"But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:10-12).

Our passage reminds us of the certainty of judgment. There will be a judgment day and every human who has ever lived will be present to be judged by God. We will all be there, and we will answer for ourselves. No one can take our place or answer for us, and we will not be judged on what someone else has done.

We are going to confess the Son to the Father. "Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).

We are going to confess the sins we have committed that have not been forgiven. "And every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God." The teachings of Jesus will be the standard of judgment. Jesus said, "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12:48). That which is to be judged is that which we have done in this life. Paul tells us, "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10). And Jesus said, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds" (Matt. 16:27). "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Rev. 20:12).

The picture that we have of judgment is not one where there is absolute silence before God. Rather, we are there giving answer. Jesus talks of those who express surprise at their fate: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:22-23). "Each one of us shall give account of himself" and "every tongue shall confess."

Many will be like the one talent man of Matthew 25. When his Lord called him to account for that which was entrusted to him, he began to make excuses for his neglect of his stewardship. "And he also that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter; and I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, thou hast thine own" (vs. 24-25). But his Lord did not accept his excuses. Instead he ordered, "And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth" (vs. 30).

It is of peculiar interest to us on this account to observe what others in the Bible said when confronted with sin. The classic example is Adam and Eve when God confronted them with eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Gen. 3:12-13). King Saul couldn’t resist bringing the people in on his sin of not utterly destroying the Amalekites as God had commanded him (1 Sam. 15). The point is that people have all kinds of excuses for the things they do wrong, but God does not accept those excuses. We are still accountable for what we do and must answer!.

Think of all the excuses that we have heard, and perhaps given, over the years for not obeying the gospel and the sins people commit. Those excuses will be repeated on the day of judgment, but to no avail. Ultimately, we will be held responsible for what we do in this life, and those excuses that we hear and make so often will not matter.

What God wants is a simple "yes" or "no" answer. "Did you obey my Son and live for him?" "Yes" or "No" – that is what will matter.

What will I say on the judgment day if my soul is lost? People make all kinds of excuse here, and they will repeat them on judgment day. "There are too many hypocrites in the church." "I couldn’t help my sin, it’s really not sin, it’s a disease." "My parents raised me wrong." "My wife and kids weren’t interested." "So many denominations, I couldn’t make up my mind." "I just didn’t have time. Other things were pressing."

What will I say on the judgment day? I hope to say, "Thank you, Lord, this is wonderful." But what I have to say is not what is important. What is important is what the Lord says when I face him there.

I want to live my life in such a way that through the forgiveness that I have in Jesus I may hear these words: "Well done, good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matt. 25:21).