You are Your Own Fault
Great White Throne
A king may move a man. A father may claim a son. That man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power, when you stand before God you cannot say, “But I was told by others to do thus.” This will not suffice.1
It is appointed for men once to die and then to face judgement.2 And I saw the dead great and small standing before a great white throne, and all spake with one voice, “My mommy made me do it”.
You will stand and give an account of your deeds, your actions, your choices.3 Every idle word.4 But I was poor, if I were a rich man5, I would have done better. But I was oppressed, and if I had been freer I would have done better. But I was abused, and if I had been loved I would have done better. But this woman whom you gave me, she gave me the fruit.
You are your own fault. Wherever you came from, whatever was done to you, your choices are your own. Whatever your circumstances, there is a morally upright way to live through them.6 What happened to you yesterday does not excuse what you do today. Other people in your life may have done blameworthy things, even blameworthy things against you, and they will face judgement for that. But your responses, and the lies you tell yourself, are yours.7
If your dad was always a model of godly fatherhood, you would still believe your own lies. You would still have your own brokenness, your own rebellions, your own bents toward sin. Adam was created without any brokenness and had the perfect father, and still chose to follow his own lies. Others experienced the same things you experienced, and they don’t believe your lies or share your bents. You want to excuse your choices, but your attempt to blame others for yourself reduces your own humanity – you become a mere tool that others use.8 Even if you could identify the motivations behind your lie, doing so is not particularly helpful in rejecting the lie and walking in the truth. The serpent deceived me. The woman you gave me. A story explaining why does not excuse the lie and is not needed in order to repent or counter the lie.
Each one will be judged.9 Each, not all. You stand alone at the judgement. Just as you cannot evade moral responsibility for yourself, so you cannot take upon yourself accountability for anyone else. Even if that other person is your child, they will stand before the throne alone.
It’s Not About You10
The moment when you stand before the great white throne for judgement is not about you. The time you spend on this earth is not about you. Nor is it about, as the script writers of Doctor Strange were suggesting, humanity as a whole. You are not worthy of being the center of your own life, much less the center of anyone else’s. Gathering a bunch of unworthy people together under the label “humanity” does not make the label worthy of being the center. Do not make of yourself a little god. Have the courage to be small, to be humble. You are not part of a whole, a thread in the tapestry, where the whole is worthy, where the tapestry has enough beauty to satisfy. This garden exists for my pleasure and the fruit of that tree looks delicious – you are not the point; let us make for ourselves a name – humanity is not the point.
Sleep is an embodied sign that you are not the point. It is a daily sabbath. You are daily forced to rest from your work. You spend a third of your life not working, not pursuing healthy pleasures (eating), not pursuing twisted pleasures (gluttony), unable to protect yourself from harm, unaware of any world outside of yourself. He goes to sleep at night and rises in the morning, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.11 Sleep is your daily reminder that though you may have work assigned for you to do – tend the garden – you are not able to produce fruit. Your daily reminder that you cannot protect yourself from all harms, all risks – I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Your daily reminder that you will die – I pray the Lord my soul to take.
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.12
It is not your job to make the world a better place. Nowhere is it so written. You were not created for the purpose of improving the world. The world was good at creation – it had no need to be improved – and yet people were part of that creation and had work to do in it.13 It is not your job to make your mark on the world, to leave a legacy, to be remembered. This is part of the hubris and fallacy of Babel.14 You make yourself into your own idol whether you live for your own pleasure or for the change you make in the world.
You don’t live as long as someone remembers you. Being remembered does not give meaning to the dead. Being remembered after death offers no more meaning to life than being famous while alive.
The fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work … remains, he will receive a reward.15
You have work to do, assignments. Subdue and rule. Tend and keep. However, the fruit of your work is not yours. The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness.16 You labor in the fields of another. You are a steward – managing the master’s wealth for the benefit and glory of that master. After a long time, the master will come to settle accounts with you.17
Superman Does Good
Why do you call me ‘good’? Only God is good.18
We tell two lies. The first is that we occasionally do evil. The second is that we ever do good.
