Chapter 34 — The Day of the Lord: Jesus as the Coming Judge
The Incarnate Christ and His Critics (Komoszewski & Bowman, 2024)
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The Old Testament has a recurring theme that's both terrifying and hope-filled: the Day of the Lord. It's the day God himself intervenes in history, decisively and finally, to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous. The prophets spoke of it with longing and dread both. "Who can endure the day of his coming?" (Mal. 3:2).
In the New Testament, this "Day of the Lord" gets a new name: the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The coming judgment isn't simply God arriving to set things right anymore. It's Jesus returning to finish what he started.
This transfer of the Day of the Lord to Jesus is one of the clearest indicators of his divine identity in all of Scripture.
The Old Testament's Day of the Lord
Throughout the Hebrew prophets, the "Day of the LORD" (Yom YHWH) is described as God's final, dramatic intervention in history. On that day:
- God will judge the nations (Isa. 13:6-13; Joel 3:1-17; Amos 5:18-20)
- He will vindicate his people and punish their oppressors (Zeph. 1:7-18; Mal. 4:1-3)
- The cosmic order will be shaken (Joel 2:30-31)
- The wicked will face his wrath, and the righteous will be gathered (Mal. 3:16-4:3)
Judging all humanity is YHWH's prerogative, and it can't be delegated to a creature. The Psalms celebrate God as the universal judge: "He comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity" (Ps. 98:9). God alone has the authority and knowledge to judge every heart and every deed.
The New Testament's Transfer
The New Testament applies this expectation directly to Jesus, consistently, across multiple authors.
Paul writes of "the day of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 1:14; Phil. 1:6, 10; 2:16) and "the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:10). He describes how "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 Cor. 5:10). Not the judgment seat of God, though Paul also refers to that elsewhere (Rom. 14:10, where some manuscripts actually say "the judgment seat of Christ"). Here it's the judgment seat of Christ.
Jesus himself, in Matthew 25, gives the most detailed picture of the final judgment in all of Scripture. He presents himself as the Son of Man who comes in his glory with all his angels and sits on his glorious throne. He separates people the way a shepherd separates sheep and goats, and their eternal destiny turns on their relationship to him: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" or "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire" (Matt. 25:34, 41).
Look closely at the criteria for judgment in this scene. What matters is how people treated "the least of these my brothers," and that treatment stands in for their orientation toward Jesus himself. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40). Jesus is the hidden presence in every act of mercy or indifference.
The Scope of Authority
What Jesus claims in these passages goes beyond anything any prophet ever said. The final judge of every human being who has ever lived is Jesus Christ. He'll evaluate hearts, not just actions (John 5:27-29), and eternal destinies, not just temporal ones.
No creature can bear this role. Knowing the hearts of all people, holding eternal life and death in one's hands, and executing perfect, final judgment on billions of souls requires omniscience, perfect righteousness, and unlimited authority. Those belong to God.
Jesus says: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father" (John 5:22-23). The Father delegated final judgment to the Son not because the Father lacks authority, but because the Son perfectly expresses the Father's justice and is the one by whose standard all people will be measured.
"Christ will return to judge the living and the dead." This line sits in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, every historic confession of Christian faith. It's there because the New Testament puts it there.
A Word on the Non-Christian Objection
One of the most common objections to Jesus being the Messiah, shared especially by Jewish people, is that Jesus didn't bring an end to injustice, war, suffering, and evil. If he was the promised Savior, why is the world still broken?
The New Testament's answer is that God's rescue operation happens in two stages. First, the cross, where the root problem, sin and death, was dealt with decisively. Then, the return of Christ, when the consequences of the cross will be applied universally and history will be brought to its conclusion.
He came first as the Lamb who takes away sin. He'll come again as the Lion of Judah who establishes justice. Both comings are necessary, and so far only one has happened.
The Day of the Lord Jesus is coming. The one who entered death and defeated it will one day enter history and complete it. Until then, we wait, not in fear but in hope, because the judge is the one who already died for us.
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