Principles of God’s Judgment: Motive

Romans 2:16

¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

(Verse 16) - A sixth principle of God’s judgment is that of motive. Here Paul makes clear that he is speaking about the final judgment, the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge.

In the day - This is doubtless to be connected with Rom. 2:12, and the intermediate verses would then be a parenthesis, and it implies that the pagan world, as well as the Jews, will be arraigned at the bar of judgment. At that time God will judge all in righteousness, the Jew by the Law which he had, and the pagan by the Law which he had.  We ought to just say a word about the definiteness of the coming day.  It seems often to us that that day is interminably postponed – and, indeed, that it may never come, at least not in our lifetime.  Yet, the Bible tells us that this day is sure and that its coming is assured and definite and that it can be viewed as a certainty in the economy of God.  We can count on the fact that God will be slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but that He will do according as He has promised!

When God shall judge - God is often represented as the Judge of mankind; (Deut. 32:36; Ps. 50:4; 1 Sam. 2:10; Eccl. 3:17; Rom. 3:6; Heb. 13:4). But this does not militate against the fact that he will do it by Jesus Christ. God has appointed his Son to administer judgment; and it will be not by God directly, but by Jesus Christ that it will be administered.

We ought also note that this idea of judgment is truly contrary to man’s conception of the character of the coming of God. It is true that Christ will return and that He will establish a Kingdom, and do all of the other blessed and wonderful things that He has promised, but one of the things that He will do is judge the world!  That He will do by means of Jesus Christ and men will be judged in regard to their relationship to Christ as the overriding determiner of what their future relationship to the Heavenly Father will be.  Will they enter heaven in blessedness, or will they be consigned to eternal damnation and punishment?  that question is determined by their status as believers in and submitters to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The secrets of men – (See Luke 8:17; Eccl. 12:14), “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,” etc., (Matt. 10:26; 1 Cor. 4:5). The expression denotes the hidden desires, lusts, passions, and motives of people; the thoughts of the heart, as well as the outward actions of the life. It will be a characteristic of the Day of Judgment that all these will he brought out, and receive their appropriate reward. The necessity and appropriateness of this is apparent, for,

(1)  It is by these that the character of the individual is accurately determined. The motives and principles of a man constitute his character, and to judge him impartially, these must be known.  People often appear to be one thing when they are rally something different than that appearance.  That deception and hypocrisy will not stand the scrutiny of God on the Day of Judgment.

(2)  They are not judged or rewarded in this life. The external conduct only can be seen by people, and of course that only can be rewarded or punished here.  It remains for them to be judged at a later time, when those motives will be clearly put for and accurately assessed.

(3)  People of pure motives and pure hearts are often here basely mocked and derided. They are persecuted, put down, and often overwhelmed with seeming loss in life. It is proper that the secret motives of their conduct should be brought out and approved.

On the other hand, people of base motives, people of unprincipled character, and who are corrupt at the heart, are often lauded, flattered, and exalted into public estimation. It is proper that their secret principles should be detected, and that they should take their proper place in the government of God. In regard to this expression, we may further remark,

(1) That the fact that all secret thoughts and purposes will be brought into judgment, invests the judgment with an awful character. Who should not tremble at the idea that the secret plans and desires of his soul, which he has so long and so studiously concealed, should be brought out into noon-day in the judgment? Who among us does not have secrets of the mind and heart that we would prefer never saw the light of day?  At the Day of Judgment all shall be made as though they were done in the clear light of midday.  All his artifices of concealment shall be then at an end. He will be able to practice disguise no longer. He will be seen as he is; and he will receive the doom he deserves. There will be one place, at least, where the sinner shall be treated as he ought.

(2) to execute this judgment implies the power of searching the heart; of knowing the thoughts; and of developing and unfolding all the purposes and plans of the soul. Yet this is entrusted to Jesus Christ, and the fact that he will exercise this, shows that he is divine.

