Today’s reading: 2 Kings 22: John 21
Ignorance does not excuse us from the judgement of God…
In 2 Kings 22, king Josiah sends men to the temple to gather money for the workmen to make repairs on the temple. While they are gathering the money in the temple they find the Book of the Law and bring it to Josiah and read it to him. When Josiah hears the contents, learning what God called for His people to do and the curses He declared against Israel if they failed to follow Him, he tears his clothes because, if the content of the book is true, then great wrath is going to come upon Israel.
When Josiah sends men to a prophetess to ask God whether or not this is indeed legitimate, God doesn’t say, “Yes, it’s legitimate, but you guys had lost the book and didn’t know, so I wasn’t going to hold it against you. Maybe just try to do better now that you know.” No, God’s response is that the contents of the book are legitimate, and that He will bring all of the curses promised in the Book of the Law down on Israel for their infidelity toward Him. Now, God does also say that, because Josiah humbled himself when he learned the truth, God would bring him to his grave in peace and he would not see the curses coming upon Israel, but even in that He declares that Israel will face the curses because they have violated His commands, and all that even though they did not know His commands.
Now, Jesus Himself does tell us that the person who sins in ignorance will be punished more lightly than the person who knows what they are doing and chooses to sin nonetheless, but the fact of the matter is, ignorance does not excuse us from judgement.
And that brings me to the two implications of that that I wanted to call out today: (1) the importance of sharing the gospel, and (2) the importance of knowing the Word.
First and foremost, this reality should already be clear to any Bible-believing Christian. The entire message of the gospel is that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins, and as a result we need the death of Jesus to cover us if we hope to spend eternity with God despite our failings. The gospel is not that people who have heard of Jesus need the forgiveness we can only find in Him, but that all people, whether they have heard about Him or not, need Jesus if they want to know salvation. This is why, before He ascended into Heaven, Jesus commissioned His followers to take the message of the gospel out to all the world. Ignorance will not save anyone from the wrath to come, and there is coming wrath, so we need to be bold in carrying forth the message of salvation in Christ alone so that those who are willing to respond have the opportunity to do so.
The other side of this though is that we, ourselves, need to know God’s Word. While it is true that, in Christ, we will not face God’s wrath for our sins, our ignorance can still cost us greatly as Christians. God promises to reward us for our faithfulness in this life, and those are rewards which will last unto eternity. The more faithfully we live for Him, the more He will reward us for it. But how can we live faithfully for Him if we don’t know what He is calling us to? The more we know the Bible, God’s revealed word, the more we know God, and the more we can live a life pleasing to Him, earning for ourselves eternal rewards which neither moth nor rust destroys and which thieves cannot break in and steal. Salvation is the start of the Christian life, but God has so much more that He desires to give us, and if we want to know the fullness of what it is He has for us, that starts with us actively pursuing a deeper knowledge of His word.
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