The commandment is holy, righteous, and good … but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.19
We talk as though our default way of walking through life is good or, at worst, neutral. We go along “doing pretty good” and sometimes stumble a bit. If it weren’t for those rare slip-ups, we would be righteous. All these things I have kept from my youth, what more do I lack.20 Alright so maybe I have done some real evil. Maybe a few times, or many times, even yesterday, I wallowed in the mud with the pigs in a far off country. And those were true sins that deserve fiery wrath. And I need a savior. But they were isolated incidents. I can point to the moments when I gave into temptation and did something I shouldn’t have and then felt bad. Forgive me father for I have sinned. Here’s a (short) list of all the bad things I’ve done since my last confession. Alright so maybe the problem is a little deeper. Maybe there are a few problem areas I can’t seem to kick. Some lies I feel drawn to, often so strongly that part of me decides they aren’t really lies, they’re not really all that evil. A dog returns to its vomit.21 Maybe I am enslaved to my sin.22 I am of my father, the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning and the father of lies, and I am like him.23 Not merely defiled by a few sinful acts, I am deformed, broken in my depths. I need saving not just from wrath for sinful acts, but also from my twisted self. The truth can’t set me free if I’m not a slave in need of freedom.24 Only the sick need a doctor, only sinners need repentance.25
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.^{Matthew 5:48]
My second lie: I’m a good person, or at least a net-good person – my good outweighs my bad. The Law was not given to explain how you can be righteous.26 By the works of the law, no one will be justified.27 It was given to prove to you that even in these little earthly things28 you fall far short.29 You cannot keep your hands from killing and stealing, how much less can you glorify God as he deserves. You won’t stand before the throne while clothed in your own righteousness, because your righteousness, your best efforts in your best moments, is like filthy rags.30 You, who are evil,31 may be able to give good gifts to your children, but you cannot do good. The standard of good is perfection, God himself.32 You shall be holy as I am holy.33 Point to a deed you have done in which you loved God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and loved your neighbor as yourself. Show me how you can be perfect for even a single breath.
He puts no trust in his servant or saints, his angels he charges with folly, and the heavens are not pure in his sight.34
The text never describes judgement as being based upon weights in scales. The judgement of deeds will not involve measuring how much good you did and comparing that to how much evil you did. First, because a single evil merits condemnation. Second, because there would not be anything to put on the good side. Third, because even if it were possible to do good, doing good would not offset doing evil. Yes, he shot my grandmother, but he also gave a million dollars to a worthy charity, so he only half-shot my grandmother. Even in our human justice system, the scales of justice are not for weighing good deeds compared to evil deeds, but for weighing the evidence for and against an accusation.35
But suppose that you had always obeyed all of the commandments – all these things you kept from your youth.36 Even if you should stand before the throne unbowed. If you should stand clothed in your own righteousness. If the books that are opened are filled with your praise and not your condemnation. Even so, you are an unworthy servant, having done only what you ought to have done.37 Disobedience defiles, but obedience does not make you holy. Complete obedience is the minimum expectation of a slave. Doing what you ought to do does not earn you favor.
I’m just Ken
and I’m kenough.38
For what are you enough? You are not enough for your own happiness or contentment. You are not complete in yourself. You don’t bring satisfying meaning to yourself. You are not enough for your own health. What magic do you wield that will keep you from the cancer. You are not strong enough to protect yourself. You can only carry so many bullets. Every act of living requires risk.39 You are not wise enough to make the right decisions for your life. Too much is unknown, unknowable, and beyond human control. Which of you by careful planning and diligent effort can add a single hour to your life.40 You are enough to be loved by someone, except you’re not enough for you to love yourself.41
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.42
If you are not enough for yourself, how could you be enough for anyone else. You are not enough for your spouse. You cannot complete them. You are not enough for your kids. You are not enough to keep them safe. You are not enough to keep them healthy.
