Does a loving God judge?

Intuitively, teaching Christians who are struggling to trust God about judgement and hell seems like a really bad idea.

However, over years of working in Christian ministry, and in working through my own struggles, one particular aspect of hell and judgement has struck me as being enormously comforting. It is simply this:

God's judges because He cares.

A few years ago I was chatting with a friend who was studying the history of slavery as part of an arts degree. She was most disturbed because she had been learning about the transportation of slaves from Africa to North America. Some had been left to die of starvation during the voyages across. Had God just forgetten about them? Did God really care? By extension, was God at all concerned about the things that she was going through?

Most arguments for atheism, including one I heard recently from Peter Singer, revolve around unjust human suffering: if God cares about us, why does He allow so much suffering without intervening? Either God doesn't exist, or God is bad.

One facet of a response to this question is to consider the judgement of God.

God does care about wrongdoing, and He cares about it so much that He judges evil. This happened when Christ died on the cross (1 Peter 3:18), it is happening now as He allows people to continue in their sin (Rom 1:18-32), and He will finally and ultimately judge in the future when Jesus returns (Acts 17:31).

The vivid descriptions of the judgement of God in Revelation are not written primarily to scare the living daylights out of us - though this isn't necessarily an improper response to the texts - they are written to comfort and encourage Christians. God will see that justice is done. The Lamb will win (to steal a line from Bewes) and evil and wrongdoing will be done away with. Revelation 19:11-21 is one of my favourite passages in the Bible (well the first half anyway) - Jesus is the triumphant victor who has redeemed His people with His blood, who enacts judgement on all evil. He is the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

God will see that justice is done for the African slaves who died on the boat, God will see that justice is done for children who are abused, God will see that justice is done regarding Burmese officials who refuse aid workers access to their country, to name only a tiny drop from the great ocean of injustices that have been and are being committed in the world.

Of course, we must be careful about being too zealous in calling for God's justice, because we know that if he enacts justice with regard to our lives and doings, we will be in deep deep trouble. We all deserve God's judgement, but God in his kindness takes away the punishment that we deserve in Christ.

Gordon has recently put up a great post that explores the encouragement we can derive from this forgiveness and rescue from hell, called "Hell: a help for depression". It's well worth a read.