“…. according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” -Rom. 2.16b
Is it remarkable to us that Paul conveys the reality of God’s judgment as a crucial component of his “gospel”? Do we see it as “good news” that “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus”?
Paul is addressing the issues of Law and conscience in Romans 2, and he swings his subject back around to the inward reality, as apostles always do. He declares that even if all seems to be intact externally with the saint, the real issue of judgment has to do with “the secrets of men,” for the Lord is ever and always concerned with reality, and not with the mere appearance of things.
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. -Jn. 7.24
Have I been refined a thousand times over in the inner-man, or have I upheld an image of spirituality in public that conflicts with the secret thoughts and motives of my heart? Have I been willing for the work of the cross in my soul, or have I sought to circumvent the word of truth, and clung to a foundation-less reputation that has been applauded by men, but will be found wanting on the day when “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus”?
If there is duplicity and hypocrisy in my life, if I am still laboring for approval from men, if I am gripped inwardly with greed, pride, lust, envy and fear, the apostle has a word for me, and it is part and parcel with his Gospel. A Day of judgment is coming, when the light of God’s countenance will shine so penetratingly upon my life that every despicable thought, motive, and deed will be exposed. If I have held forth an impressive religious image before men, but have harbored ungodly “secrets” until that Day, they will be revealed in shocking transparency and with exacting clarity.
We may squirm to hear such a thing, but it is Paul’s Gospel. If we have an inadequate consciousness of the Day of judgment, we have not been apprehended by the Gospel of Paul. The gospel of some other man or angel has intruded, and we have been hooked into a lie.
The fact of this coming Day of exposure is Gospel (good news), for we are hearing it now, before that Day dawns. We have the privilege- painful as it may be- of bringing our duplicity and mixtures to Him today, while it is yet day. We have opportunity to repent and believe the Gospel afresh, and when at once we are sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, everything is made new. When He purges our secret lives, which have harbored all kinds of dark ambitions and shameful musings, and makes us carriers of His own thoughts and desires, only glory remains. We have the remarkable privilege of moving away from a life of bondage and into the joy of becoming stewards of heavenly mysteries.
That is why there is no condemnation for those who are in the Man, Christ Jesus. He cleanses, refines, and heals us from all the corruption and disease that our souls have carried, and grafts us into His own purpose and way. It is no wonder that the Day of judgment was for Paul a necessary element of the Gospel. That Day will once and for all expose and destroy the sins of the world and the hypocrisies of men, and the mysteries of God will become the Government of the entire cosmos. Why should the Church live in hypocrisy and hidden sin when the Gospel has come to deliver us from darkness, both now and in the age to come?
Are you living a double-life, dear saint? Have you some underlying bitterness, anger, lust, rage, or fear still dominating your thoughts? In Light of the Day to come, allow the Father to bring judgment against your duplicity today, and when He burns out your soul-illnesses and makes you true, the exposure of your “secrets” will be Gospel to you, indeed. You will walk in the liberty of the Gospel, which is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him. -Ps. 25.14
The Gospel is not an alterable message that can be shifted and redefined by men in their particular customs, preferences, and societies. The Gospel of Paul, which is the Gospel of God, raises a question mark against all that man has been, all that man is, and all that man ever will be within himself. It calls to task the kings of the earth, all who boast against God, and even all those who purport to be spiritual. Only His very mercy can cleanse, only His truth is true, and only His Light illumines our souls to the degree that our secrets are judged, and that judgment is itself a mercy. The Gospel judges not only our external acts of sin, but the secrets of our hearts, and it is a great mercy that He is touching our secret lives now, instead of being exposed when it is too late.
Oh, how jealous He is for His glory, and how jealous He is over our lives. The jealousy of the Lamb is the expression of His great love, in that He will not let us go until we have come into an unhindered union with God Himself.
Tags: appearance,
Good News,
gospel,
greed,
hearing,
Holy Spirit,
hypocrisy,
jealousy,
Jesus,
judgment,
Paul,
Reality,
romans,
spirituality
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I keep trying to remind myself of this, but I forget… I feel like I’m sinking in sand…
Dan,
What is it that you feel like you keep forgetting?
BP
Awesome and Crystal Clear like Rushing Streams of Living Water of Yesuah ha KADOSH, Jehovah–MeKaddishKem pouring afresh over the Chosen Children of YAHWEH-Yisrael.