One response to not being enough is Disney’s existentialism – just be yourself. Let it go. Assert that what matters most is being true to myself. Which quickly becomes what matters most is that you accept me for who I say I am. Note the incoherence of the train of thought that progresses from “I am not enough” to “I not even going to try, I’m just going to be me” to “you have to tell me that I am enough”.
If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people.43
Another response to not being enough is snowflake-ism. I may not be enough but I’m special, unique, different. I’m special, just like everyone else. My life has meaning because no one else was, is or will be exactly like me. This claim doesn’t seem to hold water for snowflakes – each special, each melting away unseen. My life becomes more meaningful if I make less common choices – the farther I deviate from average, the more special I am. It is not enough to be unique, one must be seen as unique. Always a wise choice to place your self-worth in how you think others see you. God’s special people are not special because they are different. They were not more numerous than the other nations.44 They were not from better bloodlines.45 They were not more righteous.46 There was nothing in themselves different from other nations.47 They were a special treasure to God, not because they were enough, but because he chose them.48
You thought that I was just like you.49
We make God in our own image, a bearded angry old man criticizing us from his rocking chair in the clouds. He might wave his [hurri]cane at us, but he won’t get off his porch to chase us. We treat him as though he is not the hidden gravity at the center of existence. He is invisible and so we comfortably deny his glory. If God is like me, then I am good enough. But I know that I am not enough. If God is like me, then there is no one at the wheel – the center cannot hold. There is nothing beyond me worthy of my affection and work. Nothing that if I chased it and found it, then I would finally be whole.
We make him small because if he is small, then our evil isn’t that bad, and our good deeds look more impressive. The smaller God is, the better I look, and the more unforgivable others sins against me become. The one who is forgiven little, loves little.50 The more holy God is, the more grace I need, and the easier it is to offer grace to others.
You are who you are supposed to be: a tool to be used, used up, by and for someone else.51
Like channeled water52
I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.53
Moral culpability does not require that our actions be without cause or without explanation. Explaining your choices does not excuse them. Naming a cause for your actions does not free you from the blame. She gave me the fruit. The snake deceived me. You may hold to a strict form of determinism – that all of a person’s choices and actions are completely controlled by and fully explained by chains of cause and effect reaching back from the choice or action through the person and ultimately outside of the person. You may assert philosophically that choice is an illusion. The validity of philosophical determinism is irrelevant to the question of moral culpability. You are your own fault because the Judge holds you accountable for yourself. You may believe that choice an illusion, but you still have to choose, and will be held morally responsible for the choice.
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.54 Guns don’t kill people, bullets do. Bullets don’t kill people, sufficient damage to vital organs does. If two men are cutting wood in a forest, and one of their axe heads slips off kills the other, it is not the axe’s fault.55 Justice sees through the links of cause and effect and finds the proximate moral agent.
Suppose that a complete causal explanation for a particular choice could be established. Starting with you taking a bite of the donut, we follow the chain of causes and effects backward. Through muscle activations and nerve firings. Up into your brain where we follow every path of the neuronal network and account for not only your observable behavior but also your subjective internal experience of consciousness.56 And continue back out into the world identifying every mechanical process that created that neural network. Each physical mechanism that contributed to the exact structure of your brain at the moment of that bite has it’s own long chain of causes and effects branching out into the past. In our hypothetical world, we have the technology. We can account for every flap of a butterfly’s wing, every stray neutrino. Suppose we were able to not only tell this story but prove it. If it were possible, not just technologically but philosophically to compile such a complete causal explanation, it would still not absolve us of moral responsibility. No explanation, no matter how thorough or compelling, would convince you that the guy who shot your grandmother was innocent. He shot her. He knew he was shooting her. He wanted to shoot her. He is to blame. If a grain of sand had rolled right rather than left a hundred years ago then everything would have been different and he wouldn’t have shot her, according to our hypothetical model. But you don’t hold him any less morally responsible just because you manage to put together that explanation. So it goes with God.
