Design Pattern: Judgment

This is an overarching note that explores the theme of judgment as it exists from Genesis to Revelation.

Judgment in John’s Gospel

The first use of the word ‘judgment’ is in John 3:19, when the author says that people’s rejection of the light that has entered the world is their judgment.

Then in John 5:22-24 Jesus says that the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son so that people honor him equally. The Father also shares His own life-giving essence with the Son. When people hear his word and believes the Father who sent him, the receive life and are free from judgment.

Later, in John 8:16, Jesus says that he does not judge alone, but he judges together with the Father who sent him. He starts the paragraph claiming to be the light that has entered the world, and addresses the witness just as in John 5.

If both light and life are intertwined, then there’s a strong possibility that judgment also is connected. However, I don’t know where judgment might fit into the Genesis narrative except by implication. In the center of garden within Eden, God places the tree of life and the tree of knowing good and bad. If it’s true that defining good and bad on our own terms (the tree of knowing good and bad) leads to death, but trusting God to define what is good brings life (the tree of life), then good judgment would be listening to God’s voice in acts of trust. Jesus' judgment, because he listens to the Father and does only that which the Father shows him, would by definition be good judgment because it’s based, not on his own terms, but on his trustful listening. In this way, all his brothers are likewise called to have true judgment by turning away from defining good and bad on our own terms and listening to the Spirit.