To Encourage You

John 18:19 “The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.”

If you are an unbeliever, how do you justify your unbelief? Like Annas, the high priest who first questioned Jesus prior to the crucifixion, do you look first at the followers, the disciples of Jesus? Is it your position that you are just as good as they are, if not better? Do you mock Christianity by mocking the TV preachers who are so obviously money-hungry in their preaching? Do you point at how uneducated some believers are – so unsophisticated – and so unwise when it comes to worldly matters? Do you take pride in your superiority over these “holy-rollers”?

Well, if that’s where you’re looking, might I suggest that though you very well may find some justification for unbelief by looking at the lives of some professing Christians, you will have absolutely no justification for unbelief when you stand before the Christ of Christianity. When you one day look into His holy and pure eyes, all your arguments to justify your unbelief will evaporate in a moment. The standard, you see, is not the believers of Christ in all their weaknesses and faults.  The standard is  Christ Himself. Unless you are more righteous then He is (and you’re not), you will have no excuse for rejecting Him. Although you may see yourself, like Annas, as far above the “foolishness” of Christianity, and although you’ve spent your whole life seeing yourself as superior to those who would believe such “fables” as the stories of the Bible, when you stand before the true Author of the Word of God, all your arguments will ring hollow.

In the end, it is Christ Who will judge the world, not the other way around. And though in His mercy He may patiently overlook the sin of unbelief for a time, that time will end, and for many that time will be sooner rather than later. While the Bible tells us about the moment that Jesus stood before Annas in judgment, it doesn’t tell us about the time Annas stood before Christ upon his own death. Although the scene in John 18 is obviously horrible in its injustice, the more horrible thing was surely the true justice meted out in the end for all eternity on those who thought they could pass judgment on the Righteous One.

We have all been told in the Word of God that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:10).” Are you ready for that day? Are you trusting in the righteousness of Christ and His death on your behalf as that day approaches, or are you, like Annas, trusting in your own righteousness as you rule that belief in Christ is beneath you – not worthy of consideration?

May God give us eyes to see His Righteous and Holy Son with right judgment, for without Christ, there is no hope. Without Him, we are all, like Annas, nothing more than unjust judges, prisoners of our own sin.