Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free. (Proverbs 11:21, NIV 1984).
My Musings – If there is no justice, if there is no judgment, if there is no punishment for wickedness, then what is the point of being righteous? For that matter, who is to say what behavior is righteous?
There is a God in Heaven. The Creator of all that is good. He is the One who determines what is righteous. And His Word says, “there is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10, NIV 1984). Therefore, there is no one who “will not go unpunished.”
There is no question about that. The real question is, who will bear the punishment? This is a multiple-choice question, with only two choices. But unlike most multiple-choice questions with only two choices, where one choice is right and the other is wrong, whichever answer we choose is correct. Either Jesus bears it on our behalf, or we bear it ourselves.
My Advice – Choose wisely. For, one of the right answers is terribly wrong.
For those who choose Jesus, they are “justified by his blood…saved from God’s wrath [punishment] through him!” (Romans 5:9, NIV 1984).
For those who do not choose Jesus, “there is a judge for the one who rejects me [Jesus] and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:48, NIV 1984). “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9, NIV 1984).
The Brew Is A Musing 