Romans 2:16b

This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

(v16, NIV)

Apparently, this judging of men's secrets will be through Jesus Christ. In addition, it is as Paul's gospel declares. When I think about the gospel, I feel the need to begin with how sinful we are. The problem is that we do not think we're "bad" people. This is especially noticeable in North America (or at least I think so). This matches with the train of thought in Romans as well. These first three chapters are all about our sinfulness and God's righteous wrath upon us. According to the gospel, we are unworthy and all deserve death. On that day, those who have continued to resist God and continued in unrepentant will be shown their fault. They will also be shown that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts. They knew it, whether they chose to suppress the truth about God or not. Having known this, they are without excuse on the Day of Judgment.

With regards to the judgment, we also know the good news. We know that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. If you are judged, I guess you're really only judged in two ways: Jesus either stands in your defense or he did in fact not know you. On that day when you stand before the judge, your secrets will be revealed. You may have been able to fool everyone around you, but you can't fool God. Your secrets will be revealed and your sinfulness will be shown. You can't hide from God and you can't pretend to be sinless before God. We have all sinned and we all fall short of his glory.