The first three pages of the Text are that causal explanation. Each link in the chain from the creation of the universe by the voice of God to the forming of man out of the dust to the biting of the fruit. And still each moral agent in the story stands before the judge and attempts to excuse their choice. Each moral agent is still cursed for having chosen evil.
Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace … but if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.57
But I was just following orders. Orders are backed by threats – if you don’t follow orders, then.58 You face social stigma. You lose your job. You face court martial. Do not eat from the tree for on the day that you eat of it you will surely die. Suppose the orders are from less legitimate sources – do what I’m telling you to or I’ll torture you, I’ll torture people you love. Is it possible for one moral agent to so fully overwhelm the agency of another that they become morally responsible for the other’s actions? I was made to do it under threat of violence. I was a tool in the hands of another, with no more of a choice than a gun has. I was imprisoned in the belly of a whale until I agreed to do it. Consider that I can also say “I would rather die than.”59
All choices are made within contexts that exert pressure on the person choosing. That pressure may come from the person themselves. My body is sending chemical signals that make me feel more hungry and tempted by donuts. She saw that the tree was good for food and a delight to the eyes. I believe that I will be happier tomorrow if I eat healthier today. And the tree was desirable for obtaining wisdom. Or the pressure to make a choice may come from outside. An advertisement for donuts. An invitation from a friend to meet for donuts. The serpent deceived me. The existence of internal or external influences on a choice does not make the choice less mine. I am not freed of moral responsibility for my actions by a gun to my head60 anymore than I am by a donut to my lips.61
Why do you make us stray.62
Nature versus nurture is not a false dichotomy or a spectrum. If it were true that some combination of our genetics and experiences determined our choices, then we could, as we often attempt to do, explain our choices by what happened to us. However, if we were honest and willing to look, we would always find counter examples to any proposed explanation. There is always someone who shares that gene or that experience and yet makes different choices. So, to maintain our deterministic theory, we would be compelled to add more and more differentiating details to our explanation. “Anyone who had all of these particular genes, and had experienced this exact long thread of particular experiences, would make this same choice.” Taken as far as would be required to uphold determinism, the explanation would simply become “Anyone who was me would choose what I chose.” Which is no explanation at all. You had reasons for choosing to do what you did. Your reasons were understandable. But that does not make the choice less yours or less wrong. Explaining why an action was chosen does not make the action less evil.
I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.63
But I was born this way. Yes, you were born a sinner. Through one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners.64 That makes you more of a sinner not less of one. Everyone is born broken. Being bent towards a given evil does not make it less evil. The stronger argument is that some of my inclinations to evil are the product of my choices and some are not – I bent myself here and here, but I was bent there by something outside of myself – and I should not be blamed, or at least blamed less, for the brokenness that was imposed on me without my choosing it. You are not condemned for your bents, whether self-imposed or not. You are condemned for the evil you do. The source of a desire does not change the morality of actions in pursuit of that desire. If I go against my innate tendencies and eat chocolate donuts, I have not thereby acted less gluttonous. I did not choose to dislike chocolate donuts, it is built into my physiology – I was just born this way. Bully for me, I sinned the sin I didn’t want to sin.
