God is Impartial in Judgement

Walt Henrichsen December 7, 2015

Part 1

Heaven is where everyone desires to go. The Bible is quite clear that hell is where everyone deserves to go. God, because of His infinite grace, provides a way for the sinner to go to heaven through the propitious death of Jesus Christ. This is the good news of the gospel.

There was a day in the history of the church when the majority of those who called themselves Christians thought that they had to do something to qualify or contribute to God’s gracious gift of salvation. This included things like baptism, good works and church attendance. My purpose here is not to show the fallacy of such thinking, but rather call attention to a rather dramatic shift in the church’s perception of how people relate to God.

Today, the preponderance of Christianity, at least in the United States, now believes that people do not need to earn God’s grace; it is freely given to all who ask for His forgiveness. In their thinking, this means that the believer is free. If people sin, all they need to do is ask for God’s forgiveness, and it is as though they never sinned. As a friend once said to me, it is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to seek permission. A verse frequently quoted in favor of this view is Psalm 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

As the church in our culture has camped on the grace of God, fear and judgment are no longer vogue. Any suggestion that there are eternal consequences for temporal behavior is rejected. A loving God freely forgives and immediately forgets. This means that people end up serving God on their terms – doing whatever they want and then being forgiven. Our objective is to analyze this thinking in light of Scripture.

The Bible calls upon the believer to distinguish between Christ’s death satisfying the justice of God for sin and God’s justice ensuring that all reap what they sow. The latter is not punishment, but rather living out eternity on the basis of the investment made in this life. Punishment has justice as its goal; chastisement has correction as its goal; judgment for the believer has as its goal the reaping of what is sown. We accrue eternal gain or loss, not by what we are able to contribute to what God is doing, but by obeying God.

Men do not believe this because they do not want it to be so. They want forgiveness to eliminate accountability. I have frequently heard arguments that this position is not Reformed; it is contrary to the historical understanding of conservative, evangelical Christianity. Calling attention to the fact that this is not so, I quote John Calvin from his commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:10, which says, “For we must all appear before the bema seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad”:

…as evil deeds are punished by God, so also good deeds are rewarded, but for a different reason; for evil deeds are requited with the punishment that they deserve, but God in rewarding good deeds does not look to merit or worthiness. For no work is so full and complete in all its parts as to be deservedly well-pleasing to him, and farther, there is no one whose works are in themselves well-pleasing to God, unless he render satisfaction to the whole law. Now no one is found to be thus perfect. Hence the only resource is in his accepting us through unmerited goodness, and justifying us, by not imputing to us our sins. After he has received us into favor, he receives our works also by a gracious acceptance. It is on this that the reward hinges. There is, therefore, no inconsistency in saying, that he rewards good works, provided we understand that mankind, nevertheless, obtain eternal life gratuitously.

In our next issue we will look at some of the New Testament passages dealing with reaping what we sow.

Part Two

Because God does not record in the Old Testament His giving the indi¬vidual an eternal hope, by and large the Old Testament is silent on the subject of eternal accountability. Eternal hope for the individual arrives fully mature in the New Testament and with it the concept of eternal accountability. That God assures every individual that his eternity is appreciably influenced by temporal behavior is ubiquitous throughout the New Testament. The following are representative of passages dealing with reaping what we sow:

– Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

– Matthew 6:19-21: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

– Matthew 12:36: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

– Romans 6:2, 11: “Who will render to every man according to his deeds…For there is no respect of persons with God.”

– 1 Corinthians 3:10-15: “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.“

– 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the bema seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

– Ephesians 6:8-9: “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. …and, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.”

– Colossians 3:23-25: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.“

– 1 Peter 1:17: “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”

– Revelation 11:18: “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”

– Revelation 22:10-12: “And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

These verses do not exhaust the New Testament teaching on eternal accountability for temporal behavior, but they are illustrative. This theme is ubiquitous throughout the New Testament. To argue otherwise requires text management rather than allowing the text to make its case.

In our next issue we will explore this important question further.

Part Three

In Part Two we looked at a plethora of New Testament passages calling attention to the fact that there is eternal accountability for temporal behavior and that God is impartial in judging.

Now, let’s ask and answer three questions:

1. How do people get to heaven? Answer: Through the propitious death of Christ apart from man’s effort. As Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).

2. What does a person have to do to obtain God’s gift of eternal life? Answer: Believe is the only requirement. In the New Testament faith and believe is the same word, and Paul teaches in Romans 4, although Abraham believed God, there was nothing meritorious, efficacious or salvific in what he did.

3. What is the evidence that a person has believed? Answer: Obedience. Obedience is the only sure test of regeneration. Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me” (John 14:21). “And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4).

