and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."[158] He gives a similar description to the Corinthians:  “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump:  for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."[159] “He commanded us to testify,” says Peter, “that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead."[160] And Paul writes to Timothy that “the Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing."[161]

The most awful descriptions of the Judgment, as it will affect the wicked, are given by the Lord Jesus Himself.  In Matthew xxv. we have a series of images, in which the terrors of the “great day of the Lord” are set forth.  The virgins that go out to meet the Bridegroom, the servants with their talents, the Judge dividing all brought before Him as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, are warnings of the certainty and severity of judgment, and of the doom reserved for the ungodly.

“The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."[162] As God, He has all things naked and open before Him.  As man, He became subject to human conditions, and was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Our Judge knows our frame, our temptations, our weakness, our difficulties; and in the Judgment, as in His life on earth, He will not break the bruised reed, or apply to men’s conduct a harsher measure than they have merited.  Judgment will begin at the house of God, and sentence on the ungodly will be severe in proportion to knowledge, privilege, and opportunity.  Men will be judged by their works, and in this doctrine of Scripture there is no opposition to that of justification by faith.  Men cannot be justified by their own works, but if Christ be in them and the Spirit of God dwell in their hearts, then, being dead to sin, they follow holiness.  The distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil is this, that the former class bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and the latter the fruits of sin.  “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things:  and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."[163] In the Judgment the works of every man shall be brought to light, whether they be good or evil.  “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known."[164] The just shall be rewarded, not on account of their good works, but because of the atonement and righteousness of Christ; yet their works will be the test of their sanctification and the proof that they are members of Christ and regenerated by His Spirit.

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ARTICLE 8

I believe in the Holy Ghost