Brian McLaren in "Generous Orthodoxy" had a very interesting take on judgment. He believes God's judgment is not meant to destroy but to correct and bring us to repentance. It is the difference between a fire that burns and a fire that refines. I grew up in Sudbury in the shadow of mining operations where the smoke rises forever and ever and trainloads of slag and dross are poured down hillsides to turn from molten red to cold black nuggets that are of no beauty or value.
The judgment cycle goes like this: I sin by acting in unloving ways towards God and/or someone else. Choosing to love or not love are moral choices and God judges my unloving action. I feel his wrath which is His displeasure. I repent. He forgives me. I know and experience the fulness of His love once again.
Throughout the cycle, I am loved by God but sometimes, I'll experience that love as wrath. A loving father will correct his errant children because it is the most loving thing to do. An indifferent father would not care to improve or help his children. Worse yet, an unloving father would seek to destroy his children. All these children will experience their father's wrath but only the wrath from the loving father will lead to greater good whenever the child stops and submits.
People are very confused about the topic of God's judgement and many try to avoid any notion of it. But the fact is, it's right there in the bible. The good news is that God judges in order to save. Judgement is God's alien work that leads to his proper work of salvation.
It has been said that the purpose of the law is to afflict the comfortable (those comfortable in sin and rebellion), while the purpose of the gospel is to comfort the afflicted (those afflicted by their guilt and shame).