Of men - Of all people, whether Jew or Gentile, infidel or Christian. The Day of Judgment, therefore, may be regarded as a day of universal exposition of all the plans and purposes that have ever been entertained in this world.  From a purely academic viewpoint – what an interesting day that will be!  To finally see what the true intents and purposes of men have been all along!

By Jesus Christ - The fact that Jesus Christ is appointed to judge the world is abundantly taught in the Bible, (Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5; John 5:22, 27; 1 Thess. 4:16-18; Matt. 25:31-46).  His instrumentality as the Agent of God in Judgment is clear and incontrovertible.  It is by God’s authority that judgment comes, but is by the hand of the One Who came to offer salvation to men that the judgment will take place.  How ironic is that!  It can truly be said that if men refuse the grace of God, and will not submit to and take Jesus as their Savior, they will have Him, instead, as their Judge!

According to my gospel - According to the gospel which I preach. (Compare Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:8). This does not mean that the gospel which he preached would be the rule by which God would judge all mankind, for he had just said that the pagan world would be judged by a different rule, (Rom. 2:12). But it means that he was entrusted with the gospel to make it known; and that one of the great and prime articles of that gospel was, that God would judge the world by Jesus Christ. To make this known he was appointed; and it could be called his gospel only as being a part of the important message with which he was entrusted.  It is important to understand that the Gospel is the means by which men escape judgment, not the means by which they enter into it.  Men are already worthy of judgment because of the sinful character and nature, as well as the imputation of sin from Adam, our federal head.  That sin is demonstrated in the sin that they do and judgment reflects the degree to which that sin is manifest in their lives.  But men are not condemned because of their refusal of Christ – that is merely one more step in the degradation and in their demonstration of their sinfulness (a profound and condemning one to be sure).  The Scripture says that Christ did not come into the world to condemn it, but that the world, though Him, might be saved.  Men who refuse Him are not condemned, but rather are merely showing that they are already condemned!  “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:17-18).

Motive is a valid basis for judgment only because God is able to judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ. Because the Lord infallibly knows every person’s motives for doing the things he does, He can infallibly judge whether or not those deeds are truly good or bad, whether they come from the flesh or from the Spirit.

David counseled his son Solomon to serve God “with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts” (1 Chron. 28:9). In one of his most beautiful psalms David confessed, “O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways” (Ps. 139:1-3). Through Jeremiah God said, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” (Jer. 17:10). Three times in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matt. 6:4, 6, 18).

There is obviously such a thing as relative human goodness. Many unbelievers live on a high moral plane compared to most people. But that is not the kind of goodness that satisfies God, because nothing is truly good that is done from any motive other than His glory and done in any power but His own. Everything that is done in the flesh can only serve the flesh and is by nature tainted with imperfection and self-interest. It cannot be done out of the only right motive, that of pleasing and glorifying God. Whether done to impress others with one’s goodness, to react to peer pressure, to alleviate guilt feelings, or simply to feel better about oneself, anything that is not done for God and through His power is basically sinful and unacceptable to Him - no matter how outwardly good and self-sacrificial it may appear to be.

David committed terrible sins while he served as God’s anointed king of God’s chosen nation. As noted in the previous chapter, many of his sins, such as his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, were capital offenses for which God could justly have demanded David’s life. But the basic motivation and direction of David’s life were not selfish ambition and unrighteousness but the service and worship of God. He readily acknowledged and confessed his sins before God, throwing himself on the Lord’s mercy and grace. Judas, on the other hand, although outwardly upright and religious and a professed follower of Christ, was thoroughly self-centered. Inwardly he came to have contempt for Christ and His gospel of grace. The heart desires that moved those two men were open books to the Lord, and their respective guilt and deeds will be judged for what they truly were and not for the way they appeared to other men.

If Romans 2:6-16 teaches anything, it teaches that a redeemed life will produce holy living and that a life that reflects no holy living has no claim on eternal life. Right living, which can only come from right motivation, is the God-given evidence of genuine salvation. Lack of right living is just as certain evidence of lostness.

It is imperative that men understand their lost condition and that they will one day enter into judgment before God.  that is an essential part of the message that God has called us to trumpet before men as we live and walk day by day before Him.