Sin and Judgment to Come 49 But this judgment of "the bema of Christ” has only an incidental bearing on the theme of the present article, and it must not be confounded with the judgment of the "great white throne.” From judgment in that sense the believer has absolute immunity: "he cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life” (John 4:26), is the Lord’s explicit declaration. He gives the “right to become children of God” “to them that believe on His Name” (John 1 :12); and it is not by recourse to a criminal court that we deal with the lapses and misdeeds of our children. DEGREES OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS We have seen then that man is a sinner in virtue both of what he is and what he does, We do what we ought not, and leave undone what we ought to do. For sin may be due to ignorance or carelessness, as well as to evil passions which incite to acts that stifle conscience and outrage law. And we have seen also that every sin gives rise to two great questions which need to be distinguished, though they are in a sense inseparable. The one finds expression in the formula, “guilty or not guilty,” and in respect of this no element of limitation or degree is possible. But after verdict, sentence; and when punishment is in question, degrees of guilt are infinite. It has been said that no two of the redeemed will have the same heaven; and in that sense no two of the lost will have the same hell. This is not a concession to popular heresies on this subject. For the figment of a hell of limited duration either traduces the character of God, or practically denies the work of Christ. I f the extinction of being were the fate of the impenitent, to keep them in suffering for an aeon or a century would savor of the cruelty of a tyrant who, having decreed a criminal’s death, deferred the execution of the sen tence in order to torture him. Far worse indeed than this, for, ex hypothesi, the resurrection of the unjust could have no other purpose than to increase their capacity for suffering.
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