Judgment as New Creation.

“Jesus, by contrast considers judgment not as an end but as a beginning. The penitential river of fire was not to consume but to purify, not annihilate but redeem. Diving judgment is intended not to destroy but to awaken people to the devastating truth about their lives. Jesus seizes the apocalyptic vision of impending doom and hurls it into present time, into the present encounter with God’s unexpected and unaccountable forgiveness. Judgment no longer is the last crushing word on a failed life, but the first word of a new creation.” – Walter Wink