However, it is not at all improbable that all this while the mind of the reader has been recurring to Matthew xxv. 31-46 as a Scripture which directly establishes the theory of a general judgment; and we feel it to be our sacred duty to turn with him for a moment to that very solemn and important passage; at the same time reminding him of the fact that no one Scripture can possibly clash with another, and hence if we read, in John v. 24, that believers shall not come into judgment, we cannot read in Matthew xxv. that they shall. This is a fixed and invulnerable principle--a general rule to which there is, and can be, no exception. Nevertheless, let us turn to Matthew xxv.
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."
Now, it is most necessary to pay strict attention to the precise terms made use of in this Scripture. We must avoid all looseness of thought, all that haste, carelessness, and inaccuracy which have caused such serious damage to the teaching of this weighty Scripture, and thrown so many of the Lord's people into the utmost confusion respecting it.
And, first of all, let us see who are the parties arraigned. "Before him shall be gathered _all nations_." This is very definite. It is the living nations. It is not a question of individuals, but of nations--all the Gentiles. Israel is not here, for we read in Numbers xxiii. 9, that "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." If Israel were to be included in this scene of judgment, then would Matthew xxv. stand in palpable contradiction to Numbers xxiii., which is wholly out of the question. Israel is never reckoned amongst the Gentiles, on any ground or for any object whatever. Looked at from a divine point of view, Israel stands alone. They may, because of their sins, and under the governmental dealings of God, be scattered among the nations; but God's word declares that they shall not be reckoned among them; and this should suffice for us.
If then it be true that Israel is not included in the judgment of Matthew xxv. then, without proceeding one step further, the idea of its being a general judgment must be abandoned. It cannot be general, if all are not included; but Israel is never included under the term "Gentiles." Scripture speaks of three distinct classes, namely, "The Jew, and the Gentile, and the church of God," and these three are never confounded. But, further, we have to remark that the church of God is not included in the judgment of Matthew xxv. Nor is this statement based merely upon the fact which has been already gone into of the church's necessary exemption from judgment; but also upon the grand truth that the church is taken from among the nations, as Peter declared in the council at Jerusalem. "God did visit the Gentiles to _take out of them_ a people for his name." If then the church be taken out of the nations, it cannot be reckoned among them; and thus we have additional evidence against the theory of a general judgment in Matthew xxv. The Jew is not there; the church is not there; and therefore the idea of a general judgment must be abandoned as something wholly untenable.