The Expositor, March, 1898—“It is claimed that we are being judged now, that laws execute themselves, that the system of the universe is automatic, that there is no need for future retribution. But all ages have agreed that there is not here and now any sufficient vindication of the principle of eternal justice. The mills of the gods grind slowly. Physical immorality is not proportionately punished. Deterioration is not an adequate penalty. Telling a second lie does not recompense the first. Punishment includes pain, and here is no pain. That there is not punishment here is due, not to law, but to grace.”
Denney, Studies in Theology, 240, 241—“The dualistic conception of an endless suspense, in which good and evil permanently balance each other and contest with each other the right to inherit the earth, is virtually atheistic, and the whole Bible is a protest against it.... It is impossible to overestimate the power of the final judgment, as a motive, in the primitive church. On almost every page of St. Paul, for instance, we see that he lives in the presence of it; he lets the awe of it descend into his heart to keep his conscience quick.”
2. The object of the final judgment.
The object of the final judgment is not the ascertainment, but the manifestation, of character, and the assignment of outward condition corresponding to it.
(a) To the omniscient Judge, the condition of all moral creatures is already and fully known. The last day will be only “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
They are inwardly judged when they die, and before they die; they are outwardly judged at the last day: Rom. 2:5, 6—“treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works”—see Meyer on this passage; not “against the day of wrath,” but “in the day of wrath”—wrath existing beforehand, but breaking out on that day. 1 Tim. 5:24, 25—“Some men's sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after. In like manner also there are good works that are evident; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid”; Rev. 14:13—“for their works follow with them”—as close companions, into God's presence and judgment (Ann. Par. Bible).
Epitaph: “Hic jacet in expectatione diei supremi.... Qualis erat, dies iste indicabit”—“Here lies, in expectation of the last day.... Of what sort he was, that day will show.” Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3:3—“In the corrupted currents of this world Offence's glided hand may shove by justice. But 'tis not so above. There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature; and we ourselves compelled, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults. To give in evidence”; King John, 4:2—“Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal [the warrant for the murder of Prince Arthur] Witness against us to damnation.” “Not all your piety nor wit Can lure it [justice] back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out one word of it.”
(b) In the nature of man, there are evidences and preparations for this final disclosure. Among these may be mentioned the law of memory, by which the soul preserves the records of its acts, both good and evil (Luke 16:25); the law of conscience, by which men involuntarily anticipate punishment for their own sins (Rom. 2:15, 16; Heb. 10:27); the law of character, by which every thought and deed makes indelible impress upon the moral nature (Heb. 3:8, 15).
The law of memory.—Luke 16:25—“Son, remember!” See Maclaren, Sermons, 1:109-122—Memory (1) will embrace all the events of the past life; (2) will embrace them all at the same moment; (3) will embrace them continuously and continually. Memory is a process of self-registry. As every business house keeps a copy of all letters sent or orders issued, so every man retains in memory the record of his sins. The mind is a palimpsest; though the original writing has been erased, the ink has penetrated the whole thickness of the parchment, and God's chemistry is able to revive it. Hudson, Dem. of Future Life, 212, 213—“Subjective memory is the retention of all ideas, however superficially they may have been impressed upon the objective mind, and it admits of no variation in different individuals. Recollection is the power of recalling ideas to the mind. This varies greatly. Sir William Hamilton calls the former ‘mental latency.’ ”