The Divine Paradox

O Man
What do you think?
Do you think you can pass judgment on others and still escape God's judgment?
Do you think so little of God's patience and kindness that brings you to repent?
Your stubborn and unrepentant heart is storing up God's wrath and righteous judgment, "who will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who do good, eternal life; to those who are selfish and disobedient, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul who does evil, Jew first and then the Greek; and glory and peace for every soul who does good, same order.
(Romans 2:1-16)

Surely now, this is enough evidence to confirm that our deeds determine our destiny, that good will be paid back with good, and bad for bad.

In his commentary on Romans,  H.G.C. Moule tells us that, at this point in his letter to the Romans, Paul is about to embark on "the divine paradox of the Justification of the Ungodly, but first, he bids us to consider right, wrong, judgment, and retribution as if there were nothing else in the moral universe."

Enter judgment.
Does the universe act as our moral judge?
Can we be the judges of what is right or wrong?
Do the Jews have a right to judge Gentiles because they don't keep the law, or by judging others, do they actually condemn themselves?
Even the Gentiles instinctively know what is right and good, know it in their hearts, but that does not make them good. They condemn themselves by failing to live up to it.
There will be a day, when God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ.

Paul, you are indeed so clever in your arguments.
If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, then isn't He unjust to inflict wrath?
If my lie brings God glory, why am I being judged?
And why not go ahead and say (what we have already been slanderously reported to have been saying),
"let's do evil, so good will come out of it".
Twisted.
No one is better than another, for all have sinned, all have been separated from God, no one does good to begin with.

The whole world will one day stand before God and be held accountable to Him, finally realizing just how holy and perfect He is, and how unutterably despicable we are. Like Job, we will put our hands over our mouths, having run out of arguments, excuses, defenses and self-justifications.
Guilty as charged, we all stand condemned as children of wrath.

That is a universe where only right, wrong, judgment and retribution exist.

Enter the Justifier.
But God, because of His great love, publicly displayed Christ on the cross, condemned to suffer the most excruciating form of capital punishment ever invented, in order to pay the price that satisfied the wrath of God for our sin, in order to demonstrate God's righteousness and patience in passing over our sins, in order that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It is that faith in Jesus that justifies man, not his works. A worker gets paid what he is due, according to his deeds, whereas, belief in Him who justifies the wicked makes a guilty man declared rightly innocent before God, not according to his deeds, but according to the work of Christ on the cross.
Can you believe it?! No one deserves to be declared innocent before a holy God, and yet that is exactly what He does, and He is Just in doing it.
(Romans 3)

Enter grace.
Flesh hates grace, because grace gives freely what is undeserved to the undeserving.

The fact is, we are not paid back according to our deeds. God offers forgiveness to the wicked, forgiveness that is totally undeserved, absolutely unmerited. It is not a justice that we would consider right and fair, but it is justice according to God.
Hallelujah! That justice, all crazily stirred up with mercy and grace, is my blessed hope. Oh, how I need to be reminded of that every day! I have received good and it is not because I have done something good in my past.
Therefore, in the most beautiful paradox you'll ever see, my depraved soul has been justified.
Through Jesus Christ, I have been ushered onto this platform of grace on which I stand, and now I have peace with God, now I jump for joy (not in my hope only, but also in my suffering), now I know that my suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope, now I know that this hope will not disappoint, now I know that I have the Holy Spirit and that through Him, I am filled with God's love.
(Romans 5)

Now I know.
Suffering in the Spirit is impossible without a love of God's grace and His right to deal with us according to His great love and mercy, not according to our deeds. If we insist on judging others for their works, on expecting God to judge others according to their works, then we invite Him to deal with us the same way.
Have you thought fully of what that implies?
Do you really want to be held to that standard?