⁴ My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
– 1 Corinthians 4:4-5  (NIV)

There is an appointed time or day of Judgement for all the inhabitants of the earth and for all of God’s children like most of us might already know but there may be an important fact about it which we may be missing out. Most people feel that there will just be one judgement for every human being where God will judge every man for his works but the bible never puts it that way. The bible clearly teaches that judgement will come in two different ways.

1. The general judgement for all human being who did not accept Christ.
2. And the judgement of God’s children.

Let’s look at a passage in Matthew 25:31-34

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

From the passage above, we can see that preceding the judgement is a separation of the sheep from the goats. Their nature is clear – SHEEP and GOAT. They are two different kinds of animals even though they are both animals. And their identity is what determined their destination – right side or left side. These means they will not be judged in the same way and certainly not by the same yardstick. The sheep are God’s children while the goats are the children of the devil.

There will be one judgement for the children of God. This judgement will be for them to receive the reward for their faithfulness to God while on earth based on their relationship with God through Christ and their righteous works.

Then the second judgement will be for the unbelievers, this is a judgement unto condemnation of eternal damnation.

Matthew 25:41 “
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

A lot of Christians still feel that they can enter into eternal condemnation on the day of judgment if they are found wanting with respect to their works. The Word of God shows us clearly that:

John 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Believing in Christ and receiving him is the only condition upon which we stand condemned or righteous before God and not just our right works. Whoever believes is not condemned but whoever doesn’t believe is already condemned.

A child of God has nothing to fear because he/she has crossed from death to life. This is not a matter of something that happened along the way. It is a question of who you are – SHEEP or GOAT. So when you hear of the day of judgment, rejoice because your Lord is coming to put an end to wickedness in the world and cause his own people to inherit his promises.

Stay edified.