Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_527.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-24 | 6KB | 107 lines

\*Ver. 5. \\Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment\\, &c.] Neither in temporal judgment, when
God comes forth in a way of wrath and sore displeasure;
for who can stand before him when he is angry?
what are chaff and stubble, thorns and briers, to consuming
fire? nor in the last and great day of judgment,
so the Targum and Kimchi interpret the words;
for that day will burn like an oven the wicked, who
will be as stubble, and leave neither root nor branch, \\#Mal 4:1\\:
when the great day of the Lamb's wrath is come, who
will be able to stand? \\#Ro 6:16,17\\; there will be no standing
for the wicked when he appears; they will all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ, to take their trial
and hear their sentence, \\#2Co 5:10\\; but they shall not stand in
the same place with the righteous, not at Christ's right
hand, but at his left; they shall not stand with an holy
confidence, with intrepidity, and without shame, as
the blessed man will; they will not stand, but fall in
judgment; they will not be acquitted and discharged,
but be condemned to everlasting punishment, \\#Mt 25:26\\; and
this sense the Targum on the place expresses, %the
ungodly shall not be justified in the great day%; the
Vulgate Latin and Septuagint versions render the
words, %the ungodly shall not rise again in judgment%;
from whence some have concluded there will be no
resurrection of the wicked: which seems, to be the
sense of Kimchi and other Jewish writers; who assert
that the souls of the wicked perish with their bodies at
death, and that the latter rise not, contrary to \\#Ec
12:7 Da 12:2\\; but that the wicked will, rise may
be concluded from the justice of God, which requires
that the bodies which have sinned should be punished;
and from the general judgment of good and bad, and
from the account of the punishment of hell, which will
be inflicted on the body as well as on the soul: besides,
the contrary doctrine is a licentious one, and is
calculated to harden wicked men in their sins, and is
directly repugnant to the assertions of Christ, and the
Apostle Paul, \\#Joh 5:28,29 Ac 24:16\\; nor has it
any foundation in this text, even admitting such a
version; which does not absolutely affirm that the
wicked shall not rise again, but that they shall not rise
again in, judgment, in the first resurrection, the resurrection
of the just, and so as to be acquitted and discharged,
but they shall rise to the resurrection of damnation;
\*\\nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous\\;
who are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ
imputed to them, and have a work of grace and holiness
wrought in them; and who, under the influence
of grace, live soberly, righteously, and godly; these
are the same with the blessed man, \\#Ps 1:1\\; and who at
the day of judgment will be perfectly holy, and free
from all sin; and they will be all gathered together by
the holy angels; the dead saints will be raised, the
living ones will be changed, and both will be caught
up together to meet the Lord in the air, and will make
up one general assembly and church of the firstborn;
and among these, and in this assembly, there will not
be a single sinner; there are now sinners in Zion,
foolish virgins with the wise, chaff and tares among
Christ's wheat, and wolves and goats among his sheep;
but then there will be an eternal separation, and no
mixing together any more.

\*Ver. 6. \\For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous\\,
&c.] The way in which he walks by faith, which is
in Jesus Christ; the way in Which he goes to the
Father, and carries to him his sacrifices of prayer and
praise, which meet with acceptance through him; the
way in which he seeks for and expects justification,
pardon, and salvation, namely, through the blood,
righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ: and also it may
denote his course, his walk and conversation; for the
righteous man is a follower of God, he takes up the
cross and copies after Christ: he walks not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit, according to the rule of the
word, and as becomes the Gospel of Christ: and this
way of his in every sense the Lord %knows%; not merely
as he is omniscient, for  by his omniscience his eyes
are upon the ways of all men; he knows the way
of the wicked as well as the way of the righteous;
but the sense is, that the Lord approves of and is
well pleased with his way of faith and holiness; he
knows his person, so as to love him and take delight
and pleasure in him; his countenance beholds
him with a smile; he is well pleased with him in
Christ and for his sake, on whose account he has
respect to him and to his offerings, to his service and
duty, to his ways and works; and hence he is a blessed
man, is in a happy situation, and all he does prospers,
for he and his ways please the Lord: and hence also
it is that neither he nor his way shall perish; the
way he is in leads to everlasting life, and he being a
follower of the Lord in a way pleasing to him, he shall
never perish, but have eternal life;
\*\\but the way of
the ungodly shall perish\\; for his way is a wicked way,
the way of sinners, \\#Ps 1:1\\; it leads to destruction and
death, and all that walk in it shall perish; for if is a
way the Lord knows not, does not approve of, he abhors
it; wherefore the man that continues in it will be
unhappy, wretched, and miserable to all eternity.
These last words therefore show the reason of the happiness
of one sort of men, and the unhappiness of the
other; and prove and confirm the same: the Lord
knows, approves of, loves, and delights in the one; he
does not approve of and delight in the other.