Psalm 75:2 (NIV)
You say,“I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge with equity.”
The pygmy in the rain forest. The native on the remote island. The person who never hears about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The American who sees churches all over the place and shows up pretty regularly on Christmas Eve and Easter. How will the Ruler of the Universe deal with each of them if they never come to faith in Jesus Christ? And how can they come to faith in Jesus Christ, anyway, if they never even hear about him? Would it be fair for God to condemn the ignorant to eternal damnation because they didn’t know what they didn’t know? If God does that, how can you say that he is “good” and “loving”?
These are concerns that many unbelievers have, and concerns that many believers struggle with as well. If you just brush it off, you probably are a bit calloused towards those outside the faith. If you allow it to be a stumbling block in your faith, then you need to put some time into understanding it. God judges “with equity” as that is literally his only option. He is never unfair or capricious and his desire is that none should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Pt. 3:9). In Luke 18 you find Jesus’ parable of the unjust judge placed into the scriptures as a contrast to the Perfectly Just Judge that is the God of the Bible. In Genesis 18:25 we find the record of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom. Here Abraham says, “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
So, what do we do with verses such as these? Do we adopt the completely unoffensive and all-pleasing position of the Universalist who declares that all roads lead to Heaven and that despite the grievous nature of every person’s sin (Rom. 6:23), in the end, “Love Wins” and everybody gets in? No! That makes little to nothing of sin and its infinite offence against a Holy and Just Judge. Every occupant of Hell is there because of the existence of his or her own sin and not because of their lack of having accepted Jesus as Savior. “But the objection is raised that they have never heard of Christ, and that it is wrong for people to be lost, condemned, who never heard of Christ. They are not condemned for not believing in Christ when they have never heard of Him; they are condemned for their sins, for doing what, from their light, they knew was wrong. It is not the lack of the remedy that kills, but the disease” (Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey). This is a powerful point and grounded deeply and safely in passages such as John 1:19, Romans 1:20; 2:12,14; James 2:10.
The American who has almost unlimited access to the Gospel yet chooses to reject it has far more light than the pygmy in the rain forest who never sees a church, hears a sermon, or is given a gospel tract. Yet, both are sinners and it is their sin that condemns them. But what about their punishment? Will their experience in hell be the same? In Luke 12:47-48 Jesus says, “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.” In Matthew 10:14-15 Jesus says, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
God is just – and equitable – but make no mistake: He will judge every single person that has ever lived and every single sin that has ever been committed. No one will escape judgment for the sins they know they have committed against the God they know exists. But praise the Lord, because He does provide a way out, and there are those who will seek Him and choose the narrow gate that leads to Heaven (Mt. 7:14). Have you chosen to enter through that narrow gate that is complete faith in Christ and Christ alone? If so, then stop and Praise the Lord! If you have yet to do so, then do so quickly because you are not guaranteed tomorrow…but you ARE guaranteed to be judged and judged accordingly and fairly. Hell is real and eternally miserable for everyone who ends up there, and they will get exactly what they deserve and what they have chosen.
