THE RULE IN THE JUDGMENT.
By R. M. Kilgore
“How shall God judge the world?” Rom. 3:6. The different ages of this world have been marked by varied degrees of light and knowledge. In the several parts of the world, at the same time, the human family are found living under widely different circumstances. In one, no written law or rule of action is found, while in another, literature abounds, law is promulgated and expounded. In one part, the light of the glorious gospel of the Son of God is shining; in another, the clouds and fog of ignorance hang over the idolatrous nations. There are also different “dispensations,”178in which God’s people have lived. In one they were left without a written revelation of the will of their Creator; in another they were “shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed;” while in another they are not surrounded with types and shadows, but dwell where “the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” The Scriptures declare that God “hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world.” Acts 17:31. That this judgment will be strictly personal there can be no question. The apostle says, “We shall all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:10–12. There must be some rule of judgment by which to determine the characters of this innumerable throng. The rule by which they were required to live and develop character in this life must be that standard. It would be unjust to try their cases by any other. Then one of two things must be true,—(1) God will have several different standards, adapted to each of these several ages or dispensations, or (2) He will judge all men by the same standard. The first of these is certainly out of harmony with Him who is a God of order; the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; a God who changes not, and sees the end from the beginning. Can we for a moment suppose that God will judge the antediluvian and the patriarchal world by one rule, the Jewish by another, and the Christian by still another? This would be pre-eminently absurd. Yet this is, really, the ground occupied by some teachers of the present day. They tell us that the great moral code of God’s government, the ten commandments, was not promulgated prior to its announcement on Mt. Sinai, and that the same was abolished at the crucifixion of Christ. If this be true, then we must conclude that those living in these different periods were governed by three different moral codes, and therefore, in the Judgment, must be summoned to appear at separate tribunals or before the same bar with different standards of judgment. And then, what do we behold when these cases are all adjusted, and the good of all ages receive their reward? There are Abel, Enoch, and Noah, in the kingdom of God, with characters developed according to one code of morals; while Abraham, Moses, and Daniel reveal characters of a different nature; and Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley appear there, forever and ever, with characters formed by another standard of morality. Who can believe it? How much more reasonable is the view that God will have but one standard in the Judgment! It is the same God that created all men that will be their Judge. He changes not, neither is there in him any variableness or shadow of turning. His decrees are unalterable. His purposes will be carried out. He made man, and placed him on probation, subject to law, by which he might develop an upright and holy character. In order for man to do this, he must have a perfect rule to walk by. This he has given. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” God said to Abraham, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” This rule will be a transcript of the divine mind, reflecting the character of the great Creator. The purpose of God in the creation of man in his own image was that man should glorify him. It is the duty of the creature to love supremely, his Creator; hence the command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Deut. 6:5. This is the reasonable service of every one of God’s intelligent creatures. A change in dispensations could not affect, under any considerations, their obligation in this respect. Nothing less than this will be required throughout an unending eternity. But man failed to fulfill perfectly the object of his creation. He ceases to love his Creator, and obeys a usurper. He now is a sinner, weakened by transgression. The curse of God rests upon him. He must return back to the dust from whence he was taken. He is lost. But the promise of a Saviour is announced through the “seed of the woman.” Hope revives as the plan of salvation is revealed. Now, to suit man in his fallen estate, that law which was affirmative in its requirements is now drawn out in a negative form, to shield man from the evil that would befall him. God sees that man would be active, always doing something; and, to keep him in the paths of virtue, he commands, “Thou shalt not,” “Thou shalt not.” By obeying these restrictions, the creature is in harmony with the Creator, and manifests that love which “is the fulfilling of the law.” God has implanted the principles of this law in the hearts of all men; and though some may have a more perfect copy than others, yet every one will be judged according to that portion of the law which is found upon his heart, and the obedience given to it, which will be seen by his life record, found in the “book of remembrance” above. The reason why the heathen, who have not heard of Christ, will be lost, is because they have not done that which they knew to be right, and have done what they knew to be wrong. They daily violate that copy of the law which they have upon their hearts. Paul says, “There is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without [the written] law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the [written] law shall be judged by the [written] law, . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Rom. 2:11–16. And lest we should conclude that the heathen might escape the judgment of God because they did not have the written law, he parenthetically throws in these words: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the [written] law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the [written] law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” Rom. 2:11–16. This scripture clearly teaches that, in the Judgment, if any shall be found who were doers of the law, and never had sinned, they shall be justified by the law. They were not transgressors, the law cannot condemn them. But such cannot be found, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” But some will say, Can God be just, and condemn the heathen? That is just what Paul asked when he spoke as a man. “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?” He answers, “God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?” Rom. 3:5, 6. Of those Gentiles who had slanderously reported against him, he says, their “damnation is just.” Now, why? Let Paul answer. “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” Rom. 3:8–11. As if to settle this forever, the apostle adds in the 19th verse, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” The margin reads, “subject to the judgment of God.” “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The law cannot justify the transgressor. All who shall be justified in the Judgment will have sought it through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour; through his righteousness and not their own, that through faith in his blood, God “might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” The declarations of the Scriptures, throughout, are such as to lead us to conclude that but one rule of judgment will be found in the great day of final account, when every one shall receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The Psalmist, in the 119th psalm, speaks of the “judgments” of God more than twenty times, referring to the law as the standard in the Judgment. He says, “My tongue shall speak of thy word; for all thy commandments are righteousness. Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” Again, “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. 96:13. The wise man says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14. “Yes, that will do,” says the antinomian disciple, “for those who lived in the days of David and Solomon, when the law was binding.” We ask, By what law would you have them judged, if the law was abolished by the death of Christ? Will the law have a resurrection, or will you have them judged by an old dead law? A law repealed, without a saving clause, cannot condemn. Again: What will you do with the words of Christ when magnifying the sixth commandment, when he says, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment”? Then it is revealed that he was a murderer. And James, after quoting two of the ten commandments, exhorts us still, so to speak and so to do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Jas. 2:12. R. M. KILGORE.