If I recall that night correctly, it was quite a while before any of us dared to offer any commentary on the movie. It were as though we felt that we were obligated to keep silent after the film though the man in the movie was certainly not Jesus, and the movie was created and directed by a man who is unabashedly Catholic. Yet after the obligatory silence was lifted, a common thought about the message behind the story presented in the movie was, “So what?” Sure, the movie did what I believed it aimed to do, namely present the sufferings of a man in such a vivid and unapologetic way so as to drive its onlookers to deep pity and sorrow, but for what reason? The movie gave no explanation for the man’s sufferings, save it came through the betrayal one Judas Iscariot, yet in the context of the movie his suffering was terrible and pointless.

And yet when we turn to the Source behind the Man who was portrayed in the movie (whether rightly or wrongly–with a strong bent toward wrongly), namely the Gospels, we scarcely find the vivid details that drove the visuals of the movie. Yes, we find a Man beaten and scourged, a Man on whom was placed a crown of thorns, and a Man who was nailed to a tree, yet when we turn the Gospels, there is, in Luke for example, scarcely half a chapter dedicated to the description of Christ’s torture and execution. And despite this, a two-hour movie is made concerning this half-a-chapter, more of the details coming from archaeology and scientific calculations than from the pages of Holy Scripture.

Therefore, it is little surprise that where Gospels do not leave the “So what?” question unanswered, The Passion of the Christ does, for it has trumped the theological significance of the Cross for the sake of an emotional response. And evangelical Christianity has not lingered far behind–it being more interested in bringing tears to people’s eyes so that it might sway some to walk an aisle rather than looking upon what Christ did on the cross as his Preordained Work rather than his unfortunate end.

And this is not to say that we should not feel deeply when we think upon our Lord upon the Cross. We who are in Christ should feel deeply the suffering of our Lord and our great debt that brought it to pass. We should be called to remembrance every time we are tempted and lured to sin, that it was because of that our Lord suffered. And yet we often forget that Easter is a celebration for those us who are in Christ, not an evangelistic guilt-trip to those who are outside of Christ. We are called to remember Easter as the time when our King marched triumphantly to the Cross, bearing our iniquities and our shame upon himself thereby redeeming us from sin and death so that we might worship and serve him forever in renewed splendor. Yes, the Cross happened (and praise God it did!), but Jesus Christ is no longer upon that Cross, nor is he in the tomb, but he now is at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning over his creation and interceding for his people. “It is finished!” is the proclamation of the Cross, and it is a cause for remembrance to us who have believed and an invitation to those who have yet to believe to pause upon their sin and who will be its bearer.

Therefore when the apostle Paul recalls the Cross, he says in Galatians 6 that it gives him cause not to boast in anything else, not because the apostle could never suffer as greatly as his Lord did (which is true), but because the work of the Cross removes all boasting in the Christian. For the apostle, in accord with the other authors of the New Testament, does not look upon the Cross as the unfortunate sufferings of a prophet but as the carefully planned Work of the God of the universe. Fallen men need a Redeemer to live, and the Cross is the price of that redemption. Yes, it is horrible to think that the God of the universe was spat upon, beaten, and pierced, but more than that, it is glorious to think that God had decreed from the beginning that that event would take place. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” was not first proclaimed by John the Baptist, but it was heralded as early as Genesis 3 and in the prophetic words of Abraham, “God will provide for himself the Lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). The blood of Christ is the covering for all of God’s saints, not merely those who followed the death of Christ, because the Cross was always to be the Path of the Messiah and the purchase price of his people (cf. Ps. 22; Is. 53, et al).

Therefore, Christian, Easter is for you. It is a time of great rejoicing because the Passover Lamb’s blood has been spread upon your door post. It is a time of great rejoicing because the tomb is empty. It is a time of great rejoicing because the Son who died is now pleading his blood on your behalf. And it is a time of great rejoicing because, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rm. 8:32). How indeed! And for those who have not yet believed, Easter is a time of great terror. For if the innocent and perfect God of the universe must have suffered in such a way to bear the sins of his people, what punishment awaits you who neglect so great a salvation? If Christ did not bear your sins upon the Cross, who must bear them? If God is indeed just (which is utterly proved in the Cross), you will bear your sin at his hand. Therefore there is hope for you in the Cross, and not in that you are moved emotionally by the sufferings of a Man some two thousand years ago, but in that you believe in him who suffered, and repent from your worldliness. For those who have been crucified with Christ have also been crucified to the world, and any who love the world do not possess the love of the Father (cf. Gal. 6:14; 1Jn. 2:15). Therefore, abhor the world, love God, believe in Jesus whom he sent, and rejoice this Easter in him who bore your judgment. Amen.

