Why does God need an investigative judgment if he is all knowing?
God is not doing the judgment scene for his benefit, but for the benefit of the other sinless beings in creation who are not all knowing. The unfallen angels refused to rebel against God and join Lucifer’s rebellion, but they still have unanswered questions.
The judgment scene warns humanity against believing that divine law will ever be changed and that God is somehow going to change his own rules to save humans.
The judgment is for the angels to see that God is fully just and yet completely merciful without deviating one iota from comic law.
This will reinforce the declaration that God is a God of Holy Love and can be trusted to rule the universe in perfect wisdom. The angels will never again question the fairness of God for requiring perfect obedience.
Before the return of Christ, God will review our lives and declare us guilty of breaking divine law. Then Jesus will plead his blood on our behalf and declare that he paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. His perfect life stands in our place and his perfect sacrifice frees us from the penalty of death. God then declares us “perfect in Christ” because of our faith in Jesus.
Those who stand before God in self-righteousness and who never fully trusted Christ for the assurance of salvation will be declared guilty and sentenced to eternal death. Christ does not plead his blood to their account because of their double mindedness and genuine lack of faith in Jesus.
Thus, the wheat is separated from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the faithful from the faithless.
All questions will be answered and God will never again have to deal with rebellion in the universe. All unfallen creation will be witness to God’s ability to be just and yet justify the sinner who trusts in Christ.
This is the purpose of the investigative judgment interpreted through the lens of Justification by Faith. Simple, but profound.
Stephen Beagles
(July 15, 2026)