2 Thessalonians 1:5–10 5This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer. 6Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, 7and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, 8he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength, 10on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. (Revelation 1:5–7)
Several years ago, a college student told me she was troubled by one of her professors. He regularly disparaged her and other Christians in his class. He told them they were close-minded to follow Christianity. At the same time, he expressed how enlightened he was in his spirituality. He professed to the class that he took the best out of each religion to create his own faith. He said he took the peace from Islam, the meditation from Buddhism, loving your neighbor as yourself from Christianity, the love of nature from Native Americans, the respect of ancestors from Shinto, and so on.
This professor felt so enlightened a decade ago, but what was doing a decade ago is exactly the same as what a recent poll shows 17% of Americans are doing today. Nearly 1 out of 5 Americans no longer believe in a revealed, unchanging truth from God’s Word. They are captivated by moral relativism, where people can create their own truths.
17% of Americans prefer to piece together their own religion with pieces taken from Christianity, New Age, Buddhism, Secularism, and more. It’s a religion made in the individual’s image, based on personal feelings. They state in the poll that their religion is “nothing in particular.”
What current Americans are doing is pushing aside the truth and the God of the Bible. Again, this is nothing new. St. Paul encountered the same thing 2000 years ago in the city of Thessalonica.
The non-Christians in Thessalonica were persecuting the Christians for their faith in absolute truth and the one true God. Nothing has changed since 51 A.D. when Paul visited Thessalonica. People were rejecting God’s truth in Thessalonica in Asia Minor, just like people are rejecting God’s truth in Racine in America.
When Christians fall victim to those who are harassing and mistreating us for our faith, we wonder, “Where is the justice?”
Paul assures Christians that justice is coming on the Great Day of Judgment. “Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us.” We may suffer temporarily here on earth at the hands of non-Christians, but the non-Christians will suffer eternally in hell at the hands of a just God.
Paul mentions two separate groups who will be punished. First, those “who do not know God.” They have believed in false gods, or no god, or they have created their own type of gods. Ultimately, they have rejected the One true God and the Savior he sent to rescue them from wrath.
“When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength.” Because of God’s wrath there will be justice. And relief.
But Paul mentions that God’s wrath will also be poured out on those “who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” That means we who have heard the good news of Jesus as Savior but have rejected him. This is a warning for us. We cannot become complacent in our faith. We cannot be influenced by our culture’s current thinking that there is no absolute truth. We cannot allow our sinful nature to rule our mind into thinking we can do whatever we want with our bodies, just because we’ll ask for forgiveness later. We cannot be cowered into rationalizing that God doesn’t care about sexual sins.
Our Triune God is not some vague deity in the sky that you say you believe in and then do nothing with. God deserves your respect and fear. He deserves your praise and prayers. He deserves your thanks and worship. He deserves your time and treasures. And when he does not receive those things from you, then you defile the house of God, like we heard in our Old Testament lesson. God will bring down our own conduct on our heads for what we’ve done (Ezekiel 9).
Many want to deny that a loving God could also be a wrathful God. They pit God’s love against God’s justice. But Paul’s whole point in writing these verses to the Thessalonians suffering persecution at the hands of evil people is that God is just. “This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer.”
When the wrath of God is removed, then the central act in all of human history – Christ’s death on the cross - has been emptied of all its power and meaning. If God really is not all that angry with sinners, then Christianity is nothing more than feeble moralism in which we urge people to be a little nicer to each other. If Christ’s death did not pay the terrible price for a world of human sin, then his death was nothing but a pathetic and weak act that can do nothing to change our lives. If Christ did not bear in his sacred body the wrath and punishment we deserve, then we are still in our sins and will endure God’s wrath and punishment on the Last Day.
I want you to imagine that you are standing in a courtroom. Not an ordinary courtroom, but the divine courtroom. God is the Judge. He is seated in his white robe on the judicial bench.
The prosecuting attorney on your left is a creepy-looking guy dressed impeccably in a sharp red suit. He is Satan, whose very name means “Accuser.” Satan addresses the Judge by accusing you with everything you’ve ever done wrong. It’s a long list. Then he accuses you with everything you’ve failed to do right. It’s an equally long list.
Your head is lowered in shame. Even though the devil is a liar, he’s not lying about this.
You know the just penalty you deserve for your crimes against God and humanity. You deserve eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord.
But then your defense attorney speaks up. His voice is at the same time both humble and authoritative. He has an aura of power about him. He even seems to have a halo around his head. He silences Satan with a single word.
Your defense attorney is none other than Jesus. Jesus approaches the Judge’s bench. Jesus and the Judge quietly converse for a few moments. Then Jesus returns to your side.
The Judge pounds his gavel. The whole courtroom shakes. He declares the verdict loudly and justly with a single word. “Innocent!”
You are dumbfounded. You know you’re guilty. But you are released. You are free to go.
To your great shock, you see Jesus being led away in chains. You learn later on that Jesus made a deal with the Judge where he offered to take your place.
He was the Innocent who was declared guilty, so you might be set free.
He endured his Father’s vengeance so you might be declared victorious.
He suffered the just penalty for your perversions so you might be gifted with paradise.
He paid for your release from the hellish dungeon, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death.
This is God’s righteous verdict.
God’s wrath was poured out in history’s past instead of being poured out in our eternal future.
To those who want to create a god of their own making or choose to worship other gods, challenge them. Remind them that every other religion demands you to do something. Every other god commands you to obey. The Christian God is the only One who knows you can’t do anything. He knows you will always fail to obey.
Christianity is the only religion where God became man to take our place on earth. He paid our penalty. He died our death. He endured our punishment. He demands nothing of us. He only invites us to believe in him. Believe in the One who took our place here, so we might take our place next to him for eternity in heaven.
Now you don’t need to fear God’s Great Judgment Day.
You received your judgment already when God’s Son died on Calvary’s cross.
You received your judgment already when the crucified Christ broke free from death’s grip on Easter morning.
You received your judgment already when the pastor poured God’s water and Word over your head at the baptismal font.
You received your judgment of innocence a few minutes ago when you heard God’s words of absolution: “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
You will receive evidence of your judgment on your lips in a few minutes when you taste God’s forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper.
This verdict of freedom and pronouncement of innocence is yours. Cherish it. Treasure it. Live it.
Share it.
Don’t belittle those who belittle your Christianity. Don’t disparage unbelievers who disparage you for your faith. Don’t vilify those who imagine Christians to be the villains.
They are lost. They are looking. They are being lied to. They need to hear the truth – the absolute truth. They need to be told that there is something much better than “nothing in particular.” They need to hear about their Savior. Jesus died for them, too. He paid the price of salvation – even for those who refuse to believe in him. The verdict of innocence is theirs. They don’t have to do anything to earn it. They don’t have to obey anything to get it. They only need to accept Jesus’ invitation to believe in him. That’s it.
That’s how much Jesus loves them. That’s how much Jesus loves us.
While it is sad to see Christianity’s decline and Secularism’s rise in our culture, it is nothing new. The same thing has been happening in places like Thessalonica and around the world for several millennia.
Our job is to remain faithful in believing and proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus until he returns. We share this gospel with the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers.
We are looking forward to the Last Judgment because we have already been judged. We have received God’s divine verdict – Innocent! Amen.
Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17)