One’s perception is arrested in discovering that from the 90th to the 100th Psalm there is strong accent on judgment. We are comforted in the repetition of the concepts that judgment is based on right and equity. That is to say, those who are evaluated will be called to account for their lives and actions, and the innocent shall be exonerated. Text repetitions contrast possibilities with pervasive righteousness as guiding factor. A just, merciful and holy God does the evaluating.
When judgment becomes the theme for human discussion, our feelings and concerns hover in the exchanges that many innocent persons suffer along with the guilty. Not so, in the final judgment. Every wrong will be made right, even if to achieve balance – so there will be some negative evaluation for wrongdoers, and every right will be factored in for its propriety. Innocent persons are dragged into both good and evil of natural life, but matters will be unraveled. Justice and equity will triumph. Equity with truth means fairness. Difficulties faced by devout persons, in the course of life, become part of unraveling the creative equity of God for man. Count on it.
That is the important point, that all will be made right in the end. It is the promise of personal God. The suffering of innocents, imposed by others, must be accounted for. The guilty can and will account for that evil, because God promises equity. Equity is a dimension of righteousness. It returns the creation to a level playing field, in some way related to the plans for righteousness and immortality promised in the design of Eden. God is never thwarted in his plans by evil.
Equity informs me that because I am beneficiary of something good, so others should also be beneficiaries. If I have enough to eat, others should have enough to eat. I am warm, sheltered from the cold. So should others be. The rule of God’s perfect creation is that God is no respecter of persons, which means not only that there is equity in love, but also that God is God and mankind is mankind. God will never surrender being God, and he means for us to never regret having been mortal. It is a privilege to have shared in the concept of mankind, in the image of God, which, even when violated in our distortions, has never been lost in the plan of God. What he meant to do at the beginning will be done. Mankind will again be innocent, and will dress the new creation – the new Garden of Eden. Time will be no more. All sinning was done in the context of time. The new will dissolve and end all that is evil from the old, and redeem all that is meant to be good from the old. To make all things new, as the Bible affirms, is not to lose the good of the old. Why discard anything that was good? Since in God nothing is lost that reflects the holiness, effulgence, and attributes of God, we need not surrender that work of God in us that made for love, relationships, beauty, immortality, achievement, and the like. Mankind will be pleasantly surprised to discover that heaven will provide opportunity for achievement. God is that great. The potential of mankind for meaning is only modestly perceived in present circumstances. Whatever is yonder will not only relate to the glory of God, but to a glory he meant for mankind. Whatever may seem flimsy or ephemeral in this description is short of ultimate reality, not exceeding it. (Isaiah 64:4) All will bear high meaning, and the former troubles are forgotten. (v.16) Does all this seem dreamy and conjured? Of course it does, but that is a reason for Scripture, offering just enough information to make clear that all matters will ultimately be righted, and that earth is in transition, as we are. There is something special about mankind to be retained. If there were not, God would have simply made more angels for his work. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020