Yet despite such claims, these fools have no answers as to why the righteous must suffer in this age (cf. Rm. 8:17-39) and why the wicked prosper. They have no answers for the affliction of the martyrs (chief of whom being Jesus Christ), and they have no answers for the prosperity of the Las Vegases and the San Franciscos. Nevertheless, these idiots come out like clockwork after every great disaster giving “inspired” commentary upon those disasters.

How then are we to understand these great calamities that the strike the people of this world? Jesus Christ was not silent on such matters, and he gave an answer to a Pat Robertson of his day who charged that the Galileans were greater sinners than the rest of the Jews since Pilate had killed them and mingled their blood with their sacrifices. Christ responds:

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Lk. 13:2-5).

Notice how Christ responds. First, he does not charge that these men who died were innocent, but he asks, “Were these men greater sinners than others who were not there?” The answer to this is a clear, “No,” and thus these Pat Robertsons could not explain these two calamites by their vending machine god. They rightly knew that those who died were indeed sinners, yet they knew full well that there were greater sinners than those who perished who yet lived.

Secondly, Christ does not say that these calamities were a fluke or that God had no hand in them, but he intimates that these things should be to sinners who still live a call to repentance, for he says, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 13:5). In other words, these calamities were not the result of grosser sin but neither were they simple tragedies. These events were foretastes of the wrath of God that will one Day consume all sinners, therefore, between that Time and this, the people should repent lest they suffer the same fate.

How this applies to the earthquake in Haiti is clear, and thus it should provoke in us the same response. Were the people in Haiti greater sinners than we? Did they indeed make a pact with the devil himself? The answer to this is a resounding, “No!” yet these people were sinners as all men are sinners, and they have made “pacts” with the devil as all men have. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven” (Rm. 1:18), and unless men cease from their unbelief, they likewise will not be spared (cf. Rm. 11:19-22). Therefore, the great travesty that befell Haiti is a call to us who remain to pause upon the kindness and the severity of God and to repent lest we perish as well (cf. Rm. 11:22; Rm. 2:4). To those who fell in Haiti apart from Christ, that earthquake was to them the last taste of the severity of God on this earth, for nothing ill befalls the men of this world that is not wholly merited by them.

Yet there is another side to calamity that men neglect, and that is the perishing of the righteous. For I greatly doubt that there were none on whom their houses fell in Haiti who were not in Christ, therefore how can we say that the wrath of God fell on them when Christ had absorbed their wrath on the Cross? We cannot, and thus we must consider that while God’s wrath was meted out to the unrighteous upon their death, to the elect it was the blessing of their passage from death to life. Furthermore, we must consider the grander scheme that is hearkened to remembrance by this event. For our Lord says:

See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains (Mt. 24:4-8).

In other words, as in all catastrophic events, especially earthquakes, we must remember that these are the pains of birth for a fallen world. And just as immense pain is necessary in the birth of child, so too are these things necessary in this present evil age. But, just as in childbirth, these pangs will one Day cease, and they will, at the Coming of our Lord, give way to glory and resplendence at the dawn of New Life and Creation. But until that time, we must endure to the End and preach the Law and the Gospel as a testimony of these things to all the nations (cf. Mt. 24:13, 14).

Therefore, beloved, we should not fall into the foolishness of the Pat Robertsons who view history as the scattered judgments of God upon the utterly wicked, yet we cannot deny that God is indeed present in this age revealing his wrath generally so as to call all men to repentance. We should use this time to show the love of Christ that has been shown to us particularly to the people of Haiti and to all the people of the nations, calling them to repent and to turn to Christ lest they likewise perish forever at the Coming of our Lord. Amen.

What immediately comes to mind from the declaration, “Spiritual gifts are stewarded grace,” is the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. There Christ gives a parable concerning his Return and the ensuing Judgment (sounds Amillennial to me;)), and he likens it to three men who were all entrusted with a sum of money by their master. One man was given five measures of currency, another two, and a third one. The master went on a journey, and the first two men took their five and two measures of currency and immediately went and traded that currency so as to double that which their master had entrusted them. The third, however, did nothing with the one measure he was given, burying it in the ground and hiding it.

