The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 73

II. Tm;; PER.."OKS JUDGED. That Judgment no one can escape. "Who will render to etwy man acrording to his deeds ' (ver. 6). Many escape here on earth the just reITT1.rd of their deeds. Gross crimes are perpetrated, and the murderer escapee the jnst sentence of the law; the defrauder and the betrayer and the slanderer occupy positions of respectability in life. But they go down to the grave with their sine upon their soul, to pass on into the presence of that tribunal from which earthly rank and earthly wealth can purchase no escape. As the apostle tells us in the eleveuth verse, "there is no respect of persons with God." God looks upon the heart; he looks upon the moti-ves; he looks upon the character. Thus regarding men, thus judging them, he sees but two classes. What are these? The rich and the poor? No. The learned and the unlearned? No. The Christian and the heathen? No. The Protestant and the Roman Catholic? No. In God's sight it is character and conduct-not country, or class, or creed-that dfride men. St. Paul speaks of the two classes thus: "Every soul of man that doetb eru" (ver. 9), and "Every man that worketh good" (ver. 10). Or, again, he describes them, "Those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality" (ver. 7), and "Those that are contentious [or, •self-seeking'], and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness" (ver. 8). To one or other of these classes every one of us belongs. ill. THE ETIDEKCE. Here again we see how righteous will be the judgmen t of God. There '\\ill be no circumstantial evidence needed, however strong its chain of many links may often be. There will be no need to depend on the testimony of others. There will be no danger of the Judge being led astray by the impassioned pleading or the fallible logic of a human advocate. Our own deeds will be there to speak for them- selves. "Who will render to every man according to his deeds." .Ah, how solemn is the thought that we are now writing the evidence by which we shall be judged on the jud,,,"Illent-day ! In the red sandstone there are found, in some places, marks which are clearly the impressions of showers of rain, and these so perfect that it can even be determined in what direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded -and this ages ago! So also scientific men have been able to trace out from the fossil remains, buried for ages in the earth, the shape and characteristics of animals whose species are long since extinct. So our deeds leave their record behind them, and that record in the judgment-day will testify to what our character was when we were here on earth. Thejudf[ment--day wul be a day of revelation (ver. 5). It will reveal the righteous judgment of God. It will unveil many mysteries in God's dealings which we did not understand before. It will reveal the true character of men. Then "God shall judge the secrets of men" (ver. 16). Then shall all hidden things be brought to light, all deceits discovered, all hypocrisies unmasked. Then, too, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Their character, often here hidden under a cloud, often misunderstood, often misrepresented, shall then be -vindicat.ed for :ill eternity and before all the world. "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." This also makes God's judgment a righteous judgment, that the evidence shall be the evidence of men's own deeds. IV. THE EESULT OF THE JUDGMENT. To aome wi1l be given eternal UftJ (ver, 7). That will be to those who have lived according to the light they had. No mere pro- fession will save us. Neither will our own good works save us. But our works are the evidence whether or not we are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have wasboo their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; those whom God's gc,c,dness baa led to repentance; those who have kept his commandments; those whc, have Dot been weary in well-doing, but "by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality;" those who have denied themselves, and ta.ken up their crC>lla ani followed Christ ;-they "shall have right to the tree of life, and shall enter through the gates into the city" (Rev. xxii. 14). To otMrB-Oh, what a dark Jutwre ! "Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish" (vers. 8, 9). God's jucigmeot is a righteous judgment. "He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh rear, cc,rruption." The apostle l!peaka of " treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath ' (ver. 5). That lil what every one is doing who g<.>eH on in the path ~f unbelief, impeni- tence, mc,bedienct, godleBSneas. What folly to lay up a treat1urc like that !-C. H. I. Vces. 17-29.-True religwn,. lloit men want to have a religion of sun,e sort, U orr. 11. 1-20.J THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 67