Divine Impartiality
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.
1 Peter 1:17
“Justice is blind,” we are told. Lady Justice even wears a blindfold, with the scales in her hand. Do you know why? It is not because she will never take them off to see the results on the scales. Rather it is so that she can shield her sinful heart from her personal favorites. The law of God constantly admonishes judges to judge according to equity, and forbids the taking of a bribe. But judges in courtrooms are not the only ones called upon to make judgments about people’s actions. Parents, teachers, and employers must do the same. This is an important element to think about because, even though Peter is talking here about the one Judge that matters in the end, there are two positions from which to view His impartial acts.
Doctrine. The impartiality of God is a terror to sinful rebels, but a blessing to those who fear God as sons and daughters.
(i.) The essence of divine impartiality
(ii.) The function of divine impartiality
(iii.) The blessing of divine impartiality
(iv.) Our response to divine impartiality
The Essence of Divine Impartiality
Peter speaks of the ‘Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds’ (v. 17b). In Romans 2, Paul speaks about God in this same way. He recognizes that the Jews under the Old Covenant had certain privileges, but for that very reason would be judged by a stricter standard. It is in that context that he says, “For God shows no partiality” (Rom. 2:10). The whole point is that no one will pull the wool over God’s eyes. No special pleading can distract Him with some alleged exception to His rules. “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13). What is partiality, after all? Let’s get at a definition by shaving off some rough edges of things that it isn’t, but which people sometimes think it is. To be partial, or have favorites, in and of itself, is not sinful. God Himself has favorites. We are told of John being the disciple whom Jesus loved (Jn. 21); and we know of the choice of Jacob over Esau. God has a preference. That can’t be the sin of partiality. To be sinfully partial is to have favorites obstruct justice. Where preference and justice are at odds, there is sin. But the divine preference and the divine justice are never at odds.
Impartiality is a much misunderstood concept on the human level. And I know this from experience, as these have been the sources of church conflict over how to judge between the cases of real people. But let’s get this straight: Impartiality is not the mere posture of fairness, but the pursuit of facts. Impartiality is not indifference to evidence. Impartiality is not restoring peace over a blame-game, as blame is not a game. Impartiality is not the refusal to “take a side,” as the side of facts accumulates on the scales of justice. Impartiality does not confuse the truth that all are sinners with the erroneous conclusion that each has sinned each sin. I have had to counsel would-be counselors quite a few times who made each of these mistakes, and “not taking a side,” they took themselves to be the epitome of impartiality. But it actually made them a useless judge, and sometimes even cruel where real abuse was involved. God doesn’t have any of these confusions.
Instead, an impartial judge is one who pursues the truth of the matter, and gives to each one his or her due. God will judge this way with perfection in the end.
he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity (Ps. 98:9).
Equity is not simply an equal state of the scales; it is an end goal. It is active. It does justice; it rights wrongs, and even remedies injuries. All of this is the essence of impartiality in God.
The Function of Divine Impartiality
Notice that this impartial judgment is ‘according to each one’s deeds’ (v. 17b). Many people have noticed, and fallen off into one ditch of despair or to the opposite ditch of pride. The gospel road takes us through and beyond these two ditches. But how so? Simply put, the idea of reward is not logically coextensive with right legal standing. This is one of the most misunderstood concepts in all of Christian theology: in all of our reading of the Bible. When a runner trains for a gold medal, only in a very wicked kingdom would he be threatened with death if he failed to obtain it. He may settle for silver. Peter’s qualifying heading—‘if you call on the Father’ (v. 17)—is a signal that he is now discussing only the believer, so that all that is in view is the reward of running the race of this exile. Yes, divine impartiality is relevant to the more general question of the sheep and the goats, but here it is directed only to that flock who can call Him “Father.” So these deeds are done in His house, and so this function of divine impartiality is to treat His sheep with perfect fairness as to those deeds, as to rewards to that life of toil and striving for Christ.
Other passages in Scripture teach of a kind of a judgment according to deeds or works—sometimes intermingled with the subject of the more general judgment, sometimes aimed more clearly at our rewards. Here are a few most famous:
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done (Mat. 16:27)
He will render to each one according to his works … For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified (Rom. 2:6, 13)
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10).
And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works (Rev. 2:23).
Context must be sought for whether divine impartiality is operating on sheep versus goats as to ultimate justification before God, or whether the divine judgment of rewards for those works in the house of God are in view.
Now, there have always been those who glory in the flesh and hire their own theologians to justify their self-justification. Wherever they can smuggle human merit back into salvation, they will not miss the opportunity. But Calvin looks at this verse and closes that hole:
By saying, According to every man’s work, he does not refer to merit or to reward; for Peter does not speak here of the merits of works, nor of the cause of salvation, but he only reminds us, that there will be no looking to the person before the tribunal of God, but that what will be regarded will be the real sincerity of the heart.1
Theologians like N. T. Wright see the traditional Reformed interpretation of “judgment of works” passages to involve Paul in “an elaborate charade,” that is, lip service paid to our works [in the case of Romans 2] taken back one chapter later by Paul telling us that there is none who does good.2 But if the Reformed interpretation is correct, there is nothing to take back. This divinely impartial view toward our works is not functioning the same way as the ground of justification that Paul highlights throughout that letter. Context decides function.
