Varieties of judgment.
The duties and responsibilities of the prophet as a watchman, which are here first described, receive more elaborate attention later in the book, where therefore they can be best studied. The other side of the subject—that which concerns the guilt and dangers of the people, which is also set forth in the passage before us—is worthy of grave consideration on its own account. Let us take that alone now.
I. JUDGMENT IS DETERMINED BY PERSONAL GUILT. God is discriminating and fair. He does not deal out judgment in the gross; each case is token in detail. There is to be no wholesale deluge of future retribution; every man will bear his own share of guilt. There will be differences between the treatment of one sinner and that of another. Differences in conduct and circumstances are noted. Temptation is weighed on the one side; light and opportunity on the other. The child of the thieves' den cannot be judged as the son of a Christian home. The ignorance of the heathen puts them in quite another category in the day of judgment from that in which the favoured inhabitants of Christendom will stand. There is thus not only a difference between the guilt of different deeds—as of minor morals or great crimes; there is also a difference in the guilt of similar deeds committed by people differently situated.
II. JUDGMENT IS AFFECTED BY AFTER CONDUCT. The whole passage treats of this after conduct. It presupposes that sin has been committed. Yet it shows a variety of possibilities according to subsequent behaviour. We cannot return on the past. History is not to be wiped out. What is done remains as a fact accomplished. Yet its evil fruit may be crushed, or it may be eaten to the last bitter morsel. Later conduct may aggravate the guilt, deepen the black dye, and add to the weight of the impending conduct. Or it may be such as to lift the load of doom and open a door of escape. We have to do with a personal God, not with a blind Nemesis. God rules by law, but this law is not a mechanical system. Therefore:
1. There is hope for the worst of men. None need despair.
2. It is wrong and foolish for the sinner to be reckless. Nobody's fate is so bad that it cannot be made worse. Even the vilest sinner may be warned of the danger of intensifying his already heinous guilt and multiplying the many stripes which he has already earned. The possibilities of evil are infinite; so also are the possibilities of heightened penalties. As there are third heavens and seventh heavens, so are there deeper and darker and yet more horrible inner circles of future punishment.
III. GUILT VARIES ACCORDING TO THE SINNER'S WARNING AND HIS TREATMENT OF IT. Here are four possible cases.
1. The unwarned sinner suffers. He cannot be excused because no prophet was sent him. On the face of it this looks unjust; but it is not so, since no man could have been a sinner at all unless he had known he was doing wrong. Therefore by the light of his own conscience he must be judged and condemned. Moreover, the moral degradation of sin in the heathen and in ignorant people nearer home is a fact that must bring its natural consequences. If only the pure in heart can see God, the impure must miss the beatific vision by lack of faculty to receive it. Sin kills the soul by natural necessity.
2. The warned sinner who persists suffers a worse penalty. He not only dies. His blood is on his own head. This must imply an aggravation of guilt and a consequent increase of punishment.
3. The fallen righteous man is punished, though he is not warned. His previous goodness gives him no immunity in present sin. He of all men can plead no excuse in the lack of warning, for certainly he should have known his danger. His eyes were once open. He may have been careless and surprised into sin. But this would not destroy guilt, for should he not have watched and prayed against entering into temptation?
4. The fallen righteous man who repents on receiving warning is forgiven. He is judged by his returning course of conduct. Too often despair follows the fall of good men, or reckless indifference. But the grace of Christ is for his own repentant people, as well as for those who had never known him. He who bade his disciples forgive seventy times seven offences is as long suffering and patient in his own treatment of genuine penitents among his brethren.