God is just. He punishes every sin exactly as it deserves. Not every sin is equally heinous, so not every judgement at the judgement day will be the same. God is just. And that is a wonderful truth.
There are lots of places in Scripture we could go to see this, but I've just found one I hadn't seen before, so I thought I'd share it.
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
That verse stands out in Luke 23. Luke 23 is full of people who are culpable for their part in the crucifixion of the incarnate son of God. Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, as does Herod, as do the chief priests. Judas is warned, but betrays anyway. In all the noise of condemnation and culpability, the soldiers stand out: They are not culpable, because they are obeying orders the exact nature of which is not known to them.
This does not mean that what they do is not wrong: Jesus asks for forgiveness.
This does not mean that they will be acquitted of all charges at the final judgement - forgiveness for this sin does not mean they will be forgiven for every sin (although they might, if they trusted the one they killed: Acts 2).
But it does mean that Jesus does not hold them responsible for this sin.
And so God is more than capable (although who are we to make a judgement like that) to decide who should be held culpable for what sin. None of which gives humanity hope outside of Christ, but it gives us complete assurance that every punishment at the last judgement will be utterly just: Nothing will go unpunished that should be punished; nothing will be punished that should not be; no punishment will be anything other than exactly fitting for the sin concerned.
Praise God for his perfect justice. Praise God that he is perfect justice.
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