The Great Assize
Introduction: The End of All Arguments
We live in an age that has tried to domesticate God. The modern world, and a great deal of the modern church along with it, has refashioned Jesus into a divine therapist, a celestial guidance counselor whose chief attribute is a sort of limitless, squishy affirmation. He is presented as the ultimate champion of inclusivity, a figure who would never, ever engage in the harsh business of separation or judgment. This is the Jesus of sentimentalism, the Jesus who is always nice and never severe. But this Jesus is a fiction, an idol carved out of our own cultural prejudices.
The passage before us today is a battering ram against that idol. It is one of the most solemn and terrifying passages in all of Scripture. Here, at the climax of His Olivet Discourse, Jesus pulls back the curtain of time and shows us the end of all things. He reveals Himself not as a suggestion-maker but as the sovereign King and final Judge of all mankind. This is not a negotiation. This is not a committee meeting. This is the great and final assize, the ultimate court session from which there is no appeal. And in this court, there are only two categories of people, two verdicts, and two final destinations.
This scene demolishes the vain philosophies of our time. It destroys universalism, the lie that everyone will eventually be saved. It obliterates relativism, the foolish notion that there is no objective standard of righteousness. And it exposes the bankruptcy of a dead, creedal orthodoxy that does not produce a changed life. The judgment described here is not arbitrary; it is the final, public revelation of what was true all along. It is the day when the King separates those who belonged to Him from those who only pretended to. And the basis of the separation is utterly practical, revealing the true nature of the heart. We must therefore approach this text with fear and trembling, allowing it to examine us, lest we find ourselves on the wrong side of the great divide.
The Text
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
(Matthew 25:31-46 LSB)
The Sovereign Court (vv. 31-33)
The scene opens with an awesome display of sovereign authority.
"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left." (Matthew 25:31-33)
First, notice the identity of the Judge. It is the "Son of Man." This is Jesus' favored title for Himself, drawn from Daniel 7, where the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days and is given everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom. This is not Jesus the humble carpenter; this is Jesus the cosmic King, returning in the fullness of His divine glory. The glory is not something He puts on for the occasion; it is His native glory, the glory He had with the Father before the world began.
He sits on His throne. This is the posture of ultimate authority and final judgment. All of history has been moving toward this moment. Before Him are gathered "all the nations." There are no exceptions. This is a universal, mandatory court appearance. No one can send their regrets. The summons is absolute. This is the end of all human courts, all human governments, and all human pretensions to authority.
And what does the King do? He separates. The great work of judgment is a work of distinction. He separates them as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. This is not a difficult task for Him. A shepherd knows his flock intimately. He doesn't have to check ear tags or consult a ledger. He simply knows. The separation is decisive, certain, and effortless. This tells us that the distinction between the saved and the lost is not a blurry line but a sharp, clear division. You are either a sheep or a goat. There is no third category, no hybrid animal. The King places the sheep on His right, the place of favor and honor, and the goats on the left, the place of disfavor and rejection.
The Inheritance of the Righteous (vv. 34-40)
The King first addresses those on His right, and His words reveal the bedrock of salvation.
"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" (Matthew 25:34)
The invitation is "Come." Their destiny is rooted in a blessing from the Father. They are not blessed because they are worthy; they are worthy because they are blessed. And what do they receive? They "inherit the kingdom." An inheritance is not something you earn; it is something you receive based on your identity as a son. This is the language of grace, not works. Their place in the kingdom was secured for them, "prepared for you from the foundation of the world." This is sovereign election in its clearest form. Before they ever performed a single act of kindness, before they even existed, their salvation was an accomplished fact in the eternal decree of God. Their good works are not the cause of their salvation, but the certain evidence of it.
The King then presents this evidence. He lists acts of mercy: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick. But the response of the righteous is crucial. They are surprised. "Lord, when did we see You...?" This is the mark of true, Spirit-wrought righteousness. It is un-self-conscious. They were not doing these things to rack up points on a heavenly scorecard. They were simply living out the new nature that God had given them. A good tree naturally and spontaneously produces good fruit. They loved because He first loved them.
And the King's reply is the central point of the parable: "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." Christ so identifies with His people, the Church, that to serve them is to serve Him. This is not a call for generic humanitarianism. The context is "these brothers of Mine." The primary evidence of genuine faith is love for the brethren (1 John 4:20). If you love Christ, you will love those who belong to Christ. You will see His face in the face of the struggling saint, the needy believer, the imprisoned brother.
The Banishment of the Accursed (vv. 41-45)
The King then turns to those on His left, and the contrast is absolute.
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels...'" (Matthew 25:41)
The sentence is "Depart from Me." Hell, at its core, is separation from the source of all goodness, life, and light. They are called "accursed ones," the just recipients of God's holy wrath against sin. And their destination is the "eternal fire." Notice the telling asymmetry here. The kingdom was prepared for you. The fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. The damned are eternal trespassers in a place not originally intended for them. But by aligning themselves with the devil in their rebellion, they share in his destiny.
The grounds for their condemnation are striking. It is not for what they did, but for what they did not do. "I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat..." Theirs was a sin of omission. Their lack of action was not a neutral oversight; it was the damning evidence of a heart devoid of any love for Christ. A dead faith produces nothing.
Their response is also telling: "Lord, when did we see You...?" Unlike the righteous, their question is not one of humble surprise but of self-justifying accusation. They are, in effect, saying, "If we had known it was you in disguise, we certainly would have helped! We would have done it for the credit." This reveals their mercenary hearts. They did not love Christ, so they could not see Him in His humble and needy people. They saw only an inconvenience, a drain on their resources. Their failure to love the brethren was a failure to love Christ.
The Great Bifurcation (v. 46)
The final verse leaves no room for ambiguity or appeal. The sentences are carried out immediately and eternally.
"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:46)
The destinies are parallel and symmetrical. The same Greek word, aionios, translated as "eternal," is used to describe both the punishment of the wicked and the life of the righteous. You cannot tamper with one without doing violence to the other. If you want to argue that the punishment is temporary, you must concede that the life is also temporary. But the Scriptures are clear. Both destinies are final, conscious, and unending. This is the great and final bifurcation of the human race, the ultimate separation that has been coming since the fall of man in the garden.
Conclusion
So where does this leave us? This passage is not given to us so that we might frantically start doing good deeds to tip the scales in our favor. That is the way of salvation by works, and it leads only to the left hand of the King. The point is this: a true, saving faith, which is a gift of God's grace, will inevitably and necessarily transform the believer. The Holy Spirit does not take up residence in a man's heart and then sit on the couch. He gets to work. He produces the fruit of the Spirit, the first of which is love.
The fundamental question this passage forces upon us is not, "Have you done enough?" but rather, "Have you been born again?" Has God performed the miracle of regeneration in your heart? If He has, then you will love the things He loves, and chief among them are His people. You will not be able to help it. Your love for the brethren will be the natural, spontaneous, and sometimes surprising evidence that you have passed from death to life.
Therefore, do not trust in your works. And do not trust in a faith that has no works. Flee to Christ. Trust in His finished work on the cross for your justification. And when you do, He will send His Spirit to begin His work within you for your sanctification. Then, on that great and terrible day, you will not hear "Depart," but rather the glorious invitation for which you were made: "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."