But in any case of judgment, when God has a deed in view, He has the capacities of the person in view. If He did not, He would not be impartial. For example, God holds some to stricter standards—such as teachers in His church (James 3:1) or magistrates who wield the sword (Rom. 13:4; cf. Ps. 82). God also calls “more” that which is less in total output, but more of what a person has—as in the widow’s offering of two copper coins:
[Jesus] said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:3-4).
Now what do each of these examples have in common? In each case, God measures the deed by the capacities of the person to bring the deed about. He knows the whole answer to questions like these: Was their motive to obey? Was it even to please God? Were they in the position to do more? What knowledge did they have of what they were to do? What knowledge did they neglect, which was ready at hand? All such and more are wholly in view to a Judge who is perfectly wise and perfectly just.
The Blessing of Divine Impartiality
There are two points of application that Peter embeds into the verse itself. ‘And if you call on him as Father’ (v. 17a). That’s clue number one that these are deeds and rewards “in the house.” Clue number one is action item number one—CALL ON HIM AS FATHER, by trusting in Christ alone for everything good that you could have with God. Jesus is that right to call Him Father: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12).
Objection: “But how can this be a blessing to us in this life when Peter motivates us here by fear? See how the conduct he calls for is with fear, and that throughout the whole time of our exiles here—that is, our whole lives!”
Reply: The fear of God is meant in two ways in Scripture, and so we distinguish between a slavish fear and a filial fear.3 The first is that of dread, the second of awe. Of the slavish kind of fear, we read that, “The wicked flee when no one pursues” (Prov. 28:1); or else the prophecy of old Israel being cut off in Babylon:
the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life (Deut. 28:65-66).
As to the filial kind of fear, it is not for nothing that the Lord loved a particular people, Israel, and brought them out to the wilderness—only to what? He says,
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul (Deut. 10:12)
So know the difference: The first belongs to guilt and shame, the second to wonder and reverence. Both may tremble at the manifestation of God’s presence; but whereas the convict knows that he has been caught and hates God all the more for it; the adopted child is learning how unsafe everything else is and clings more to God as Father. Peter is telling us to fear as one who fears a perfectly good Father.
Practical Use of the Doctrine
This is our response to divine impartiality, and it is woven into the passage in an explicit manner. Here is the clearer action item: ‘conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile’ (v. 17c). So, if we now know that there is this familial kind of fear reserved for those who can rightly call God our “Father,” then how do we conduct ourselves in it?
Use 1. Correction. First, we we must rid ourselves of all flippancy and irreverence that has characterized so much of contemporary Evangelical life and worship. We know on paper that there are Ten Commandments, but we are often shy about the first four—or, as theologians will often call them: the First Table of the Law. These forbid any other god, any graven image, any misuse of God’s name, or any neglect of His day among seven for holy rest and public worship. What do I mean by saying that we are “shy” about these by comparison to the others? I mean that we often treat offenses against man as more serious that offenses against God. This is a sure sign that we do not fear God as we ought. It is time to reclaim these in our lives, to teach them diligently to our children, and to lead by example.
Use 2. Admonition. Second, we conduct ourselves in this fear by heeding its warning in what we think is the least thing. We must no longer tolerate forms of art or everyday expressions that degrade the name of God, the things of God, or which take these lightly even by the excuse that, “I didn’t mean anything by it.” What a clueless confession of guilt! You didn’t mean anything by OMG? That’s exactly the problem! By the name “God” you meant—nothing? By the word that means the most special thing, the name above all names, you meant the least thing, the cheapest, the least amount of thought put into it? Then be sure that you had the least amount of fear about it, and also the least amount of love. This includes any satire, which is always risky business. That includes the least line in a song, as a person who is reckless at one turn of phrase is not a trustworthy guide in the rest of his lyrics. This passage is a spiritual sobriety check. Will we conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord? Or, will we make exceptions on our exile? Is there any area of your life where you have a “god” of the lowest common denominator? Any space or any activity where you have said on behalf of God that this is “no big deal”?
Use 3. Consolation. Finally, the Bible teaches us in many ways that the person who fears God above all has no need to fear anything in this world.
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Ps. 118:6)
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Mat. 10:28)
Our familial fear of God is cleansing to our soul because it begins to purify and simplify all of the anxieties that would clutter our hearts and distract our minds from the prize that awaits. All who hear these words of Peter in hope are those who can call on God as “Father.” Here we are not addressing Him as “Your Honor,” though His justice is infinitely honorable—but because of His mercy, we are addressed here as those who can expect the most sympathetic hearing.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:13-14).
___________________________________________
1. Calvin, Commentaries, XXII.2.49.
2. N. T. Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 183.
3. Wilhelmus à Brakel says of this: “Filial fear is a holy inclination of the heart, generated by God in the hearts of His children, whereby they, out of reverence for God, take careful pains not to displease God, and earnestly endeavor to please Him in all things.” The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Volume 3: The Law, the Christian Graces, and the Lord’s Prayer (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 1994), 293.
