This statement, “There is an exception to every rule” is not found in the Bible. However, it is seemingly a statement of truth. Exceptions for rules is a practice for which we have become accustom in our society. People expect exception to rules to be made on their behalf. Many rules have built in exceptions. For instance prices for many goods and services certainly are not graven in stone. Discounts are given to people at most places who meet certain criteria. The speed limit on most interstates is 70 miles per hour except for most people driving on them. That is only the speed limit for the few people who are pulled over for speeding. On judgment day many will want God to make exceptions to His law.
In Matthew these words of our Lord are recorded: “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doeth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:9). Here we see clearly that an exception to the rule that any person who gets a divorce and marries again commits adultery is given. AS long as the person who does the putting away does so for fornication he is free to remarry, but no exception was given for the person who was put away. Since all have sinned we are all going to perish (Romans 3:23; 6:23) except we repent (Luke 13:3, 5). Except we are born again we cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). We cannot bear fruit except we abide in the Lord (John 15:4).
Will there be exceptions made on the judgment day? Some will say that since God will judge us and since He is the One Who gave us the rules by which we will be judged it is in His power to make exceptions to those rules even on the judgment day. It is true that God is all powerful and therefore is able to do whatsoever He so desires, but can He change His mind concerning His eternal will that He has revealed to us? Could God on the Day of judgment just change His mind concerning His “eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11)? Will God make an exception to save people who are not in Christ even though salvation is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:10)? Will God make an exception to allow a person to enter into heaven who attempted in his life on earth to come to the Father by some other means other than by Jesus (John 14:1-6)? Did Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me except for those that God may allow to enter into heaven who did not come by me”?
For God to make an exception on the Day of Judgment for any person who is not a Christian to be allowed to enter into heaven He will have to overrule the judgment of His Son. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). When the Lord returns He will be “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). For God to make an exception in overruling the Lord’s judgment on that day of judgment He would cause the words of His Son to become powerless even though Jesus said: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). God cannot make an exception in overruling the word of our Lord that will judge us when we stand before Him. To hold one by the judgment of the word is to hold everyone by it, and to loose one from it is to loose everyone from it for God is no respecter of person (Acts 10:34).
Love, Keith
