16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. (Romans 2:16 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
As if Apostle Paul had said, If any shall ask, when shall rewards and punishments be distributed to Jew or Gentile? The answer is, In that day when God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel: That is, as my gospel testifies, he will most certainly do.
Here observe, 1. A fundamental doctrine asserted: That there will be a day of judgment, in which the secrets of all men’s hearts shall be judged by Jesus Christ as Mediator. All the thoughts, words, and works of men that lived from the beginning of the world, or shall live to the end of the world, will then be produced in judgment; and if so, may we not infer, that the day of judgment must certainly and necessarily take up a vast space of time? For if all records and registers now made shall then be opened and read, and all the witnesses for and against man, shall be then examined and heard, what a vast space of time then must that great day take up! Some theologians are of the opinion that the day of judgment may last as long as the world has lasted: This we may depend upon, that things will not be huddled up, nor shuffled over in haste; but as sinners have taken their time for sinning, so God will take his time for judging.
Observe, 2. The proof and confirmation of this doctrine of a future judgment. According to my gospel; that is, as certainly as I have foretold you of it in the doctrine which I have preached, so certainly shall all men, and the secrets of all men’s hearts, be judged by Jesus Christ.
But was it not a presumption in St. Paul to call the gospel his gospel?
Answer, He means that he was the publisher, not the author of it; it was God’s with respect to authority, St. Paul’s with respect to ministry: It was God’s in respect of revelation; his only in respect of dispensation.