After a long time, the master returned and came to his servants to settle accounts with them. The first two presented their earnings to him, and he commended them saying, “Enter into the joy of your master.” The third came to him and presented to him the same measure his master had given to him, and he began to make excuses for himself as to why he did not use that which was entrusted to him to benefit his master. And the master responded to him this way:

You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 25:26-29).

What is interesting about this parable is that the master’s allotment is not merely to those whom we would label as “elect,” but that it granted even to one whose final destiny is the “place [where] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” From this it can be gathered that God has given to all men a stewardship of grace, and that grace, irrespective of election, is to be used for the sake of God. And that which we in English call “talents” is I believe etymologically correct, for this parable is not restrained to the wealth that God gives, but it covers every grace that he gives to all men. Therefore all men will one day give an account for the graces that God has given to them, be they monetary, vocational, etc. graces, and they will be judged not only for how they have transgressed the law, but also for how they have not used that which God has granted them for the sake of his glory.

Though this parable is certainly a sobering and frightening warning for those who are not in Christ, it is more so for those who profess to be in Christ and yet have not stewarded that which God has given to them well. And though I believe this parable speaks to all graces given by God to men, it cannot be overstated that the parable deals particularly with money. And since the stewardship of money is such a relevant issue in the wealthy American church, this parable carries with it an even weightier implication.

That implication is this: Though it may seem to us that our money is merited by our labor and is therefore ours, it is in fact God’s and our possessing it is a grace. And in the parable we are essentially given two examples on how we are able to use our money–two positive examples and one negative. The two positive examples are singular, for both servants took all of that which their master had given them and immediately used it for the sake of their master. They did not give a tithe of it to their local synagogue and then lavish the rest upon themselves, but they took it all, recognizing that it was not their own but that it was their master’s. And they did thus because they loved their master and longed to enter into his joy.

The negative example demonstrates that we will be judged not merely by how we use our money but by how we do not use our money. For the wicked servant, like the others, recognized that money was his master’s and therefore did not spend it on himself, but he, unlike the others, did not use it to increase his master’s wealth. And though the wicked servant did not use the money negatively for his personal gain, he is judged and condemned by his master at his coming. For though he returned to his master precisely that which was given to him, he is damned because his desire was not for his master and he did not desire to enter into his joy.

You may say to me at this point, “This is a vague parable, for surely we are not to invest our wealth so that we are able to write Christ a check at his Return.” That is true, and parables for this reason are only beneficial insofar as they are explained and rightly applied. Therefore, it is no mere coincidence that Christ offers a clear picture of the Judgment following this parable:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Mt. 25:31-46).

The correlation between the parable and the reality is clear. The two righteous servants are those who used all that God had given to them to minister to those who were in need. Christ calls this elsewhere, “Loving your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Mt. 22:29). For they, instead of using the grace of money upon themselves or hiding it so as to be no use to anyone, “invested” it in people who were hungry, thirsty, estranged, unclothed, sick, and imprisoned. And in this way they loved their Lord, for he commanded them, “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Mt. 22:37-39). For those who love God love their neighbors, and they love as Christ loved–becoming poor for the sake of the poor and dying for the sake of the lost.

The wicked servant, on the other hand, is not he who lives licentiously with his wealth or he who does not give a tithe of his earnings, but it is he who neglects the hungry, the thirsty, the estranged, the unclothed, the sick, and the imprisoned. For though he might live meagerly on his one talent and not possess all the luxuries of the world, he neglects those whom Christ has commanded him to love. The prophet Isaiah preaches the same judgment upon Israel, saying:

How the faithful city
….has become a whore,
….she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
….but now murderers.
Your silver has become dross,
….your best wine mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels
….and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
….and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
….and the widow’s cause does not come to them (Is. 1:21-23).

For the Lord has ever been about his people bringing justice to the needy, and he demands that his people who claim to love him seek for their justice. And the church does not accomplish this justice through political activism (though political pleading cannot be discounted), but she does it chiefly through self-sacrifice. The Macedonians demonstrated this by the way in which they lived their lives, and of them the apostle Paul writes:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints–and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us (2Cor. 8:1-5).