Obviously flawed moral theory: I want to do this particular form of evil, and so it should be okay for me. The only actions that should be evil for me are the actions I don’t want to do. The paradigmatic sin is doing the evil you want to do. Each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.65 The “born this way” claim is but one form of the “but I didn’t choose to want to do this particular form of evil.” Our excuse is a meta-will – I did it and I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to want to do it. And the text rebuts our excuse from all sides. “I don’t understand what I am doing. The desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it…. the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want…. in my [meta-will] I joyfully agree with God’s law…. but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner.”66 If you had a meta-will that disagreed with your will, if you did not want to want what you want, your actions would still be evil. Not choosing to want to do evil is not an excuse for the evil action because the judge does not examine your desires when defining evil. Because you have done this,67 not because you wanted to do this. Motive is evidence when we are trying to prove that you did something.68 Motive is not evidence that the thing you did was wrong.69
All souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.70
Being “born this way” or “raised this way” does not excuse your actions even if it were true. However, the text is at pains to demonstrate that it is not true. The line of kings in two sister kingdoms presents alternating generations of evil fathers and good sons, or good fathers and evil sons. No longer will it be said, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”71
The stories that scripture tells never explain a person’s choices by describing their past or their parents. In fact we are very rarely told anything at all about any Biblical character’s childhood. Why was Moses who he was – we’re not given any explanation. We are simply told of God’s call and Moses’ choices. How was David raised that made him a good king, a man after God’s own heart – we are not told. Was it because David had good blood – no because we are told his ancestors were incestuous, adulterous and foreign. The Text has no interest in what processes made David to be David, because the Text does not assume that there were processes that produced him. The Text assumes that he chose and that he is accountable for his choice. He saw Uriah’s wife, he desired her, he took her, and killed him. Any direction we would look for an explanation, the Text provides either an explicit counter example or a wall of silence.
Before the child knows enough to reject evil and choose good.72
I am not accountable for my actions because I did not know they were evil. I would not have known what it is to covet if the Law had not said, “Do not covet.”73 But you did know. You have always known74 because your father ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.75 You have always known because the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of his hands … though their voice is not heard … their words have gone out to the ends of the earth.76 Everything that can be known about God is plain because God made it plain.77 In the depths of our evil we deny, even to ourselves, what we know to be true. To know the nature and character of the revealed God is to know good, since the highest good is to love God.
You know that you have always known good and evil because your conscience condemns you.78 Even if God were to set aside his commands and judge you solely based upon your own definition of good and evil, you would still stand condemned.79 Your brokenness prevents you from following even your own ideals. Forgive them for they know not what they do.
You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?80
That woman that you gave me. But God made me do it.81 God is everywhere and all-powerful. He controls everything that happens. He controls what I do. Why does He still blame me for my actions, for who can resist His will? Philosophers may argue about free will versus determinism. Theologians may debate whether God could be the author of sin. But Paul says that even if it were accurate to say that God made you do it, it would still not excuse your evil acts. God has the right to make us whatever he wants. Note that Paul does not explicitly say that God does cause anyone to choose evil, but rather that He has the right to do so and if he did, could still justly condemn us. The reason Paul’s response feels hard to swallow is that we deny God’s holiness. We deny that He is categorically Other – He is the potter and we are clay. We consider ourselves not only equally potters, but also the arbiters of justice. We are not only like God, we stand in a position to judge God.
God is weak, far and against us. All we need to do is eat a little magic fruit and we would be like him. He is, like us, too weak to accomplish what he wants. His arm is too short to save. If he is powerful enough to achieve his goals, then he is too distant82 for those goals to have anything to do with us. Above us. Aloof. The Lord does not see this; the God of Jacob does not notice.83 His ears too deaf to hear when we call for help.84 A distant unconcerned God.85 If he is powerful and near to us, then he is working against us. He does not want me to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge because he does not want what is good for me. His rules are arbitrary and designed to deny me happiness. The fruit is good for food and desirable for making one wise. My breaking of some arbitrary rule, which he probably arranged for me to do, is the pretense he uses to bring the hammer down on me. The only reason he has not already smote me is that he is waiting for me to do more wrong so that he can crush me even more thoroughly.86
A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.87
If anything would excuse me from moral responsibility, it would not be an explanation of the causes of my choice. Any move along those lines serves to reinforce that it was my choice. The only effective excuse is an argument that my choice was mere randomness. The I that considers itself conscious is an illusion. There is no self that is self-aware. Probabilistic chaos at the subatomic level is the only reality. The apparent reality of phenomena above the subatomic level are delusions. We avoid personal moral responsibility by claiming that no person exists. We thereby rid ourselves of accountability and suffer only the small side-effect of having rid our world of meaning.
