4:13 There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
Depending on our position in God, this is either one of the most comforting or one of the most terrifying verses in all Scripture.
If we are in Christ, having acknowledged that we are sinners who can do nothing to save ourselves, and having repented of our sins and received His grace by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then it is comfort. We can know that our deepest longings are seen by the Lord, and that He has taken note of them. Every tear that we have ever shed has been seen by Him; every tottering step that we have taken in our walk with Him has been noted. People may look at us and see only our failings and shortcomings, but God looks at our heart.
As a dramatic illustration of this, I have just finished re-reading the life story of Kathryn Kuhlman. If ever there was a woman with severe personality problems and deep emotional issues, it was she. Many people, both during her lifetime and since her death, have condemned her because they could only see the glaring faults. Yet God looked on her heart, saw a woman of faith and passion for Him, and poured out His Spirit upon her in such measure that countless people were healed in her meetings without her so much as praying for them.
We could think also of the Old Testament story of the anointing of David (1 Samuel 16). King Saul, who had been elected by the people as the king of Israel, had proven to be unfaithful to God, and the Lord had rejected him as king and assigned Samuel to go and anoint the man that He, the Lord, had chosen to replace Saul. At the direction of the Lord, Samuel went to Bethlehem, to the home of a man called Jesse who had eight sons. In turn, the first seven sons were paraded before Samuel. Each one looked the part of a king, but in every case the Lord told Samuel that this was not the one. “Look not on his countenance, or on his height: because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Finally, when all seven had been rejected, Samuel looked around and asked if Jesse had any more sons. Well, yes, there was one more, but he was just a kid, out in the fields with the sheep. No-one could possibly consider him to be king material! Yet when they brought that kid, David, before Samuel, the Lord said, “This is the one! Anoint him.” Only God could see that David’s heart was fully after Him, whilst his brothers had other things on their minds.
For those outside of Christ, or for those who would try to give the appearance of being Christian yet whose hearts are not fully for the Lord, the story is very different. No matter how good the outward appearance may be, no matter how well they can fool some of the people some of the time, or even all of the people all of the time, they cannot fool God. With Him, there is no such thing as the “perfect crime”. He knows everything done in secret: every secret word, every secret intention, every secret thought, every secret feeling. People may think that they have been able to “get away with” their various sins on earth, but the day will come when they will stand before Him and their whole life will be opened, displayed as it were on an IMAX screen, with nothing to cover their shame.
Any sane person would surely want to be found in Christ, covered by His grace and with his or her sins hidden under the blood of Jesus.