And what is amazing about their testimony is that they ministered unto the saints out of “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty.” Though they might have only been entrusted with the same mere talent with which the wicked servant of the parable was entrusted, they used it all for the aid of the needy, giving “themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to [the ministers of God].” And because of their faithfulness, God was pleased with their stewardship.

The question of application is obvious, but we are all too eager to miss it: How is your giving? How do you use that which God has entrusted to you in the way of monetary grace? Do you, like the righteous, actively seek ways to use your wealth to minster to those who are in need, or do you consider yourself square with God because you have given your ten percent? For there will be a Day of Reckoning, and the King shall not be satisfied with anything less than one-hundred percent given for the sake of those whom he loves.

The problem with such a belief is clear when seen in light of the salvific exclusivity claimed of faith in Christ by the Scriptures, but its root is a much deeper issue, namely a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel itself.

The root can be detected from the aforementioned statement in the phrase, “[Men] cannot be held accountable for that which they have not heard.” The key word in the phrase is “accountable.” “Men cannot be held accountable to the Gospel which they have not heard.” The problem with such a notion that men are accountable to the Gospel is that the Gospel is not a law to which one is accountable. The Gospel is not a new law that replaces an old law, but it is the remedy to transgressions against the unchanging law of God. To say that men are not accountable to God because they have not heard the Gospel is to say that men are not accountable to the law of God, whether revealed in Scripture or written upon the heart, but men are only accountable to the new law of the Gospel.

This point cannot be missed, for in declaring such, men have made that which is grace into works. For rather than the Gospel being the unmerited grace of God bestowed upon men by the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ, it is a new and singular commandment, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and thus make yourself right with God.” It says that if you obey this one commandment you will live, but if you disobey it you will perish. And thus when the matter of the unevangelized is considered, their fate is uncertain for they have not heard the one law of the Gospel and, “Where there is no law there is no transgression” (Rm. 4:15).

However, the problem is there is a law, and it matters not whether one is Jew or a Gentile, or whether he has heard the law from the Scriptures or not. For the apostle Paul writes, “All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Rm. 2:12). And what the apostle is saying is not that there are some who are totally ignorant of the law and some who are not, but he is saying that all men, whether they possess the Scriptures or not, are accountable to God for transgressing the law. He explains it this way:

For when Gentiles who do not have the law [i.e. the Scriptures] by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus (Rm. 2:14-16).

In other words, God has written upon the hearts of all men enough of the law so that they are accountable to him when they transgress it. The evidence of this can be seen in such universal laws against murder, stealing, lying, adultery, etc. that are found even among people who have never heard the name of Yahweh or received the Scriptures. These people groups know a portion of the law, and all of them have transgressed that law and have been declared guilty by their own consciences.

For this reason, the apostle writes later:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin (Rm. 3:19, 20).

All this is to say that the Day of Judgment will be a very quiet day. For all men will come before God the Judge, all of their wicked deeds will be laid before them, and they will be silent because they have no excuse. For they knew the law, be it from the Scriptures or otherwise, and they deliberately transgressed it. The Gospel does not enter into it. Men who have not heard the name of Jesus Christ will not be condemned for not believing in him, but they will be condemned for willfully breaking the law of God that they knew. This is not to say that those who have heard the name of Christ will not be judged for rejecting him along with their other evil deeds, but it is to say that men who have not heard the name of Christ have transgressed the law of God enough to damn themselves.

Therefore, the greatest problem in the world is not that the unevangelized world has not heard the “new law” of the Gospel, but it is unrighteousness. For this reason, the apostle begins his discourse, writing:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be know about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (Rm. 1-18-20).

And thus, after the apostle declares that all men will be silent before God and accountable to him for their willful lawlessness, he presents the Gospel. He writes:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are [made righteous] by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rm. 3:21-24).

Therefore, the Gospel comes in, not as a new law to be kept, but as the remedy for unrighteousness. All have transgressed the law of God and are therefore unrighteous before God, and the Gospel comes in offering the righteousness of Christ to those who believe in him. And lest this be misunderstood as a new law to be kept, the apostle calls this righteousness a “gift.” It is not earned by keeping a law of acceptance of Jesus Christ, but it is a gift of imputed righteousness given by God. Therefore, all boasting is excluded (cf. Rm. 3:27), for men do not make themselves righteous through keeping the law of the Gospel, but God makes men righteous by his grace.