The Mighty & Wise Gospel of Paul, on command of Rabbi Yeshuah ha Mashiach, to Go! Light the dark & cold world with his Brightly Burning Candle. And Jehova-El Roi with the Spirit of El Elohe Yisrael greater is HE that is in PAUL than is in this world, WHO brings Refiners Fire & ignites a Candle to make His Temple to be taught by Ruach ha Kodesh. So we are sent forth to carry our candle thr’ darkness to seek out the hopeless, confused, lost & torn. We actually need to hold out our candle for all to see it and we need to show the Candle High & Lifted up so as to enlighten the world. Only then they would glorify, HIM Who is the Light of the world, YESHUAH-Jehovah-Shammah!
The Holy Gospel of Blessed Jewish Beloved Child & servant Paul of JEHOVAH-MEKADDISHKEM Wonderfully sanctify & is expounded in Psalm 139,
YOU SEARCH ME and YOU FIND ME,
YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ME,
I CANNOT HIDE FROM YOU
The Gospel is the “divine plan” of intervention in human history. It surely is worthy of our attention, devotion, and the obedience regarding ministry, being so. A study in the Word on what is Paul’s Gospel is essential to our comprehension in order to ensure a faithful declaration, devotion, and dedication to its essential charges as carried by the Apostles into the Nations. The time is short for the signs are so. We must not “add to” or “take away” from it. In this regard all abiding souls of faith in Jesus and relationship to the Message entrusted witnesses have an eternal responsibility. What Paul called his {“my”] Gospel was given directly by risen Jesus Christ for its conveyance. The price of carrying the Message was and has always been total devotion of any associated with the Great Commission. In the Revelation the revealed Christ grants conditions to believers to remain in Him, by addressing the Churches then in the near eastern Asia.
Mark beings with reference to his purpose of writing, i.e. conveying this Gospel. In our hearts, lives, and entire way of response to the life, death, teaching, and resurrection with the Promise and hope of Jesus Christ we are charged with an abiding reality. “That Day”, “the Day of the Lord”, is the hope of every believer, and the unspoken dread of every soul who ignores the Divine Plan. We need not dread that Day, but find it a Day of hope.
Franklin Graham has now announced that the “AntiChrist spirit” is now prevalent all over our land. When prayers are made, through official government related functions, the Name of Jesus is now prohibited: for chaplains, official gatherings of regard, mourning, State functions, etc. These types of collective and pensive events–such as that just happening over the murders in Arizona–are now leaving God out of a considered regard for sobering foci of consequence. Repentance then, unique to the Way of righteousness of the followers of Jesus Christ, is not in the focus or fellowship of loss, reflection, celebration, nor dedication and devotion in this wide land. When the chosen Nation of Israel rejected Jesus, its house was left desolate and unprotected. Its ways and witness lacked the authority of integrity associated with its foundations thereafter.
THE APPARENT THOUGHTFUL REGARD OF OUR SECULAR GOVERNMENT IS THAT OUR REPUBLIC AND ITS POPULATION CAN IGNORE THE DIVINE PLAN, and proceed with its ways of dealing with such challenges of its own volition. In other words it trusts in its own understanding of related righteousness, and, as to the Day which Bryan writes of believes it will not be judged in accordance with the Divine Plan of the Gospel. This would be in reference to the Nation.
Look what such cost Israel in its own (Biblical) history, as to its prophets’ tensioned clarion call, and as to its own self deception about the requirements of God, where so.
” [with additional liberty} The Gospel is not an alterable message that can be shifted and redefined by men to pick and choose its reference in their particular customs, preferences, and societies. The Gospel of Paul, which is the Gospel of God, raises a question mark against all that mankind has been, all that mankind is, and all that man ever will be within himself. It calls to task the kings of the earth, all who boast against God, and even all those who purport to be spiritual. [IT CANNOT BE MARGINALIZED].
[Only THE COMING ONE’S] very mercy can cleanse, only His truth is true, and only His Light illumines our souls to the degree that our secrets are judged, and that judgment is itself a mercy. The Gospel judges not only our external acts of sin, but the secrets of our hearts, and it is a great mercy that He is touching our secret lives now, instead of being exposed when it is too late”.
The Plan is in its final stage of address, Israel is again acting on inherit scripts, and these will culminate in the Return and rule of the Nations of their true Messiah. Pray for our Land, this is the decade of final regard. Damascus will be leveled, the world we have known will be changed, and those associated with the Gospel will be hated, consider the cost, hope, and Way of Jesus, the Lord.
second paragraph should read: “Mark begins…”