Bear Fruit in Keeping with Repentance
The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.88
It says in one place, we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ so that each may be repaid for the deeds done while in the body.89 Now this “done while in the body” signifies that the judgement is based upon what a body, your body, is capable of doing.90 As it happens, you have continually done all the evil you are capable of.91
A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work.92
You will not be judged for failing to do what your body was incapable of doing. Your body, no body, is capable of controlling the effects of its actions as they ripple outward into the world. You will be judged for whether your work was good or worthless, not for what was accomplished through your work. You are not a god. You control very little. Elijah prayed for rain, but God caused the rain. Elijah called down fire, but God sends the fire. Elijah anoints as king, but God builds up and tears down kings and kingdoms. Elijah judges his own work as unsuccessful, and God preserves for Himself a remnant. Paul and Apollos can plant and water, but only God causes the growth. The farmer spreads the seed on the ground, then goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though the farmer does not know how. By itself the soil produces a crop.93 The farmer is judged for the quality of his planting and watering, but the quality of the crop is beyond him.
Cursed is the ground because of you, in toil you shall it of it…both thorns and thistles shall it bear for you…by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread.94
Men toil in the hope of bread, but only gods have the power to cause the sun to shine, the rain to fall and the seed to grow. What does this “sweat” signify, but that you may work hard for the fruit. And this “of your brow,” but that you may work with intelligence for the fruit. And yet thorns and thistles shall it bear for you. The toil with sweat and brow does not determine whether the fruit that grows is bread or thorns.
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance… Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.95
These commands to bear fruit are not about changing other people, but about developing your own character. Sinful passions also bear fruit.96 In the metaphor, you are the tree that is bearing fruit. If that fruit were some change you were making in other people, then those other people wouldn’t be trees themselves. A tree bears fruit on97 itself, not in other trees.
What does fruit mean in this context? There are many works of the flesh but only one fruit of the Spirit. Works are done by human hands, fruit thrusts upward and grows all unbeknown to the tree which bears it. Works are dead, fruit is alive, and bears the seed which will bring forth more fruit. Works can subsist on their own, fruit cannot exist apart from the tree. Fruit is always the miraculous, the created; it is never the result of willing, but always a growth. The fruit of the spirit is a gift of God, and only he can produce it. They who bear it know as little about it as the tree knows of its fruit. They know only the power of him on whom their life depends.98
Fruit does not bear fruit; plants bear fruit. When considering fruit bearing metaphors, do not see yourself as the plant and other people as the fruit. Unless you are making babies99, this misreads the metaphor. You and other people are always the same stuff. Jesus may be the vine and you a branch, but other people are always their own branch off the vine, not stems growing out of you.
you eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, or bright back the strays. Instead you have ruled them with cruelty and violence.100
Sheep are not food not friends. Fruit is grown to be eaten, not merely to be multiplied as planted seed.101 We are too divorced from the agricultural context in which the metaphors originated. The farmer eats the crops. And the shepherd uses and eats the sheep. They eat the fat as milk, cheese and butter; they harvest the wool for clothing; and they eventually kill the sheep and eat the meat. God’s complaint against the shepherds was not that they ate the sheep, but that they ate the sheep without tending to them. “You are my flock, the human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God.”102 If we are God’s sheep, then part of the implication of that metaphor is that he does not only tend to us so that there are more sheep in the pasture next year. We don’t exist to multiply. We don’t exist to eat in green pastures and lie down beside still waters. We exist for him, to be used for his purposes, for purposes that may not always align with our immediate personal comfort or pleasure.
I will be judged based upon my obedient work, not whether that work successfully bore fruit. This is a freeing truth. I don’t have to carry the burden of producing a harvest that is ultimately beyond my control. I don’t have to resort to unjust methods in a vain attempt to be successful. It’s not my job to change the world. My job is to trust and follow.
You were made to meet your maker.103
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.104
The foundation on which the Biblical text builds its philosophy of ethics is that each person will stand before the throne to be judged for their deeds. A concrete future reality enacted by a personal God with the power, authority, and righteousness required to render justice to each person. “Trample down the wicked where they stand … then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.”105 Moral accountability does not rest on abstract ideas, but on the judge. Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly.106 The text accepts that Justice may not be enforced today (b/c we would all be found sinners). We are given reason to hope that a satisfying justice will be rendered on That Day. We can theorize about the principles on which the Judgement will be based. But the theories do not restrict God. You are your own fault because the one who will finally judge your soul says so.
