Summary: God doesn’t want to fence us in, but he doesn’t want us to spend eternity in hell, either. Confronted with this conundrum, he works hard to help us stay within his will.
There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
Jesus is telling us something very important here. He has said that he did not come into the world to judge the world, but to save it. (Verse 47) In today’s verses, he explains what he means. Just because he is not going to judge people does not mean there is no judgment! Instead, the “judge” will be the words Jesus has spoken.
So how does this work?
In my job, I have to review collision reports for car crashes in our city. There is a parallel here that might help explain what is going on. I think it works something like this…
The power and majesty of God’s angels must be something to see because they always begin their message with, “Do not be afraid…” In this encounter the message is:
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Luke 2: 11-12
The fact that Jesus has been born in a stable and is lying in a manger becomes a “sign” to the shepherds. In effect, the angel’s message is that the verification of what we have told you about the Messiah will be the unusual sight of a baby in among the sheep in the barn.