have.

“You can only love and serve others to the degree that you know how God is loving and serving you.” Wayne Jacobson

To put it simply, when you love little you are naturally going to judge. A lack of mercy kicks judgment into gear. Those who receive mercy are less likely to refuse mercy to others. Those who refuse mercy for themselves become merciless judges. They love little. When you show no mercy by judging, it targets you. Jesus warned about this very thing.

Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

It’s very important not to put God in this verse. Jesus isn’t talking about his Father judging you, nor he judging you. Judgment ricochets all by itself. Nothing good comes of your judging others because it has this boomerang effect. When you hurl it at others, it only comes back and cracks you in the head!

The terms judge, judgment, and wrath are all used creatively by the Apostle Paul. Again, in Romans 2 he writes of wrath boomeranging.

⁵ But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ For he will repay according to each one's deeds: ⁷ to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. (bold and italics mine) (Romans 2:5-8)

God’s righteous judgment is revealed as boomeranging wrath. So not only will the day of wrath be wrathful for the wrathful, but even now the wrathful are already judged by their own wrathfulness.

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