“Nobody’s perfect”. Invariably everybody says that old adage, everybody knows it. In some sense “Nobody’s perfect” has become the credo of most people. But isn’t it interesting that nobody’s worried about it? We take that statement for granted far too much that we totally miss the implications that lie therein.

Dear beloved, the most frightening thing we can consider about ourselves as fleshly, human beings is that we are not perfect. It is a terrible must that saying that “Nobody’s perfect” should drive us to great trembling in abject terror and fear. It is because of our not being perfect, because of our imperfection that we deserve the full weight of the burning fury of the wrath of God against sin and sinners.

Do you realize that your slightest violation of God’s law demands the fury of His wrath be poured out on you?

The question that lies before us today is this, “God is just and you are not. How are you going to stand before a just and holy God?” It is my sincere prayer that you take great seriousness in considering this thought. Eternity is at stake. Heaven and Hell are too weighty an issue. The wrath of God too severe. The grace of God in granting faith, too great a gift. God’s wrath is coming. Are you ready?

Fleeing the Wrath to Come

The New Testament describes Jesus as “Savior.” The name “Jesus” was announced by the archangel Gabriel when he visited Mary. An angelic message to Joseph confirmed this name: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The salvation of which the Bible speaks has a specific goal. The term salvation in general can be used for many things. Any type of rescue from danger or calamity can be called salvation. Biblically, a person can be saved from a disease or from financial disaster. If any army escapes defeat in battle it experiences salvation.

But the salvation wrought by Jesus is not of this general type. It is specific. Jesus saves us “from the wrath which is to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

The preaching of John the Baptist accented this warning of the future. John spoke harshly to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the clergy of his day, saying, “Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7).

The warning that was given to first-century Israel is the same warning that is so woefully neglected in our own day.

Recently I overheard a conversation between two men. They were discussing the sermon preached by a guest minister in a Presbyterian church. The first asked, “How was the preacher on Sunday?”

The second man replied, “He was an old-fashioned preacher. He preached about fire and brimstone.”

What qualified the preacher for being “old-fashioned” was that he preached on the Last Judgment. The concept is out of date. It is no longer in vogue. It is not fashionable to speak in our culture about final judgment.

I am sure that similar conversations were held in Jesus’ day. Some who listened to the preaching of John the Baptist and of Jesus surely called them “old-fashioned.” Perhaps the people said something like this: “Oh, those fellows are old-fashioned. They speak like the Old Testament prophets.”

It is strange that we are so quick to dismiss as old-fashioned any mention of a final judgment. It is especially strange in a time and a culture that is so concerned about justice. We have worked for civil justice, for social justice, and for international justice. Yet we observe what the philosopher Immanuel Kant so acutely observed: justice does not always prevail in this world.

The God of Judeo-Christian history is a God of justice. His own character is just. For God not to correct injustices in this world, for God to let the scales of justice remain forever out of balance, would be for God to compromise His own integrity. This is precisely what He refuses to do. He promises ultimate justice.

Final Justice and Final Judgment

The Judge of all the earth cannot bring forth final justice without a final judgment. He insists that all human beings will be held accountable for their actions. If we are not ultimately accountable then the only conclusion we can reach is that ultimately we don’t count. The bottom line would be that it doesn’t matter ultimately how we live our lives.

But every one of us knows that it does matter how people live. It matters to me how people treat me. It matters to you how people treat you.

Each one of us has been a victim at some point of injustice. Each one of us has committed injustices to other people. The reason we experience such injustice is because, as sinners, we are unjust people.

The dilemma we face is this: God is just. We are unjust. This is the worst dilemma a human being can face. For a guilty person to face the justice meted out in our criminal justice system is one thing. To stand before the tribunal of God is something else. We cry out with David, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).

David’s question is a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious: No one will be able to stand. The central issue of Christianity is the issue of justification. It faces the dilemma squarely. The only possible way for an unjust person to stand in the presence of a just and holy God is to be justified. If we remain unjustified we die in our sins.

The only way we can be justified is by the righteousness of Christ. He alone has the merit necessary to cover us. That righteousness is received by faith. If we trust in Christ we are covered by His righteousness and are justified by faith. If we do not trust in Christ we will stand before God’s judgment alone, an unjust person before a just God.

You may be thinking, “I am not an unjust person. I never murdered anybody. I never stole anything that was not mine.” Indeed, if you are perfectly just you have no need of a Savior. If you’ve never broken the law of God, you have nothing to fear from His judgment.

We suffer, however, from two grand delusions. The first delusion is that we are just enough to stand in the presence of God. It is a delusion because every one of us has sinned. We would be deluding ourselves in the extreme if we thought that we were perfect.

