“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” - Ezekiel 18:30-32
Ask someone, anyone, if there isn’t some kind of cosmic justice for all of us. Clearly, you’ll find the vast majority of people will assert that yes, in the grand scheme of life there is a sense of justice for both the law-keeper and the law-breaker. Some will attribute this ideal to the silliness of “karma,” the ridiculous eastern theory that what goes around comes around if for no better reason than to give the universe some order. And certainly, if you’re a Buddhist or simply parroting this nonsense, you’ll be quite at home with the fallaciousness of such a world view. But for the Christian there are no such delusions. We have the veracity of God’s very word that He will judge the actions and hearts of all men and women according to their ways. “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” - Jeremiah 17:10. This is universal justice and it comes only by the very hand of God! On what side of the cross will we be found?
It is true - God takes no pleasure in the death of one who dies the spiritual death. And often His justice seems slow in coming - “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:9. He is patient with us because if His justice were swift, none of us would be able to stand. He is forgiving! No matter what our sin, He is faithful to forgive us. But he will not under any circumstances leave us in our sin, and Christ is the Way - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17.
We say we want a resolution this new year? Let us make this year, 2017, the year we come to Christ. Today is the day. Now is the time.
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