God Judges Sin

God judges those who refuse to repent.

Ezekiel 6:6. In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

God is the Creator, and the whole creation is responsive to God. By His rights as Creator He can do whatever He wills with all people and all things He has created. Good is not capricious (impulsive, irrational) in the use of His power, and He can do no evil, but He has the absolute right to rule as judge over His creatures, to reward righteousness and punish evil as He sees fit.

God, because He is God, has an absolute right to our ultimate devotion. God's hatred of idolatry (and all other sins) is in direct proportion to His love for us and His desire to have us be all we can be as His creatures. God hates idolatry because He alone is God, and only by having a relationship with Him can we, His human creatures, reach our full God-given potential.

When we say God is sovereign, we mean that by virtue of His being the only God, He rules over the whole creation with supreme power and authority to do whatever He wills to do. As the sovereign Lord of the whole creation, God is also the judge of all His creatures.

When people deny God is the creator, there is doubtlessly involved in this a deep seated desire to be free from the accountability to God. God is the creator, we are accountable to Him, and He has the right to tell us what is right and wrong and also to judge us for wrongdoing.

Why does the fact that God is the only God give Him the right to our devotion, and the right to judge us if we are not devoted to Him?

One hundred and thirty- five years passed between the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians in 721 B.C. and the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the first Jews were deported to Babylon. Over the next 20 years, more Jews were deported to Babylon. The final day of God's judgment on ancient Israel was long in coming-so long in coming that many believe it would never come.

King Solomon wisely observed, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Because God is long suffering toward sinners, not desiring that any should perish in sin, it becomes easy for many to think a day of reckoning will never come. Slowly but surely it became evident to the Jews of the captivity that the day of reckoning had arrived for them, and God was repaying them for their centuries of idolatry.

According to Scripture there will be a final Day of Judgment at the end of the age. (Revelation 20:11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.) However, we need to be mindful that the days of judgment come continually to nations and individuals, whenever and wherever God puts an end to evil.

A Final Thought

 We live in a time when many give no serious thought to the fact God will judge sin. Others think God is "too good" to judge sin.