Has there ever been such a time as this when doing wrong came so easy and doing right was resisted so vehemently? We are tempted to question whether God is watching or whether there even be a God. Yet times such as ours are not unique. David in his generation made similar observations. However, he rightly concluded “Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth” (Psalm 58:11). That is, judgement is part of God’s activity. God is the Judge and He shall judge in time. He warns us freely that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). So it is not only certain that God does judge, but it is just as certain that He shall judge. That being so, there are four truths we can know concerning the very nature of his judgement.
The first is “we are sure that the judgement of God is according to truth” (Romans 2:2). God knows the truth. Men cannot hide or mischaracterize their thoughts and deeds. He cannot be fooled for “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). He knows the truth and will judge according to truth.
The second is that God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). It is one thing to know the truth, but it is another to act faithfully in response to it. This will God do. He will render, i.e. give appropriately, to every man what his works deserve. This is a frightening thought when one pauses to consider that, according to God’s own testimony, “there is none righteous, no, not one…there is none that seeketh after God…there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12).
The third is that God judges men according to what they know not by what they do not know. Paul goes to great length to show that God’s judgement of the Gentiles will be no less righteous because they do not have the law than his judgement of the Jews to whom the law was committed. He concludes “if the uncircumcision (i.e. Gentiles) keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?” (Romans 2:26). God, the Judge of all the earth, will judge man by what that man knows, i.e. by the light he has received.
Finally, we understand from Paul, the Apostle, that “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Romans 2:16). The truth that tips the scale is what a man (or woman) has done with the gospel of Jesus Christ. To believe the gospel (Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day) and receive Him as Savior is to know the forgiveness of sins and the consequent life and peace. To reject him is to abandon the mercies of God and to be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). The question of the ages remains for us today as it did for the Jews standing before Pilate 2,000 years ago – what will you do with Jesus?
From the Chaplain 