Only a few people become deluded enough to think that they are without sin. This is not the delusion most of us suffer. It is the second delusion that catches so many of us. The fact that God is just and that we are unjust doesn’t seem to bother us. We nurture the hope that since God is also a loving and merciful God that He will make room for us in heaven even if we never repent of our sins and embrace Christ the Savior. We think that faith is not a necessary condition for salvation.

This delusion hurls an insult at the mercy of God. It assumes that by crucifying His only begotten Son for us, God did not do enough. That He requires faith and trust in the atoning Savior seems a bit narrow on His part.

The author of Hebrews labors the warning of the consequences that flow from ignoring the priestly act of atonement rendered by Jesus. He raises another rhetorical question: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him?” (Hebrews 2:3).

This danger of neglect is followed by further admonitions:

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin…. And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

—Hebrews 3:12-19

I don’t know when it is that you are reading this book. I have no way of knowing what the date is on the calendar. But whatever day of the week or month it is, one thing is certain: You are reading these words “today.” We notice that the admonition of Hebrews is for today, while it is still today. If our neglect continues until tomorrow, it may be too late.

The warning of Scripture stresses that as long as we delay repentance and faith, we run the risk of being “hardened” through the deceitfulness of sin. We’ve heard the gospel preached so often that we can become calloused to it. Our hearts become calcified; our consciences seared. That is how sin works. First we excuse ourselves and seek all manner of self-justification. Finally we deceive ourselves into thinking that faith and repentance are not necessary.

The Necessity of Not Delaying

God says that repentance and faith are necessary, utterly necessary. Hebrews declares that God is so serious about this that He swore a vow not to let the disobedient enter into His rest. Never was a more sacred oath sworn than this holy vow. It is the worst kind of delusion to even entertain the possibility that God might not keep this vow.

The author of Hebrews concludes by saying: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).

If a person remains in unbelief it is simply not possible for him to enter into the rest of God. Unbelief is a barrier to heaven.

We see then that there are only two ways of dying. We can die in faith, or we can die in our sins.

When will we face the judgment of God? Is there time for faith and repentance after we die?

Many people hold out hope for a second chance after death. The Roman Catholic church nurtures this hope with the doctrine of purgatory. Purgatory is a place of “purging” for those who need some cleansing before entering heaven. Therefore, masses are said and prayers are offered for the dead. (It is official Roman Catholic teaching that those in purgatory are baptized Christians who will, eventually, enter into heaven. However, it seems that in the popular imagination of many Catholics and others, purgatory is where sinners are given a second chance to mend their ways and make it to heaven, aided by the works of the living.)

If ever a doctrine was invented to meet the needs of a frightened humanity, it is the doctrine of purgatory. But Scripture offers not a shred of evidence to support the idea.

On the contrary, the urgent focus of Scripture is on the necessity of repentance before we die. Again it is the author of Hebrews who declares, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

I remember with much affection my uncle who lived in our house with us as we were growing up. He was a tough man with bulging muscles and a profane mouth. I vividly recall that he always seemed to have a solid black layer of grease visible under his fingernails. My uncle had no time for religion and church. He thought that religion was for sissies.

When I announced that I was going to seminary to prepare for the ministry, my uncle almost had an apoplexy. He teased me relentlessly. He joked that soon I’d be wearing my collar backward and would walk around in a black shirt.

Shortly after my ordination my uncle became terminally ill. About a week before he died I visited him in his room. He was dying and he knew it. Now there were no jokes. He was seriously concerned about where he was going. He said to me, “I’m not ready to go.”

We talked about Christ. My uncle made a serious profession of faith. He got matters settled between himself and God. He died in faith.

Just as God swore an oath that the impenitent will not enter His rest, so He swore that those who repent and believe in Christ will enter His rest.

Again the author of Hebrews elaborates:

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it…. For we who have believed do enter that rest.

—Hebrews 4:1-3

Hebrews concludes this fourth chapter with these words:

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

—Hebrews 4:14-16

If we die in faith we join a great assembly of those who have gone before us. Hebrews provides a litany of the heroes of faith who have died.

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice…. By faith Enoch was translated…. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark…. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed….

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

—Hebrews 11:4-11, 13-16

If we die in faith we will join Abel, Enoch, Noah, and the rest. We will be counted among those of whom God is not ashamed to be called their God. The city He has prepared will be ours.

The just shall live by faith.

They are indeed justified by faith, and the just shall die in faith.

—R.C. Sproul, (1996, c1988). Surprised by Suffering. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

Purchase the book “Surprised by Suffering” here, or read more here.