The Gospel is not a New Law, So What?
To some, the distinction between the Gospel being seen as the new law of “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior,” and being the gift of righteousness to those who believe in Christ may seem a bit trite. What does it matter if the Gospel is seen as law or gift, so long as one believes in Jesus Christ and is saved?

Though the distinction between the two may seem small in its words, the effects of believing one or the other are quite profound. In fact, I believe that the Gospel as law problem is the very root of our doctrinal problems as American Evangelicals, and it is seen quite clearly in the way we preach the Gospel.

First, because we as whole view the Gospel as the law, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior,” we as American Evangelicals place a majority of our emphasis in our churches on getting a person to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. And as such, church discipline has been replaced by altar calls, discipleship has been replaced by conversion prayers, and fruits of righteousness have been replaced by spiritual birthdays. We, because we have witnessed someone pray a prayer, sign a card, or write a spiritual birthday in his Bible, rejoice when his has made his decision to accept Christ. But when that person later falls into sin and leaves the fellowship, instead of searching after him to keep him accountable to the Gospel he professed to believe, we content ourselves with the fact that he prayed the “prayer of salvation” back in 1992.

Secondly, which is a result of the first, the Gospel’s requirement of righteousness in this life is a foreign concept to the American church. Such phrases of Scripture as the apostle’s opening declaration of his reason for preaching the Gospel, viz. “To bring about the obedience of faith” (Rm. 1:5), and the declarations of Romans 6-8, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body you will live,” are incomprehensible to the American church. For the very moment that one declares that those who are saved are “slaves of obedience” (Rm. 6:17) and must fulfill the righteous requirement of the law (Rm. 8:4), he is labeled a Pharisee and a legalist. For the Gospel, instead of being viewed as that which transforms the entire life of a soul so as to conform him to the righteous image of Jesus Christ (cf. Rm. 8:29), it is viewed as a “get out of hell free” card so that one can live as he desires without fear of divine retribution. Thus, few “work out [their] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Ph. 2:12), but many live licentiously in the comfort of having fulfilled their contrived law of the Gospel.

Thirdly and quite obviously, we have made faith out to be a work of man rather than a work of God. It is for this reason that most in the American church despise the doctrines of Calvinism (or Scripture), because those doctrines rip away all boasting from men and places their faith rightly in the hands of him who created it (cf. Eph. 2:8). The American church prefers a Gospel that is a law, because a Gospel that is a law rests salvation upon human free will rather than upon God. To make the Gospel one of grace through faith that originates in God alone removes from men all reason for pride and boasting, and instead places the glory of salvation upon God alone. American Christians, however, are chiefly worshipers of self rather than worshipers of God, and they therefore despise any doctrine which takes glory away from themselves and gives it to Another.

Final Thoughts
Therefore, the belief that those who have not heard the Gospel will somehow escape judgment is not from Scriptural ambiguity or from a philosophical problem, but it is a symptom of a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel as law. For we in the American church have done precisely what other religions have done for millennia, namely conjured up law(s) that allow us to make ourselves right with God. The problem, however, is that the Gospel is not a secret law that we know and the world does not know, but it the Good News that God has given grace to men who transgressed his universal law through his righteous Son. Righteousness is a gift from God alone, and to make it anything else distorts Word of God and the salvation that he has provided.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rm. 12:19).

The heart of vengeance is the feeling of a debt being owed that was unjustly taken. The debt might be wounded pride, a great loss incited by evil, or any number of things. The natural man, when a loss is exacted upon him by unjust and evil means, seeks in his heart to right that wrong by exacting an equal blow to his debtor thinking that he can, by his own hand, balance the scale of justice. It is a flawed method of justice, for sin can never be righted by the acts or suffering of men, therefore an avenger will never be satisfied in his heart that his debt has been repaid while he lives, and his desire for vengeance will consume him the rest of his days.

For this reason, the Christian is admonished by the apostle not to seek retribution for himself, but to let God be the righter of all wrongs. For God alone can settle the record of sins, and he will do so swiftly and justly. For no act of sin will be hidden from Lord’s eyes on that Day when he judges the deeds and secrets of men by Christ Jesus (cf. Rm. 2:16). He will render to each according to his works (cf. Rm. 2:6) and will inflict eternal tribulation and distress upon those who oppose him and his people (cf. Rm. 2:9).