No matter your age, gender, ethnicity, intellect or wealth, all will stand before the throne and give an account. This implies that you have been deemed worthy to enter the throne room and stand before the King. No mere ape is worthy. No animal is morally accountable for their behavior. Angels don’t stand before the throne. The seraphim fly with feet and eyes covered in constant worship. Isaiah stands barefoot on holy ground, with his eyes open, talking directly to God. The fiery coal, which the angel won’t touch except with tongs, Isaiah kisses. We are made for [only] a little while lower than the angels.107 Abraham, Jacob, Moses all talk with God face to face. They argue with God. Therefore he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.108 You are deemed worthy to stand before the throne. Your kids are worthy to stand before the throne.109 Each may be rewarded either with glory or shame, but all are granted entry to the throne room of God.
You are gods. You are all sons of the Most High. However you will die like humans and fall like any other ruler.110
Your child is morally accountable to God. If you have a violent son who commits detestable acts, his death will be his own fault.111 Your child’s wickedness is not, and cannot be, your fault. You do not have the power to make your child evil any more than you have the power to make them good. You, as a parent, do have responsibilities towards your children. And you will be judged for the manner in which you fulfill those responsibilities. But you will not be judged based upon your child’s choices. You can feel proud or ashamed of your kids, but you can’t take credit or blame.
Kingdom of Heaven, 2005.↩︎
Except for Lazarus, he was appointed twice to die. And Elijah rode away in a whirlwind. But other than them, once to die.↩︎
Romans 2:6, 16 – He will repay each according to their deeds. God will judge the secrets of mankind through Christ Jesus. Romans 14:10,12 – We will all appear before the judgement seat of God. Each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Matthew 25:31ff – When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another. Matthew 16:27 – For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will reward each according to what he has done. 1 Peter 1:17 – And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your temporary residence.Jeremiah 17:10 – I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.Revelation 20:11 –I saw the dead great and small stand before the throne … and the dead were judged according to their works according to what was written in the books. Revelation 22:12 – I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done.↩︎
Matthew 12:36↩︎
bada daba daba dum↩︎
Titus 2:10, Genesis 38:26↩︎
Philippians 4:11ff, 1 Peter 2:18ff↩︎
In the same way, attempting to explain the choices made by other people by looking outside the person for a cause is dehumanizing. You make them less than human in your eyes. They become a machine who’s dials just require some fiddling to work right.↩︎
2Corinthians 5:10↩︎
Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One to Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange in the Doctor Strange 2016 movie.↩︎
Mark 4:27↩︎
Nelson Mandela↩︎
If creation was already good, and Adam had work to do, then his work could not have been about making creation good.↩︎
“Let us make a name for ourselves.”↩︎
1 Corinthians 3:13. See also 2 Peter 3:10.↩︎
Psalm 24:1↩︎
Matthew 25:19ff. Luke 16:1ff.↩︎
Jesus in Luke 18:19↩︎
Romans 7:12, 14↩︎
Luke 18:21↩︎
2 Peter 2:22↩︎
This enslavement does not terminate at conversion. Paul describes himself as sold into slavery to sin while he is writing as an apostle long after his conversion.↩︎
John 8:44↩︎
