Our Case by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 30, 1911

Our Case

By C. M. S.

The time is drawing near when every soul must render account of his stewardship to the great Judge, and his decision in each case is final. There is no other “court of appeal.” His court is the “court of last resort.” Technicalities are barred, and each case goes to him on its merits. Unlike earthly judges, this judge is infallible; he can not err.

That being so, how important that our case be in the hands of the only Advocate who has the right to plead at that bar; and not only so, but who can and does put his righteousness in place of our guilt (if we are his) while he offers his plea in our behalf. “Behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” James 5:9. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.” Rev. 22:12.

What will the decision be? We may be certain that whatever it is, it will be right. What God is most interested in is righteousness. That is the element essential to the stability of his kingdom. He will not permit the righteous to be destroyed. He can not permit that. The Word declares that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne.” Ps. 89:14. That being true, the Judge of all the earth will do right. If we are condemned in the final assize, it will be because we have merited condemnation. Righteousness is of the very life and character of the Almighty. The psalmist declares: “God is a righteous judge.”

The unrighteous deeds of the body will surely witness against us when our case comes up unless they are covered by the righteousness of Christ through our repentance and faith. If not so covered, the decision of the Judge is: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: . . . and, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” The reward goes with the decision of the Judge,—death and darkness forever, or life eternal and all the joys and blessings that go with it.

But the responsibility for that decision rests back upon us. What that decision shall be we have within our own control. But that must be determined before the case is closed. Upon the record of the deeds done here in the body, and our attitude toward the proffered Redeemer, the case is made up. The law of God is the gage by which the deeds are tested. We shall be approved or condemned as we meet or fail to meet the requirements of that test. If they are met, the decision will be, “He that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” We may have done work that was imperfect; we may have sinned; but repentance, and acceptance of Christ, with a heart to do his will, bring us pardon. We are covered with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Our imperfections are made up in the perfections of Christ, and the test of the law is met by the One who has become our substitute and surety.

That door of hope is open to every soul upon the earth, and those deeds are possible to him, whoever he may be, because repentance itself is a deed, and at the same time a gift of God, which he will give to every one who asks in faith. So the eternal destiny of every man is in his own hands; and the decision of the Judge of all the earth depends upon man, each in his own case.

What a fearful responsibility, then, rests upon the man or woman who deliberately turns to the gratification of self, heedless of the decision which he is compelling the Judge to render in his case in the court of last resort! “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” This is an appeal from man’s Advocate to man himself, pleading that he do not compel the Supreme Judge to render a decision against him in that final court.

God’s last warning is now going to the world. He has always given warning before bringing judgment. He warned the antediluvian world; he warned Sodom and Gomorrah; but the warning went unheeded, and the destruction came as the Lord had said it would. As those ancients identified themselves with sin, and refused to forsake their sinful practises, God set them forth “as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.”

That example is for those living in this day when the final judgment of God is hanging over a sin-sodden, crime-polluted world, not merely over a few of its wicked cities. This ought to assure us that God will not temporize with sin. But as he saved Lot and the obedient members of his house out of the midst of the fiery torrent that swept the cities of that sin-loving plain, so will he save his faithful remnant out of the destruction and the fires of the last day. Lot’s wife, with a longing in her heart for the pleasures and associations of the doomed city, heedless of the admonition of the angel not to look back, perished in the destruction that fell upon the things she loved. Her heart was wedded to the sinful city, and she perished with it. Likewise in this day, men and women are permitting the tendrils of the heart to twine lovingly around the pleasures of this world, and are being just as surely captivated by them as were Lot’s wife and his sons and elder daughters; so that when judgment is meted out, they, with the things to which they cling, will go down in the final overthrow of sin.

Many who have come out from the world and joined this remnant people, have done so with reluctance, as Lot’s wife came out of Sodom. Some have already looked back, and are no longer with those who are journeying toward the hills of safety. Others are preparing to follow their example. As the way becomes steeper and narrower, they, too, will look back and be lost. The life of the Christian is a warfare against sin. We can not conduct a warfare against the thing we love. If we love sin, we are not warring against it.

The decision of the great Judge against sin has been rendered. Soon the final execution will be carried into effect, and sin with all that goes with it will be purged from the universe of God. With each separate individual rests the responsibility for the relation which he will sustain to the execution of that decree. Where will we spend eternity — with the redeemed in the eternal abode of righteousness? or in the long sleep of that “second death” from which there is no waking? It is a question that can not be evaded. To live then means that we must range ourselves on the side of righteousness and truth and God now, courageous in every conflict, the face always toward the enemy, always obedient to God’s will, Christ always on the throne of the heart, and self always on the altar of sacrifice.

To such a life and such a service and such a reward God is calling every soul in the world to-day. Strength for that service is provided by the Captain of the Lord’s host, and however hard the service, the reward outweighs it as the finite is outweighed by the infinite, and time by eternity. C. M. S.