Can Christ judge in history? Or must He wait until the Final Judgment? To say No to the first question implies a limit to His sovereign authority. Is this possible? The following are some statements that contradict such a limitation on His part.
"Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Matthew 26:64. Jesus spoke this in answer to the high priest's demand: "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Matthew 26:63. In other words, the high priest would see Christ ruling at the right hand of God and coming in the clouds to judge the high priest and all of Jerusalem.
So, if Christ was about to ascend to sit at His Father's right hand, the most powerful position in the universe, and if God Himself has sovereign sway over the heavens and the earth, then Christ rules the earth now. To assert that he has to physically return in order to exercise his authority is to place a serious limit upon the sovereign God. What He does in heaven right this moment is rule for us, as the Son of Man, thereby nullifying not only Satan's power but man's loss of rule to Satan in the Garden of Eden. We are in the process of advancing that rule over the earth and in our own lives. That is why we pray, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Christ is also head of His Church. What does that mean for the judicial system? Christ has special care for His Church, just as He had special care for his disciples, who heard that which others did not. They learned more because they, like Mary, sat at His feet to learn His word. They had special access to His presence, as well as His words. These two things alone would be significant, but the Church also has the sacraments, in which Christ is specially present and nourishing and in which covenant promises reside. Christ leads His Church into all righteousness and makes her the example for the world, if the Church will obey Him. The Church does not obey Him at her peril. Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
But if she does obey fully, she is raised up to rule and reign with Him. But the Church must not truncate its message and limit it to just the individual. It has a message for the family, the civil government, all aspects of life, for God rules over all of life. The Church must lead the world into the truth, thereby making it jealous for her truth, its orderly arrangement of life and all the institutions of life, its guidance it gives to man. To limit itself is to fall short in its duty and leave the world without guidance. Time for the Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, to prophesy to the nations and the institutions of society, showing them the way. In that way, the world becomes jealous and wants to hear all of the gospel message, not just that which pertains to institutions and law.
The world may come into the kingdom through the back door. We must not limit our message to the individual only, as if God could not speak through His law to guide people to Himself and His grace and His only Son. If we can follow Christ and His law and thereby change the justice system for the better, could we not show the world that grace which saves from the condemnation of the judicial system and point them to the true Judge and Savior of all men?
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