– We want freedom of choice, particularly in selecting those with whom we have a relationship. If we do not like a person, we insist on the freedom to avoid relating to him.

Not so with God. We call Him unjust if He selects those with whom He wishes to relate and ignores others. As Paul teaches in Romans 9:14, election is not fair, i.e. it is not just. So we establish a standard of justice that applies to God, but not to us.

– We define justice by the Law of the Harvest; people ought to reap what they sow. If someone murders your little girl, you feel the person should pay for the crime.

o Not so with God. We want His grace to apply to us in such a way that He ignores our transgressions.

– We understand that forgiveness does not eliminate accountability. The man who murdered the people in the Charleston church: in forgiving him, it was not suggested that he be set free.

o Not so with God. We expect His forgiveness to remove all accountability, so that the forgiven in heaven will not have to reap the consequences of their sins; heaven will be the same for everybody.

In all of this we want to use God to meet our expectations, while freely admitting that we want Him held to a standard different from the one applied to ourselves. Nothing in Scripture suggests that God will affirm such thinking.

I quote another esteemed Reformed thinker, Charles Hodge, from his commentary on Romans 2:6:

The question has been asked, how the declaration that God will render to every man, whether Jew or Gentile, according to his works – to the good, eternal life, to the wicked, indignation and wrath – is to be reconciled with the apostle’s doctrine, that no man is justified by works, that righteousness and life are not by works, but by faith, and through grace. In answering this question, two things are to be born in mind. The first is, that notwithstanding the doctrine of gratuitous justification, and in perfect consistency with it, the apostle still teaches that the retributions of eternity are according to our works. The good only are saved, and the wicked only are condemned. “For we must all appeal before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether good or bad.”

Part Four

In this fourth and final issue in this series, let’s summarize what we have learned and draw a few conclusions.

Possibly nothing in the history of the church is as remarkable as the way the church has accommodated itself to culture. It is difficult to find a single sin that is not allowed to be practiced within the fellowship of the average church. Commandments are considered cultural, ambiguous or irrelevant; but, because they are stated in the imperative voice, they are the opposite of ambiguous; it is the height of presumption.

Because most of the New Testament commandments are not affirmed by reason or conscience, it is easy to conclude that they are not relevant for today. For example, if anything, conscience and reason suggest that women should have equal authority with men in the church and home. It thus seems reasonable to ignore such commandments to the contrary.

In part, this presumption is founded on the assumption that people can leverage God with His promises. Nothing could be further from the truth. God did not give His people promises so that they can get God to do what they want, but rather so that God can get them to do what He wants.

Someone may say that God promised in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If you assume this, then how do you handle Matthew 7:21-23 where when people call Jesus “Lord” He responds by saying, “I never knew you!” Should we assume that such people failed to ask Christ to forgive them? You cannot obligate God with His promises. Relationship and obedience come first.

Most of the church believes that when people arrive in heaven they cannot exercise their wills contrary to the will of God. The Scriptures are silent on this important subject, but if these people are correct, then for all practical purposes the inhabitants of heaven are robots, for the will shapes the essence of what people are. How horrible to be married to someone who has no will. I cannot prove to you that you will carry your will into eternity, but I strongly suggest that you should plan on it and live your life accordingly.

This brings us to the purpose for living here on earth. Throughout the whole of the Bible God tells us that He tests us to see if we will be His obedient slaves. Our only purpose for living in the temporal is to prepare for the eternal by training ourselves to submit to Him in every aspect of our lives. God never asks His followers to create anything or contribute to the work He is doing; He only asks that we be His faithful, obedient followers.

People take into eternity the essence of what they became on earth. In an important sense, eternity is a time of confirmation, not transformation. If they do not take their wills into eternity, then what is the purpose of this life? Purpose is lost if no differences exist in heaven and people are nothing more than will-less robots.

Jesus said in Luke 12:48: “To whom much is given, much will be required.” For those who insist that there are no eternal consequences for temporal behavior, this statement is nonsense. The same is true in James 3:1, where he said, “be not many teachers, for they have a stricter judgment.”

Revelation 21:3-4: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Because this passage does not elaborate, it may pertain to the trauma of this life: pain, disappointment, persecution, etc. Will you express gratitude in heaven for God’s salvation? This is only possible if you recognize and regret your sins in this life. The tears, sorrow, crying and pain do not necessarily mean that you will not live in eternal regret for your sins in this life. Remember: forgiveness restores the relationship; it does not eliminate the consequences.

You are best prepared for an eternity with God by schooling yourself to be His obedient slave in this life.