John 8:32-26↩︎
Luke 5:31-32↩︎
Romans 8:3, 10:3↩︎
Galatians 2:16↩︎
Luke 19:17↩︎
Romans 3:20↩︎
“Used tampon” would be a better translation of the Hebrew in Isaiah 64.↩︎
Matthew 7:11↩︎
Luke 18:19↩︎
1 Pet 1:16↩︎
Job 4:18, 15:15↩︎
Justice is blind, as in weighs the evidence without regard to specific qualities of the accused that are not relevant to determining guilt or innocence. If the scales were for weighing the net-good a person had done, then Justice would need open eyes, biased eyes, to thoroughly examine the particular person on trial in front of her.↩︎
Luke 18:21↩︎
Luke 17:10↩︎
Barbie 2023↩︎
Proverbs 26:13↩︎
Matthew 6:27↩︎
And if you do love yourself, you’re a narcissist.↩︎
James 4:13-17↩︎
Exodus 19:5↩︎
Deuteronomy 7:7-8↩︎
Ezekiel 16:3-6↩︎
Deuteronomy 9:6↩︎
Amos 9:7↩︎
Romans 9:11↩︎
Psalm 50:21↩︎
Luke 7:47↩︎
Yet for us there is only one God and we exist for him. 1 Corinthians 8:6.↩︎
Prov 21:1↩︎
Jeremiah 10:23↩︎
But the gun helps.↩︎
Deuteronomy 19:5↩︎
Is there a soul in the causal chain? Is the soul governed by cause and effect?↩︎
Daniel 3:17-18↩︎
If there is no threat behind them, then orders are just words. Watch how quickly your commands become words to your children when disobedience does not consistently result in consequences.↩︎
I would rather die than live to see Nineva repent and be spared. Jonah 4:3.↩︎
If you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.↩︎
She gave me some fruit.↩︎
Isaiah 63:17↩︎
Psalm 51:5↩︎
Romans 5:19↩︎
James 1:14↩︎
Romans 7:18-19, 22-23↩︎
Genesis 3:14, 17↩︎
When we don’t know that you did it and so construct an argument that you beyond a reasonable doubt probably did it, which we think in part because you wanted to do it.↩︎
The mens rea, the mental element of a crime, is a separate question.↩︎
Ezekiel 18:4↩︎
Jeremiah 31:29↩︎
Isaiah 7:16. It does not say “before the child knows good and evil,” or “before the child is accountable for his actions”. The child could know good and evil and be responsible for choosing evil before the child was equipped to reject the evil. The text is intentionally ambiguous.↩︎
Romans 7:7↩︎
Although they know full well God’s just sentence. Romans 1:32.↩︎
And he knew not to do that because he was told not to.↩︎
Psalm 19↩︎
Romans 1:19↩︎
Romans 2:15↩︎
Romans 2:12↩︎
Roman 9:19-21↩︎
A special form of determinism. All determinism ultimately blames God – He must by definition be the first mover, the uncaused cause. This argument differs primarily by setting aside questions of causality, and instead explicitly claims God is directly or indirectly in control of a person’s choices/actions.↩︎
transcendent↩︎
Psalm 94:7↩︎
Isaiah 59:1↩︎
1 Kings 18:29↩︎
2 Peter 3:9↩︎
Proverbs 16:9↩︎
Isaiah 37:31↩︎
2 Corinthians 5:10↩︎
They also serve who only stand and waite.↩︎
Jeremiah 3:5↩︎
Merton 7.8↩︎
Mark 4:26ff↩︎
Genesis 3:17-19↩︎
Luke 3:8-9. See also, John 15, Matthew 7:17ff, Matthew 13.↩︎
Romans 7:5↩︎
in?↩︎
Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p 284. Suggesting that even our own character is fruit beyond our power to grow in ourselves↩︎
be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.↩︎
Ezekiel 34↩︎
Jeremiah 2:7↩︎
Ezekiel 34:31↩︎
Mumford and Sons↩︎
Hebrews 10:31↩︎
Job 40:7-14. Justice requires not only knowing good and evil, but also the power/authority to bring about justice. We may have acquired the knowledge of good and evil from the tree, and with that knowledge we can complain about the injustices committed by others against us. Is our knowledge of good and evil, our sense of justice, corrupted by our own sin?↩︎
Genesis 18:25↩︎
Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:9. Compare elohim to angelos.↩︎
Hebrews 2:11↩︎
The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.↩︎
Psalm 82:6↩︎
Ezekiel 18:13↩︎