For over a thousand years, God made it very clear to the people of Israel that those who do what is right will ultimately find life and blessing while those who do evil will be condemned. As we noted last week, this principle is clearly demonstrated in the first Psalm, which vividly contrasts the fate of the righteous and the wicked. Some folks might respond, “That’s all well and good. But now we have the New Testament. We know that’s not how it works anymore.” Now movements which marginalize the Old Testament are not new to Christianity. Perhaps the first was led by a heretic named Marcion, who rejected the Old Testament completely and crafted a severely edited version of the New Testament. Thankfully, Marcion’s views were repudiated by the church in 144 AD.
The early church rightly recognized the essential unity of the scriptures. They believed that Jesus had brought about the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, not their abrogation. As Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Paul says much the same thing: “Do we then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:31) Of course it is quite true that the New Testament modifies the Old Testament in important ways. But as we shall see, neither Jesus nor Paul nor the rest of the New Testament writers will allow us to leave the Old Testament behind. After all, the Old Testament was Jesus’ Bible!
In Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul scathingly describes the corruption of the human race: “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.” (1:29) People at some level “know that God has rightly decreed that people who do things like that deserve to die.” (1:32) Yet humans continue to plunge themselves into a sea of villainy.
Paul then lays out his most extensive description of final judgment. He warns, “By your hard, unrepentant heart you are building up a store of anger for yourself on the day of anger, the day when God’s just judgment will be unveiled – the God who will ‘repay everyone according to their works.'” (Romans 2:5-6) Paul often writes powerfully and eloquently about God’s love, but here he must emphasize God’s anger because he’s addressing God’s response to the evil which has infected the human race. God is deeply saddened and yes, angry when he looks upon the depravity which threatens to destroy his creation. After all, if God wasn’t angry about the horrible stuff that afflicts our world, he wouldn’t be a good God.
So God is patient and merciful; he desires that sinners repent of their wickedness, but he will not wait forever. By refusing to turn from their mistaken ways, people are heaping up wrath against themselves on the day of final judgment. Paul describes this as “the day when God’s just judgment will be unveiled.” God will finally bring about full and complete justice for the world – all things will be set right again. Quoting from the Old Testament (Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12), Paul reminds his readers that on this day, God has promised to deal with people according to what they have done. Those who have done right (the righteous) will be rewarded while the wicked will be punished.
Paul then elaborates on the nature of the final judgment. “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, [God] will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil…but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good.” (Romans 2:7-10) At this point, many Christians might wonder if these are really the words of Paul. Isn’t Paul the great advocate of justification by faith? Yet here he is clearly depicting a final judgment whereby those who do what is right are vindicated and given eternal life while those who do what is evil are condemned. And it’s vital to note that behavior is the deciding factor.
Many readers might find this alarmingly straightforward. This may be one of the reasons why many pastors seem to avoid Romans 2. They prefer to focus on the description of humanity’s dissolution in Romans 1 and then jump straight to Jesus in chapter 3. To those who bother to read Romans 2, they often attempt to explain away this elaborate judgment scene. They might say, “No one is able to do what is right. All human beings are incurably wicked. You must simply rely on God’s forgiveness instead.” However, there are fatal problems with this approach.
Paul’s depiction of the final judgment is thoroughly consistent with the Jewish expectations found in the Old Testament. Additionally, Paul’s portrayal of final judgment in Romans 2 hardly stands alone in the New Testament. Consider the preaching of John the Baptist. John warned the people of Israel that they needed to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:8-10) Like all Jews, John knew that God had promised to bring blessing upon the children of Abraham. But membership in Abraham’s family would not come simply through physical descent. No: only those who produced the right kind of fruit would be considered a part of Abraham’s family. As always in the Bible, fruit here is clearly a metaphor for right behavior.
John the Baptist goes on to re-affirm what all the Jews expected: the Messiah will be God’s agent in exercising the final judgment. The Messiah will gather “the wheat into his barn”, but burn up the chaff “with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12) Similar to Psalm 1, the chaff is used to symbolize the wicked. In the Psalm, the chaff is blown away by the wind, whereas John speaks of the chaff being consumed by fire. Although they use slightly different symbolism, both passages refer to the same reality – the ultimate condemnation of the wicked. Meanwhile, the wheat will be brought into the barn, signifying the gathering of the righteous into God’s kingdom.
Jesus himself often confirmed this same expectation of final judgment. Listen to this passage: “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. That is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:47-50) You certainly don’t have to be a brilliant exegete to grasp what Jesus is saying here. He’s explicitly talking about “the end of the age” – the time of final judgment. The good fish are separated from the bad; the righteous are vindicated and welcomed into God’s kingdom. The wicked will be cast into the fiery furnace – clearly a metaphor for their destruction.
So, dear reader, here is the major point I would like you to recognize. The entire scriptures are completely consistent in affirming the nature of the final judgment: all people will be judged based on their conduct. This principle permeates the entire Old Testament. With one voice, the Jews believed that their God was the righteous judge who would in the end set all things right again. Those who had done good would be vindicated and those who had done evil would perish. The Apostle Paul, John the Baptist, and Jesus all embraced the same expectation. This basic sense of justice forms the backbone of all Jewish and Christian thought. It is simply not tenable to craft a scheme whereby this core belief is somehow discarded. Such maneuvers not only do violence to the scriptures but to our understanding of God himself.
Happily, that is not necessary. I would at this point hasten to reinforce that which I’ve written about often before. What God has done in Jesus the Messiah brings about the complete restoration of humanity. Through Jesus’ resurrection life, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of the risen king himself – who now dwells in our hearts. By the power of the Spirit, we are able to “become pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness.” This transformation is not just about our belief or trust; it involves our entire being – our conduct, actions and behavior. We are therefore the ones who at the last judgment will be declared righteous. We are the ones will who will be gathered into the kingdom prepared for us since the creation of the world.
