Matthew 13:48 Commentary and Bible Study

The net is now full. It is time to pull it to shore. It is the end of the world when all generations that God intends should live on the earth have completed their lives. Untold millions have died; some are still living, but it is time to lift the net. This will happen when Christ returns at what Christians call the second coming. At his first coming he came to preach the gospel, to declare the willingness of God to forgive sinners, but at his second coming, the time of mercy will have ended and the time of judgment will begin. Death will be no refuge from this judgment for death and Hades will yield up those within them and the resurrection of damnation will take place (John 5:29). This will be no benefit to them for they will be raised only to go straight into the presence of their Judge. Now there is no possibility of escaping the net. Just as the net surrounds every fish, so God is able to box us in to our mortality and prevent any from escaping. How do we think that man with his limited powers who has never been able to defeat death will avoid that final day. At the summons of Christ we must all appear before him. Those who counted themselves invincible and commanded the submission of vast numbers of anonymous people beneath them will find themselves subject to judgment. Now the standard is different. Now there is no more opportunity for sleight of hand, for taking advantage of others, for abusing power and justice, because God standards will be what count. The net gathers creatures of every kind, for the separation of the wicked from the righteous has waited until now. Until they have been together in the sea of life, but God only allowed that because he intended to separate them at the end. The world as we know it, being a mixture of those who love God and those who reject him, cannot go on in this form for ever. The delay in the separation is justified by the absolute nature of the separation when it comes. Not one of the bad will end up with included the good. However hard we may find it at times to distinguish between them, ‘The Lord knoweth them that are his’ (2 Timothy 2:19). He will instruct the angels so that there are no mistakes. None are thrown back for a second chance; this is the final judgment. The world has come to an end; the door of salvation is close; the state that men and women are in is what will determine their state for all eternity. A sorting must take place and the fisherman knows that this will be necessary. It is work worth doing for the result will be the setting aside of all that is good. Only the good are to be kept. How will they be identified; on what basis? Not as good in themselves, but good because Christ has made them good. The work has two parts. Justification is the legal declaration that God will view us in the covenant of grace as those who are in Christ, who have had his righteousness imputed to them. They are good in his sight. It is true of us the moment that declaration is made. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime carried out by the Spirit of God which changes us in ourselves, and is completed only at death when we are delivered from the body of this death. We may then be called good, righteous, both forensically and actually. But the judgment will take account of all past deeds. God forgets nothing. He scrutinises all. He can give the attention of a thousand years to a single day. Man examines what he has done and goes over it again and again in his minds, but God scrutiny is far more searching. All sin must be punished. Either our sins have be punished in Christ and are atoned for by his death on Calvary, or we must bear the punishment for ourselves, and that will take all eternity.