Francis Schaeffer, in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, offered an analogy for how God will judge us one day: At birth every person is fitted with an invisible microphone around their neck. You will always be completely unaware of it, and it only records when you say things like “someone should. . .”, He ought to. . . “, “No one should ever. . . “ . When you die and are brought to the judgment seat, God will not judge the Jews by the Torah; he will not judge the Christians by the Bible. He will not judge the pagans by their religion either. Instead he will play back your recorder, and every time you say those ought’s and oughtn’ts, God will judge you on your own judgments. If you don’t see that you would be in big trouble under those terms, please pause and ask someone who knows and loves you if you sometimes have a higher standard for others than you do for yourself.
Law brings judgment. Romans chapter 2 says that we who judge others do the same things they do, and under the law we will all be punished. But God, in his kindness is leading us to repentance. At the end of the chapter Paul writes about a circumcision of the heart, a heart surgery, a heart change, a tuning of our hearts into God’s frequency. God help me, help us to stop looking at our New Testament, as a new set of laws and rules, but as the chance to have a new heart, to be right before God because of the blood Jesus Christ shed for us, instead of trying to balance out the scales with our own right acts. Jesus faced my judgment on the cross, and now I’m innocent before God. Praise the Lord!
