The Judge (Articles 10 & 11 of the catechism)

“The self-righteous church speaks in indignation, the true church speaks in intercession” (H. Gollwitzer et al., Predigten, p. 87 as quoted by Eberhard Busch in Drawn to Freedom: Christian Faith Today in Conversation with the Heidelberg Catechism, p. 84). Later in this subsection on God as "the Judge," Busch relates the story of a pastor who asks a rabbi, "Do you Jews still believe in the God of wrath, in contrast to us Christians, who believe in the God of love?" The rabbi answers in the affirmative, but with a twist, saying, "Yes, we still believe in the God of wrath. But while we leave the wrath to God in order to practice kindness on earth, you Christians have done it the other way around!" The point here? God--and God alone--is judge. There are two kinds of people in the world, as Pascal noted: "The righteous, who consider themselves sinners, and the sinners, who consider themselves righteous" (See Busch, pp. 82-91). 

More on this later. There's so much depth in this subsection of Busch's book; I'm able to digest this only in small bites. But I'd better chew quickly because we'll be focusing on Articles 10 & 11 this coming Sunday.