On the Day of Judgment, no one will be able to accuse God of being unfair. Each of us will get exactly what we have cried out for. The standard will be the same for everyone. For the rich and the poor. For the oppressed and the oppressor. For the black and the white and the brown and every other color. For the old and the young. For the Christian and the non-Christian. This shall be the fair standard for us all: the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

My children are the fairness police in our home–and most violations have to do with snacks. Here’s how it plays out. One child comes to me and asks for an apple or a string cheese or a cookie, and if they get it, what do they do? Immediately, they go into the other room and parade around in front of their siblings. Without fail, one by one each of them comes into the kitchen, “Hey, that’s not fair. She has a cookie. I want one, too!”

Fairness is wanting one standard for everyone. A child’s mind assumes a fair universe: “If one of us gets a cookie, we all get a cookie.” The same standard for every kid. The good news—and bad news depending—is that we do live in a universe governed by absolute fairness. God’s justice is quite fair:

“…since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess. 1:6-8)

A Just Repayment

“God considers it just to repay.” When Jesus returns, everyone will be repaid according to what he has done in this life. Paul puts it this way in Romans:

“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” (Rom. 2:6-8)

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