Caspar Olevianus on the *comfort of the last judgment: By R. Scott Clark

121 Q. Now explain the meaning of this article, “From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” A.* With my eyes turned to the heavens and my heart at peace in all distress, persecution, and rumors of war, I believe in and await the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. I am fully confident that as He came the first time to earn our salvation, He will come again to impart to us the full fruit and enjoyment of that salvation He earned, in order that, as it is written, “having now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from wrath by His life. For if when we were still enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5[:9, 10]). 122 Q.* Does this article then bring you comfort rather than terror? A. Since all the Articles of Faith have been composed for our comfort, this one too is here certainly not to trouble us but to comfort and delight us. Second, Christ too bids us to delight in His coming in Luke 21[:28]: “Be of great cheer and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” How then can it be proper for us to turn into sadness something that Christ wants to serve our highest joy? Third, the Father too gave the Son all judgment (John 5[:22]) and authority to judge (because He is the Son of Man) in order to pacify our consciences. For we know that* the very One with all power to judge assumed our role as the guilty party before the judgment seat of God in all His suffering and death, completely paid for us the severe penalty imposed by God, and promised that “he who believes in me is not condemned” (John 3[:18]). Indeed, as members of Christ who will themselves pronounce judgment, believers will help Christ pass sentence against the disloyal angels and against the world. As St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6[:2, 3], “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” “… Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” 123 Q. But what do you need to do to really delight in the coming of Christ, as He bids us? A. First, I must have a strong foundation for my faith. Second, I must exercise my faith with the fruits of a true faith. The foundation of my faith, however, is not my merit—not even a part of the foundation; it is Jesus Christ alone. He gave Himself for me.* He stood trial in my place before God in the court of Judge Pontius Pilate, in order that I might never have to experience the judgment of damnation. He removed the whole of my curse from me and laid it upon Himself on the cross, a death cursed by God so that I might never hear the terrifying words, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the ever lasting fire” [Matt. 25:31]. Instead, I can be filled with the eternal blessing of the Father and be made an heir of the Kingdom of God, prepared for us not by ourselves, who were not yet born, but by Christ before the foundation of the world. This alone is my foundation, as also St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3[:11]: “No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” It is the body of Christ in which the whole of my curse was paid for and removed and in which the eternal blessing was obtained for and freely given me by grace through the Word of truth, the holy Gospel. Because I have this foundation and will look at the body of Christ with my own eyes, I have a love and a yearning for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. Second, being confident in my heart through faith that I am one of Christ’s blessed lambs, whom He “redeemed not with corruptible things, like gold or silver … but with His precious blood” [1 Pet. 1:18, 19], I shall be zealous to possess the marks with which Christ by His Holy Spirit normally identifies His lambs: the various exercises and fruits of faith. I can do this, for example, by giving Christ (hungry and thirsty members of His) food and drink; by providing Him (the stranger) with lodging; by clothing Him (His naked members); by visiting Him (His sick members); by refreshing Him (His imprisoned members) with visits, assistance, and money [Matt. 25:35, 36]; indeed, by “showing good to all but especially to the household of faith” [Gal. 6:10]. However, we ought not to think that we merit our status that way; Christ alone merited it and has given it to us freely by grace. He Himself had pointed out just a little earlier in Matthew 25 that this foundation and merit exist in Him alone. In that passage [Matt. 25:34], He uses three proofs. First, He says, “Come, you blessed of my Father.” Now we were not blessed by ourselves, nor did we become His children by our merit (Eph. 1). This happened through Christ, who became a curse for us (Gal. 3[:13]; 1 Cor. 1[:30]). Second, He says, “Inherit.” Since there is an inheritance, it too is given freely by grace through the promise and not by the merit of word (Gal. 3:18). Third, He says, “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” We could not have prepared it by our merit because we did not yet exist (Eph. 1:4–7, 11; Rom. 9:11, 12, 16; Eph. 2:1, 5). I should be zealous to do good works to show that I honor God the Lord and to show that I have a true, not a counterfeit faith. Such faith manifests itself in thankfulness to the Lord for the blessing of the heavenly Father given us by grace as a free gift (Gal. 3) in the blessed seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.116 In faith we are also thankful for the inheritance He graciously gives to us as well as to Christ, the natural heir, and for the Kingdom that He has prepared for us in Christ from the foundation of the world—before our birth, without any of our merit. And since Christ does not need our works of mercy, He has entrusted to us instead all who are afflicted and distressed. When someone purchases a lamb with silver or gold and then brands it, the lamb does not belong to him because of the brand but because of the money he paid for it. In the same way the bloodshed or suffering and death of Christ alone is the foundation and complete payment for us His lambs, as He Himself says in John 10[:15], “I lay down my life for my sheep” (Cf. 1 Pet. 1; 1 Cor. 6). There is no other payment either in heaven or on earth (Acts 10). “Therefore the inheritance is of faith so that it might be according to grace and that the promise might be sure” (as St. Paul says in Rom. 4[:16]). Otherwise we would always have to be doubting whether it would be fulfilled in us, if it rested on our merits. But after Christ bought His lambs at a great price, He also “branded” them with His Holy Spirit, who engenders their trust in Christ the Shepherd alone and motivates them to true thankfulness (2 Pet. 3:12–14; 1 Thess. 4:14, 17; 5:4–6, 8–10; Luke 12:37). By grace God also rewards our thankfulness, since we are already His children through Christ and He has graciously pardoned our sins. He is like a father who graciously and abundantly bestows gifts upon his child, the heir to all his property, even though the child’s obedience has not merited them and such great gifts are beyond comparison. 124 Q. Now give a clear summary and order of the benefits we derive from this article. A. This article is beneficial both as a comfort and as an admonition. We are comforted, first, by the person of the judge, because in the united body and soul of that judge, our* curse has been removed and the blessing has been obtained. Second, we are comforted by the command of the judge when He instructs us to delight in His coming (Luke 21[:28]). “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled,” says Christ (Matt. 24:6). Third, we are comforted by Christ’s promise, “Whoever believes in me shall not come into judgment (damnation), but has passed through death into life” [John 5:24]. See also Luke 22[:30], where it says that believers shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel; 1 Corinthians 6[:2, 3], where it says that believers shall judge the world and the angels; 1 Thessalonians 4[:17]: “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord”; and 1 Thessalonians 5[:9, 10]: “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.” That is why Scripture calls this day the day of redemption [Eph. 4:30]. For although we have been redeemed in body and soul by the suffering of Christ, belong to Him from now on, and have received the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, there are still many sins and afflictions, physical death included, that remain in us and prevent us from fully enjoying our salvation (Rom. 8:19, 23, 26). Fourth, we are comforted by the purpose of Christ’s return that is included in the promises: not first and foremost to punish the ungodly but to rescue His church or faithful people from the residue of sin and from the cross and affliction that weigh them down because of this residual sin.* The other reason for His coming in judgment is to take His church, that is, all believers, to Himself as His bride and to adorn her with eternal glory and radiance. As it says in Eph. 5[:25–27], “Christ loved His church and gave Himself for it, that he might sacntify it, and cleansed it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish” (see also vv. 29–32). Likewise 1 John 3[:2]: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when it is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”; John 14[:3]: “I will come again and receive you to myself”; and John 17[:24]: “Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” This desire of Christ continues on into our day. It will not change at the Last Judgment but will in fact be completely fulfilled.