God’s Word for You

Daniel 7:26 The court

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 25, 2025

26 But the court will sit,
and the horn’s power will be taken away
to annihilated it, to wipe it out forever

One of the events of Judgment Day is depicted with hardly any symbolism at all. In matter-of-fact language, the angel tells the prophet about the final judgment of the Antichrist. There are few details given; there are few that are needed. But justice will take place, and this cannot be denied.

First, the court will sit. This is God’s court. But more than that, it is God himself. This is a fitting (καιρός) moment and appropriate place in Scripture to describe the Final Judgment, for how can the Christian fail to read this verse and think, “If Antichrist is judged and punished for his sins, what will happen to me on account of my sins, even though I trust in Jesus for my forgiveness and salvation?”

All people, without distinction or exxception, will come before the judgment seat of Christ: “The Lord is coming to judge everyone” (Jude 1:14-15). Christ is the judge, “for the Father has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27).

The actions of the divine court are given in Scripture. For mankind as well as for Satan and the fallen angels, this is what will take place. Sin will be revealed: “When the Lord comes he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and he will reveal the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5). He will establish guilt, and “shame and guilt will confound.” The condemned will ask, “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or needing clothes, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t take care of you?’ And he will answer them: ‘Amen I tell you. The same way you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me’” (Matthew 25:44-45). The condemned will be publicly shamed and will have “the experience of being confounded.” So it will be for the damned. But believers will also appear before God’s judgment seat, yet the experience will be different. They will still have to appear before God’s judgement seat, “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). But after Christ reveals them as believers (Matthew 25:32,34) he will also point out their good works (Matthew 25:35-40) but not the sins that they committed in this lifetime, even though our sins are many. “So when Scripture says that the believers are not judged (John 3:18, 5:24, 5:29), it undoubtedly means that the believers will not experience any condemnatory judgment or even any judgment at all that investigates their sins.”

We should return to one point that needs clarification. I said before that Christ is the judge. The early Church was clear about this: “Brothers, it is so vital to think of Jesus Christ as of God, as of the Judge of the living and the dead. We mustn’t think little of our salvation. For if we think little of him, then we have little to hope to gain. And those who listen as if it’s a small thing? They are sinning! And we, too, are sinning if we don’t know from where, by whom, and to what place we were called, and what great sufferings Jesus Christ endured for our sake” (2 Clement 1:1-2; Clement of Rome wrote his letters in the late first century, around 95 AD).

But do the Father and the Holy Spirit not judge as well? Are they mere spectators? Certainly Christ the Son of God has been appointed as “the judge of the living and the dead,” as we confess in the creeds, based on Acts 10:42. But the Scripture is also clear that the Son will judge exclusive of the Father and the Holy Spirit. “But roles in judging befit all three persons of the Trinity in their own manner and order.” This includes the Father, for “The thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days sat down” (Daniel 7:9). It also includes the Holy Spirit, who judges men while they live (Genesis 6:3) and is “the Spirit of judgment” when the condemned attempt to enter into heaven (Isaiah 4:4). And it follows also from what Christ says, “So that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23). For it both Father and Son are to be honored, the consequence is that they both have the power to judge and that both do judge.

Under the harsh proclamation of law in this verse, as we see everything stripped from Antichrist in the final judgment and the condemnation of this unrepentant sinner who is the enemy of God, we are right to ask: What about our sins? What about my sins?

The reason that believers have nothing to fear from Judgment Day is that the only thoughts, words, and deeds of believers that are brought into consideration in their judgment are those things that are done out of love for Christ. Believers are judged only according to the gospel and faith, for Christ has covered and atoned for everything sinful in them: all evil works are set aside by God on account of Christ so that the believer says with Isaiah, “Your love has preserved my life from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). Sinful believers are assured by God that they are forgiven and rescued on account of Christ, and that God has noticed their good works (deficient though they are) and he praises them (Matthew 5:12, 10:41). In fact, God accepts those good works as perfect (!) by virtue of the imputed merit of Christ, which means that God counts those things as perfect because Christ is perfect. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy because of this: Your reward is great in heaven!” (Luke 6:23).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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