Meditation on the Text of the Week

One Fit to Be Our Judge

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.
Acts 17: 30—31

This text represents Paul's concluding remarks to the crowd gathered on Mars Hill at the Areopagus in Athens. He could not go any further because they cut him off at that point, not prepared to listen any longer. Jerusalem had clashed with Athens. The Greek crowd had taken great offence at Paul's declaration that they were going to face as their judge One whom God had raised from the dead.

The Greeks, of course, had a prevailing religion—held in common with a great deal of mankind today—that this world, particularly its physical and material aspects, imprisoned and limited men. Upon death, the soul of man was understood to be liberated to move to new dimensions where it would achieve a truer and higher state of being. Thus the idea that they, and all of mankind, would face a Judge who was a material and physical being was deeply offensive. It was as if a mature adult were to be eternally judged by a just born child. It was as if weakness were to judge strength. If filth were to judge purity.

To the Greek the sins in the flesh and the body were nonsense for the body and the material world were intrinsically inadequate; sins of human nature were an oxymoron—a contradiction in terms.

So they concluded that Paul was proclaiming monstrous, notorious rubbish, unable to be borne any longer. Of course, if Paul were alive today, and preaching in any public gathering in our cities he would be likewise rejected. For modern man (like the Greek) has chosen not speak of sin, but weakness. All our sins, even our crimes, are but peccadilloes due to insufficient care, or provision, or nurture of our being. This continuity through centuries tells us a great deal about Paul and his Gospel; it also tells us a great deal about man and his unbelieving evil heart.

As we approach the Easter season we again fix our attention upon the death and resurrection of our Lord. For Paul these events were first and foremost to do with God's judgement of mankind. With the coming of our Lord and His climactic passion and resurrection all human history changed. The tectonic plates of human existence altered forever. Human history could now be characterised as “before” and “after”. The Cross stands as the fulcrum point of time and history. As a result of the death and resurrection of our Lord, nothing would ever be the same again.

Paul's “take” on this that fateful day on Mars Hill was that prior to the Cross God was patiently indulgent towards mankind. He overlooked the idolatry and brute stupidity of men because they were living in ignorance. That had been an important constitutive part of human history prior to the Cross. The Gentiles were left alone, as it were. God, while yet providentially controlling all men and nations, rarely, if ever, bothered with them. The Gentiles were on remand, as it were, awaiting the constitution of God's court. His focus was upon His people, Israel. It was in Israel that He has chosen to establish His Name and His presence. And the role of Israel was to bring forth the Judge of all mankind.

But all this changed with the resurrection of our Lord. Now, every Gentile was called. Every Gentile was summoned to judgement. God had fixed a day to judge every man in righteousness. Both the judgement and the Judge had been revealed.

The Cross was (and is) the greatest revelation of judgement the world had ever seen. It was far more terrible and terrifying than the flood of Noah, the exile to Babylon, or the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70—devastating though these judgements were. These were but echoes of the original which was Golgotha. In the Cross, God's hatred of sin and His wrath against it was shown in a way never before or since seen. He would rather punish and execrate His own beloved Son, Whom He loved, and in Whom He delighted, than accept or tolerate the sin of His people. There was no escape. There was no mitigation. There was no indulgence. No tolerance. There was no “other way” for which Messiah pleaded in the Garden.

If there was to be an atonement and a mercy seat and a covering, if there was to be forgiveness, the sin of His elect still had to be punished and His wrath and vengeance against all that is wicked in their lives must needs be satisfied. If that satisfaction could only come through execrating and cursing His only begotten Son, then so be it. And so it was.

That event changed human history forever. Now all men had seen the holy hatred of the Living God against all their sin. It had been revealed to them as never before nor since. It was as if an accused murderer were sitting in court awaiting trial, while witnessing the trial and execution of his confederate before him, knowing the fate that awaited him. Therefore God no longer left the Gentiles unattended or not confronted. If Christ had been appointed by God as the only Name by which man could be saved, then any who deliberately continued in unbelief and rebellion against their Creator knew for sure what awaited them. The judgement to come had already been revealed. The terms and procedures of the court had been made evident. The Judge had been appointed. The day had been fixed.

The resurrection of our Lord established final and certain proof that He alone, although He had borne the full wrath of God against sin, was the holy and pure and accepted One. The Lord raised Him up—making Him the Man who would judge all men. He had borne and experienced God's hatred of sin and its punishment. He had borne it as one pure and without sin. He was therefore raised up again. He alone is fit to be our Judge—He who is both our peer in His humanity and yet peerless in His innocence and holiness. There will be no excuses before Him.

Every man every where, every people and every nation must now repent and turn to Him as their Saviour and thankfully accept His blood atonement for their sin, or they would face Him as their Judge. Before Him, there can be no excuse or mitigation.