THE SEVERE PART OF THE GOSPEL

THE SEVERE PART OF THE GOSPEL

Rom. 2:16 “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

The Savior is to be the Judge. The Judge is also the Savior

In this declaration the phrase "according to my Gospel" is a parenthetical qualification. The statement is that "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." This fact Paul declares to be part of the Gospel.

Here we have a wonderful instance of the merging of the elements of the grace and severity of God in the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that God has made righteousness available to sinful men through Christ. But the Gospel is also the declaration of the fact that men will be judged by the One through Whom that grace has been made available.

There we see the finality of the Gospel message. Let us put that in another way. The Judge is the Savior. He Whose eternal right it is to sit as judge of men has in His Son provided perfect redemption for men. By so doing He has not relinquished His right as judge, but has established it.

If men refuse His salvation, the justice of His sentence against them cannot be called in question. All men must meet Him as judge, but before they do so He comes to meet them with a righteous and just way of saving them from their sins. If they refuse that salvation, the Gospel declares that by so doing they have not escaped Him as Judge. The Gospel never lowers the standards of Divine requirements. It makes them possible of realization. If it be refused, then the Savior as Judge condemns and punishes.