Judgment - 2 Corinthians 5:8-15

5:8-11 - Here again we see the word “confident” used to describe our feelings of trust in the Lord’s plan. Unlike yesterday where Paul said that he was “always confident” in God’s plan even though he was separated from God in this mortality, today Paul remains “confident” in the idea of being separated from his body “to be present with the Lord.” After just spending several verses talking about how glorious the resurrection will be, Paul expresses his faith that whether he has his body at any given point or even if he doesn’t, all things will be for his good. Spending so much time discussing adversity, persecution, death, and resurrection lets us see that Paul had a substantial understanding of the plan of salvation. Part of the proof that he gave his detractors for the validity of his ministry, and something we discussed in depth, was the fact that the missionary work he was engaged in didn’t benefit him at all, in the physical sense. He didn’t gain power or wealth or prestige for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he tells us here “wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.”

 

It’s like having a secret to success in life but keeping it to yourself, it only benefits you, and sometimes that’s ok because that’s just where we are in our lives. But if you have something that you know will help others be happy, and if you know something is coming and you keep quiet, then that’s kind of a douche bag move. Paul knows that the gospel brings personal peace, but he also knows that all people will have to be accountable for their actions, so “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” The word “terror” used here doesn’t seem to mean that God is this terrible angry giant that we have to avoid or be afraid of, but I think that Paul’s using it in the sense that God’s judgment and justice is terrifying to the wicked who refuse to repent. It’s kind of like saying, “I teach the gospel to people because I know what’s going to happen to them if they don’t have it.” And honestly, Paul does know exactly what is coming for people who reject the gospel, because he experienced it himself on the road to Damascus, kind of like Alma the younger in his “come to Jesus” moment.

 

As far as who exactly will be doing the judging, we’ve read before that it will be the 12 Apostles who will be the judges of Israel, and at first I was not pleased with this because I didn’t trust them to be fair and impartial towards me. As I’ve learned more about the plan of salvation over the years, I see them as more of a First Presidency type group who will oversee the spiritual progression of those who still want to move forward in the plan. Christ has said that he is our “advocate with the Father,” implying that it will be the Father rendering judgment on us. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “The Son, not the Father, is the Judge of the whole earth, but his judgment is made in accordance with the will of the Father and therefore is just… Because Jesus is the Son of Man of Holiness he has been given power to execute judgment, to sit in judgment at the great and last day, to call all men forth in immortality to stand before his bar.” This would make the most sense because Jesus is the one who performed the atonement, he is the only one who knows exactly what we went through in mortality, he is the only one who can judge us fairly in a way that is truly just.

 

5:12-15 - He’s not saying all this to brag or justify his position but says all this to “give you occasion to glory on our behalf.” It is the “love of Christ” that motivates them to teach the gospel. In an if A=B and B=C then A=C moment, He says “we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.” If one man was able to die to save all mankind, then all mankind were in need of saving, and death of the one was the only way. The word “died” in this verse is cross-referenced with D&C 19:16 which says, “For behold, I, God have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent.” This statement right here tells us all that we need to know about the final judgment. Jesus took on the punishment for all the sins in the world because he didn’t want us to have to suffer for those sins if we would change our ways to obey the universal laws of happiness. He doesn’t want to judge us harshly, and honestly, he won’t. We know that we will be judged by our own consciences, our own memories of what we’ve done, and we will recognize that Jesus’ judgment is just. We won’t be feeling like we got screwed over, we won’t feel like it was unfair, we won’t feel like he’s bringing up stuff we already repented for. We will walk away from the judgment bar satisfied that we got what we wanted.