Unshakable Hope - JoySample

Week 5: Justice Will Prevail: God's Promise Through Paul

God's Promise: "For [God] has set a day when he will judge the world." (Acts 17:31 NIV)

My Promise: I will respect God's justice and delight in God's grace.

The Great White Throne. Each word matters. Great because God will dispense the weightiest of verdicts: eternal destiny. His judgment seat does not litigate petty quarrels or trifling issues. His judgment deals with capital crimes, not misdemeanors. He will issue sentences, not of days, decades, or millennia…but eternity. White because its opinions are pure and perfect. God judges with complete knowledge and precision. Throne because its verdict is final. This is not a trial, but a sentencing. In a trial, the judge discovers and evaluates the facts. God needs no further evidence. His throne is great with significance, white with integrity and absolute in authority. From his throne Jesus will forever balance the scales of fairness. “Judgment Day” is an unpopular term. We dislike the image of a great hour of reckoning. We disdain judgment but we value justice, yet the second is impossible without the first. One can’t have justice without judgment.

Unshakable Hope Declaration

We are building our lives on the promises of God. Because his Word is unbreakable, our hope is unshakable. We do not stand on the problems of life or the pain in life. We stand on the great and precious promises of God.