Accountability

God does not show favoritism. When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law. And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. . . . And this is the message I proclaim —that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life. Romans 2:11-12, 16

DIFFERENT PEOPLE have different advantages when it comes to the amount of revelation they’ve been given. But Paul makes clear in Romans 2 that God will not show favoritism to those who had access to more truth. Rather, judgment for all will be according to the truth they had. Everyone, Paul writes, has had the truth of God’s moral law written on their hearts.

Of course, many of us have had much more than that. Think of how many Bibles we have in our homes, how many sermons we’ve heard, how many opportunities we’ve had to hear the truths of God’s Word. Think about all of the truth we’ve resisted, ignored, or simply failed to work into our lives. We’ll be held accountable for how we’ve lived in light of all that we have heard.

But it is not just sobering for us. It is sobering as we think about our children. They’re growing up in a home where their parents care enough about the things of God to be reading this book. They have heard, perhaps since their earliest days, about a God who loves them and intends for them to know him and live for him. Yet they may have learned how to go through the motions of religiosity without opening their hearts to Christ.

When we stand before God on Judgment Day, the question for us and for our children will be: In view of how little or how much revelation you possessed, how did you live? How did you respond in your heart and your actions to what you knew? The day is coming when our hearts will be exposed. So we pray that our children will not fail to embrace the truth they’ve been given.

Lord, we pray that on that day when what is hidden beneath the surface is revealed, what will become evident in ________ will be a deep and genuine love for you, borne out over a lifetime of living for you.