Every Word — And Christ: First thing that met my eyes this morning was a short ten-minute devotional from some Sovereign Grace Fellowship. There were some good things said, and then, almost in passing, came this line: “One of these days, we’re gonna be held accountable for every word that we say, especially those things that we say against the clearly revealed Word of God.” That sounded strangely familiar, because our Lord said something very much like it: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Matthew 12:36-37. And there is no escaping the force of those words. But as I sat there listening, another thought immediately followed. If the meaning is that those who belong to Christ must one day stand before God with every careless, foolish, angry, proud, ignorant, and unbelieving word brought forth as the basis upon which our standing with Him is finally determined, then the conclusion seems rather obvious: we are doomed.
But perhaps that is precisely where we need to distinguish between accountability and condemnation. Scripture does not teach that the believer is beyond the judgment of Christ, nor that our words and actions somehow cease to matter. They do matter. Christ said they matter. But the same Scriptures which tell us that we shall give account also declare that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Those truths cannot be enemies. The redeemed are accountable to Christ, but they are not returned beneath that law which condemns, as though the work of Christ had only carried them so far and the final verdict must still be settled by the record of their lives.
And that changes the whole direction of the thought. The Gospel is not that when every idle word is brought into view we will discover that our record was better than we feared. If anything, the opposite must be true. Every careless word, every foolish thought, every moment of pride, every judgment of another while blindness remained in ourselves — bring it all forward, and every possibility of confidence in us disappears. There will be no polished Christian record to present before God, no righteousness accumulated through years of improved conduct, no final appeal to what grace managed to produce in us. There will be Christ.
Perhaps that is why such words should not drive the believer into terror, but into an even clearer sight of the necessity and sufficiency of Christ. “Every idle word” does not make Christ less sufficient; it reveals just how desperately sufficient He must be. If my standing before God finally rests upon what can be discovered in me, I am lost. But if Christ is my righteousness, if He has borne my condemnation, if I am accepted in Him, then even the searching judgment of God cannot uncover something for which Christ failed to answer. Our words matter. Our sins matter. The judgment of Christ matters. But none of them can undo what Christ accomplished. When every refuge in ourselves is stripped away, Christ remains exactly what He has always been — our righteousness, our plea, and our only hope before God. MPJ