Therefore, in this life, we as Christians must live our lives with a continual fixation upon the End, so that we might be like Christ, who sought not vengeance for himself while on this earth, but, despising the shame, endured the most heinous of debts–the cross–for the sake of the Joy that was laid before him (cf. Heb. 12:2). We, instead of seeking for vengeance, must rather seek to love our enemies, for in doing so we will demonstrate to them our hope in the Final Day and will heap upon them the burning coals of God’s certain Judgment.

For if we endure our debtors in this way, we know that one of two things will happen: one, the person will compelled by our love and generosity and will believe in the Gospel of Christ and the debt owed to us will be cast upon Christ, or, two, the person will be hardened in his sin and will pile upon himself the wrath of God which he will eternally endure. In either case, our debt will be repaid, and we should be content in either case in the light of our own forgiven debts by the great grace that has been demonstrated to us.

To understand what hypocrisy is, we must understand its roots. The word “hypocrisy” comes directly from the Greek language, and it was a term used of actors who wore masks that covered their true identities. When Christ employs to term to speak of the Pharisees, he is condemning them for their mask-wearing–for their desire to appear holy and righteous before men not before God.

This is hypocrisy in its essence, viz. the desire to be esteemed by men rather than by God. For the business of making a good appearance before men does not demand a transformed life and heart, but it demands the ability for one to put on a good show. Contrarily, the one who is not a hypocrite is not concerned with putting on good show before men, but he is concerned with pleasing God–the one Being who is not deceived by masks and outward appearances.

Therefore, the question that must be raised is, “What is the desire of your heart, to please men or to please God?” For if your desire is to please men, be it in a religious, cultural, or economic setting, you will be a hypocrite, for your concern is not about righteousness or holiness, but it is about living your life in such a way that you garner for yourself the praise of men. Think upon the practices of your life–how you dress, the music you listen to, the gifts you give, the meetings you attend–do you practice these things so that you might honor God, or do you do them so that men might think more highly of you? For if your desire is to be esteemed by men, you will by necessity be reduced to mask-wearing for the mere sake of keeping up appearances.

For as the prophet Isaiah condemns the hypocrites of his day:

This people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men (Is. 29:13).

And as the apostle Paul speaks concerning those who are truly in the covenant of God:

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit not by the letter, his praise is not from man from God (Rm. 2:28, 29).

Meditate upon your present state, whether you desire to please God or men, for as Christ declares, there will be many hypocrites who appear before him on the Day of Judgment, and there unfolded will be their secrets (cf. Rm. 2:16):

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. 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?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Mt. 7:21-23).

Our justification by acceptance therefore is not justification by faith, but it is justification by works lite. For our justification by acceptance is no different than any other justification by works religion on the planet save the fact that we have only one rule, “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” If you obey this rule you will be considered righteous, but disobey it you will be judged for not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

But what of those who have not heard the Gospel? What will be their fate?

Prior to our present gospel where one is considered righteous because he has accepted Jesus Christ, this question was not an issue. The apostle quite clearly demonstrates in Romans 1:18-3:22 that all men are accountable to God, because all have known God’s law, and all have willingly transgressed it. This is true of those who have never heard the law as well, because they demonstrate by their conflicting thoughts and their guilt-laden consciences that the work of the law is written on their hearts, and they know that they have willingly transgressed that law (cf. Rm. 2:15, 16). Therefore, God will render to each one, whether Jew or Greek, according to his works (v. 2:6). To those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there will be God’s wrath and fury, and there will be tribulation and distress to every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the law, will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law (vv. 2:8, 9, 11, 12).

The apostle could not be much clearer on the fate of those who have not heard the Gospel, because they will be judged and condemned for their sins and transgressions of the law not for their lack of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. We, however, have a hard time swallowing this with out modern, works-based Gospel. Since our conjured salvation is based upon the work of acceptance of Jesus Christ, we cannot fathom how God could or would punish those who have not heard that law. Even those whom have called themselves conservative evangelicals have propagated this notion and declared that the fate of the unevangelized is an ambiguous topic in Scripture. That, my friends, is heresy of the first order. For it is quite clear that those outside of Christ will be judged for their wicked deeds and their willing transgressions of the law revealed to them, not merely because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Next: Justification by Faith is Dead, III. Doxological Ramifcations