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“Come, you blessed of My Father! Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!”

᛭ INI ᛭

He comes, riding on the clouds! He comes with all power, authority, and might! He comes in glory, with His holy angels serving Him. He is the “LORD, God of Sabaoth,” (Sanctus) the LORD of Hosts, the LORD of armies. He charges onto the scene. The battle, the victory is His. He’s already won!—Crucified for your sins and raised for your justification. (Rom 4)

Before Jesus everyone will be gathered—all peoples, nations, and languages. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is ‘the LORD’ to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2) Some willingly in praise, others unwillingly by force. Why those two options? Because it’s “like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats.”

“Court’s in session!” (Dan 7) He judges! He judges with all power, authority, and might. The Father has given all judgment to His Son, because He’s the Son of Man. (Jn 5:27) Christ’s judgment is fair and just because He’s God—and so completely fair and just… Jesus also judges humanity fairly and justly because He’s also “true man born of the Virgin Mary.” (SC) The God-Man renders God’s judgment upon man.

He reads out the verdict! “The books are opened then to all, A record truly telling What each has done, both great and small, When he on earth was dwelling, And ev’ry heart be clearly seen, And all be known as they have been In thoughts and words and actions.” (LSB 608) “He searches mind and heart, and will give to each according to his works.” (Rev 2:23; Rom 2:6; Ps 62:12) He doesn’t just judge actions. Jesus renders complete judgment: over all your thoughts, your words, your actions, even your desires and intentions, too!

No wonder Malachi cries out: “Who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He’s like a refiner’s fire!” (Mal 3:2) Christ’s judgment is as clear as day: To the sheep, He says, “Come!” and to the goats, He says, “Go away!” As Psalm 1 says: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

So, can you stand the judgment? How will you fair on Judgment Day? Looking forward to it? Do you have a spotless record like the sheep? Are you good and righteous enough? Will you make it through the divine limbo stick, as it were, where there’s literally no room for error? “Come, you blessed of My Father!” “Get away from Me, you cursed!” Which will you hear? Well, that all depends on why the sheep are in but the goats are out…

Not only their actions, but their thoughts and intentions are revealed. Jesus pronounces the sheep “blessed of My Father.” He reads out their good works. (They only have good works, no sins.) The sheep have no idea what their Shepherd is talking about, proving that in heart, soul, and mind, they paid no mind to their actions. Having faith toward God, “the fruit of the Spirit” blossomed in their daily life. Washed and clothed in the righteousness of their Shepherd, the Lamb of God, whose fleece is white as snow, their fleece is, too! For they are clean by His blood through faith.

The goats are the opposite. Jesus declares: “Go away, you cursed!” Their evil deeds are reported. They only have sins! They, too, have no idea what their Shepherd is taking about. “What do you mean we didn’t minister to you?” As, Jesus warns earlier in Matthew, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven.” It’s because they don’t have faith. Clothed with their own thoughts, words, and actions, they are unholy, unrighteous. “For without faith it’s impossible to please God.” (Heb 11) For just as “the righteous lives by his faith,” the unrighteous dies by his unbelief. (Hell is the Second Death.)

He comes, riding on the clouds, with all power, authority, and might! He comes in glory, with all His holy angels. The “LORD, God of Sabaoth,” (Sanctus) charges onto the scene. The battle, the victory is His. He’s already won!—Crucified for your sins and raised for your justification. (Rom 4) He comes to judge with all power, authority, and might, according to that victory He Himself accomplished for your salvation.

Those who believe in Him are, to your great surprise, declared “blessed of the Father.” Those who don’t are, to their great surprise, declared “accursed,” condemned. Now, it’s true that believers have good works. “Their deeds follow them,” (Rev 14) but it’s not of their own doing. Their deeds don’t grant access to the Kingdom. Works done in this life can’t in any way grant access to a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! Works done in this life do grant access, though, at surprising speed, “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

So, how do you get sheeplike faith? Or have the mind of a sheep? Or their good works? It doesn’t come from you, but from Him!—from the King, the Shepherd, the Lamb once slain for you, who now sits upon throne. “Those dear tokens of His passion Still His dazzling body bears, Cause of endless exultation To His ransomed worshipers. With what rapture, … Gaze we on those glorious scars!” (LSB 336) For you only have the Mind of Christ (Phil 2), by being in Christ Jesus who was crucified for your sins. And you are in Him by faith, by Holy Baptism (Gal 2), by remaining in His Word (Jn 8), by eating and drinking His flesh and blood (Jn 6).

More Jesus, then, is better. John the Baptist’s confession is one of true faith: “He must increase, I must decrease!” (Jn 3:30) Through His Word, Gospel sermons, Holy Absolution, and His body and blood, He makes His sheep more like Him every day. (The timing happens where and when He pleases.) When it comes to preaching and His Word, and also His Supper, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. We know this to be true… The less frequent people are at church, all the more infrequent they become.

He comes on the clouds! He’ll come again on clouds, because that’s how He ascended to the heavenly dimension. He rode among the clouds on His Cross. “Court [was] in session” (Dan 7) against Him! Your sins were His at Calvary, His righteousness yours at His Resurrection. That’s His judgment for you, received by faith. He pronounces the same verdict in Absolution, in the preaching of the Gospel, and at His Supper. There at His throne, the Altar, He pronounces His verdict, “My body and blood for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” A verdict He not only proclaims for you to hear, but into your mouth to eat and drink.

“Come, you blessed of My Father! Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!”

᛭ INI ᛭