There’s probably one question I get more than any other from those who do not yet know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior: “How can a loving God send anyone to hell. How can a loving God judge anyone? Didn’t Jesus say ‘judge not lest ye be judged’?”
Judgment is a very difficult subject to talk about. Many Christians think of it as one of the 7 dirty words you can’t say outside of church. (Okay, there isn’t any such thing, but aren’t there words and subjects we don’t broach outside of the company of believers?)
We just want to talk about God’s love and mercy, and those are wonderful things. But we do no one a favor by avoiding the truth. We don’t have to beat people over the head with it, but to understand judgment makes God’s love and mercy so much sweeter and more appealing.
Chapter 2 follows right on the heals of chapter 1, where we learn that humans fall far short of the character of God in many ways. It all goes back to the Garden of Eden, where we decided to trust Satan instead of God and have belonged to him every since. His sin of wanting to be God infected us.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 tells us about the beginning of sin and the final judgment against evil, which is deciding you want to be God instead of the Lord. Satan will be judged, and rightly. Though a gorgeous creature, he is evil through and through. Jesus said you can tell when Satan is telling a lie when his lips are moving (John 8:44). If God didn’t put restraints on Satan no one would become a Christian and everyone would be dead. The problem is, Satan will get a just reward for his deeds—but so will everyone who belongs to him.
Fine, you say, I declare my independence from Satan. That’d be great, if you could do it. And even if you could, you can’t stand before a holy God with your life stained by sin. We actually deserve judgment for what we have done. And in this section of Romans, Paul explains God’s judgment and why it is both fair and just.
1
In chapter 1 we talked about two ways people avoid having to deal with being accountable to God. One way is to deny He is there, a second is to throw ourselves into sin, and a third, here, is to make ourselves good so we don’t need God.
We love to play the comparison game. “I’m not as bad as Hitler, so there’s got to be a point where my good outweighs the bad.” Perhaps we just feel like God grades on a curve and if we can just find the break point we can be okay. The problem is that even as we judge we condemn ourselves because we are not perfect. No one can be, except God Himself.
2 – 3
Judgment, a decision (which is what “judgment” means) by God whether someone can exist in His presence, is based not on appearances but on reality. God alone is able to rightly judge, to know for certain the difference between good and evil. I’m going to give you two pictures of that—one from Jesus, and one from Revelation. I don’t mean this to be harsh, only to be truthful.
Matthew 12:35-37 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This is where we see that it is really Satan’s judgment that we receive if we don’t escape because we belong to Satan at birth and our names are not written in the book of Life unless we change owners to Jesus Christ.
Our problem is that we know God is love and all of that, but we forget that God is also pure, and his purity will break out against all evil, anything that is not like Him, and be destroyed.
4 – 5
We think that because God doesn’t strike us dead with we get out of line that somehow can’t do anything, or doesn’t care. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s only God’s patience that holds back judgment.
2 Peter 3:9-13 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
See, God is making a new creation, where only the pure can survive. He wants everyone there so He is waiting until the last one turns before He destroys the old creation.
We want a stern school teacher-like god who slaps our wrist and threatens us. Instead we have a loving and patient God who gave His own Son so we could become like Him and live in His new creation. But make no mistake, one day God will reveal to everyone what they have done.
6 – 11
We each get what we deserve, and what we want, simple as that. Paul is not saying that if we are really good we get eternal life—he actually says that if we “seek for glory, honor, and immortality” God will “give” eternal life. In other words, if you seek the Lord and trust in Him, you will leave behind the self and seek to be like God (“glory”) through the gift of God through Jesus Christ.
If, on the other hand, you continue in that self-will given to us at birth through our fallen nature, then you will be unable to do anything but obey unrighteousness.
Verse 8 says there will be “wrath and fury.” Pretty scary words. I think the passage we read in 2 Peter probably illustrates what will happen. Jesus said “in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12 – 6 times in Matthew alone). It pictures grief and anger—but not repentance.
Paul is also clear that God shows no favoritism to the Jews (the main focus of this chapter). Everyone gets a decision based on what they do.
Conclusions
So what is the key here? Let’s hear what Jesus Himself said:
Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father* who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 then will I declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
*John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
I’ll repeat the lyrics to the song by Bob Dylan “you’re going to have to serve somebody.” By default we serve the devil and in that way are “workers of lawlessness.”
It all comes down to this: do you want to know Jesus? We talk about sin and judgment and wrath and tribulation and all this negative stuff – and it’s good to know. But in reality God is waiting for you to come to Him.
Matthew 11:25-30 At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Come to Jesus as a little child, not with self-sufficiency and pride in yourself, but in humility, realizing that even just one lie makes you unfit to live in God’s new creation. But also know that the giving of one life, Jesus, makes all the difference.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In answer to the question “how could a loving God judge anyone?” How could a loving God leave us in this fallen state without doing something about it? Well, He did!
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