Here is a solemn truth, which must have at once lifted the thoughts of the Apostle's Eoman readers above the controversies in which they were engaged, into a higher and serener atmo- sphere. Whatever food they ate or did not eat, whatever days they did or did not observe, one thing was certain — they would have to give an account of the act or the omission, as of every- thing else in their lives. "Each one of us shall give account of himself to God,"
2. The words are more than an assurance that there will be
a Day of Judgment, and that at that Day of Judgment each one
of us must be present. The Apostle seems to be suggesting that
example, education, surroundings of life, holding the principles
ROMANS — 27
4i8 OUR ACCOUNTABILITY
and opinions we do, and being what we are, must be taken into consideration before an accurate judgment can be arrived at. He, therefore, warns us to judge ourselves, about whom we may know everything, and to refrain from judging others about whom our knowledge must be imperfect. " Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ."
The text tells us four things about our Accountability : — I. It is Universal. " Each one of us." II. It is Inevitable. " Each one of us shall give."
III. It is Personal. " Account of himself"
IV. It is Supreme. " To God."
I.
It is Universal. " Each one of us shall give account."
There will come a judgment for all classes of persons, there will be a judgment for the strong brother who with his knowledge of Christian liberty went perhaps further than he ought to have gone. He judged himself to be right in the matter, but he must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ about it. There will also be a judgment for the weak brother. He who was so scrupulous and precise ought not to be censuring the other man who felt free in his conscience, for he will himself stand before the judgment-seat of Grod. No elevation in piety will exclude us from that last solemn test, and no weakness will serve as an excuse. What a motley throng will gather at that assize, of all nations and peoples and tongues! Kings and princes will be there to give in their weighty account, and senators and judges to answer to their Judge; and then the multitude of the poor and needy, and those that live neglecting God, and forgetful of their souls, — they must all be there. It is a universal judgment.
1. Peer and peasant must give account. You may argue, "It cannot be a great matter to me what is said in the Bible
ROMANS XIV. 12 419
about the day of account; I am but a poor man, and have but few things committed to my care ; I have neither houses nor lands, nor riches, nor worldly goods; I have no great talents to misuse ; no opportunities of doing good to neglect ; why, then, should I be afraid of the final reckoning ? Surely the just God will not look for a harvest where He has sown no seed. Surely He will not require at my hands an account like that which may well be asked of the wealthy and the great." The argument is out of place and useless. Poor, humble, obscure as you are, you must give account.
"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains and the mighty men," must see the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne. The Apostle Paul himself is " one of us." Of all men the manliest, among philosophers claiming recognition beyond the multitude, of rhetoricians not the least, in grand revelation the peer of every apostle and of all seers, in character most strong, most confiding, pure, and powerful — the Apostle Paul, standing far above the people in that which constitutes true stature, yet confesses himself to be one of us — •* Each one of us."
^ Louis XV. had always the kingliest abhorrence of Death. . . . He would not suffer Death to be spoken of ; avoided the sight of churchyards, funereal monuments, and whatsoever could bring it to mind. It is the resource of the Ostrich ; who, hard hunted, sticks his foolish head in the ground, and would fain forget that his foolish unseeing body is not unseen too. Or sometimes, with a spasmodic antagonism, significant of the same thing, and of more, he would go ; or stopping his court carriages, would send into churchyards, and ask " how many new graves there were to-day," though it gave his poor Pompadour the disagreeablest qualms. We can figure the thought of Louis that day, when, all royally caparisoned for hunting, he met at some sudden turning in the Wood of Senart, a ragged peasant with a cofiSin: "For whom?" — It was for a poor brother slave, whom Majesty had sometimes noticed slaving in those quarters. " What did he die of ? " — « Of hunger " : — the King gave his steed the spur. But figure his thought, when Death is now clutching at his own heart-strings ; unlooked for, inexorable ! Yes, poor Louis, Death has found thee. No palace walls or life-guards, gorgeous tapes- tries or gilt buckram of stiflest ceremonial could keep him out ; but he is here, here at thy very life-breath, and will extinguish