Judgment beginning at the house of God.
I. THE ORDER OF GOD'S JUDGMENT.
1. It begins with his own people.
2. Reasons for this are:
II. THE EXTENT OF IT. "All the inhabitants of the earth." Thus early?봭ay, from the first sin onwards?봡oes he begin the judgment of the whole earth. The sin of one is but a symptom of the universal depravity of all. The oneness of the world in its fall and the evolution of its sin, is constantly declared in Scripture.
1. This is demanded by the justice of God. "Should ye be utterly unpunished?" It would be manifestly unfair that the child of God alone should suffer for that which is primarily a sin of all mankind.
2. It is founded upon the solidarity of the race. There is a universal kinship in sins. "In Adam (they) all die" (1혻Corinthians 15:22).
III. THE MEASURE OF IT. "A sword" (cf. Jeremiah 25:33). This signifies destruction, death. That which opposes itself to him will be utterly destroyed. He begins his judgment upon his own, but it passes from them and rests forever upon his enemies. The picture painted by Jeremiah (verses 30-38) is but one of many similar ones in the Bible. The utter holiness of God cannot endure the sinfulness of men; it must consume it and all that identify themselves with it. In the New Testament the horizon widens, and the spiritual world participates with the living upon earth in the sentence of the Judge. The first duty, therefore, of every awakened sinner is to flee from the "wrath to come." Whilst he remains unconverted he is a "child of wrath." Punishment has a different significance to him from what it would have if he were "in Christ." It is the same principle of solidarity which condemned us that now avails for our salvation. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1혻Corinthians 15:22).?봎.