The Day Of Judgment
Revelation 20:12-13
Immediately
after the resurrection, we must all be judged by God according to the record of
our works (Heb.
The Judge
The Judge before
whom we must stand is the God-man, whom we have crucified (John
The Basis of Judgment
We will be
judged out of the books, according to the record of God's strict justice. There
will be no favoritism, no partiality, but only justice in that day. When the
books are opened, what shocks of terror will seize the hearts and souls of
those who have no righteousness and no atonement before the holy Lord God! With
the opening of the books, every crime, every offense, every sin the lost soul
has committed, in mind, in heart, and in deed shall be exposed (Dan.
This is figurative language. The omniscient God does not need books to remember man's sins. However, as John Gill wrote, "this judgment out of the books, and according to works, is designed to show with what accuracy and exactness, with what justice and equity, it will be executed, in allusion to statute-books in courts of judicature".
Another Book
Blessed be God, there are some against whom no crimes, no sins, no offenses can be found, not even by the omniscient eye of God himself (Jer. 50:20).
Their names are
found in another book, a book which God himself wrote and sealed before the
worlds were made. It is “the book of life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). In
this book there is a record of divine election, an election of grace made from
eternity (Eph. 1:3-6). The first name recorded in the book is that of Christ,
our Surety, the Lamb of God (Isa. 42:1-4). The record of the works of all whose
names are recorded in this book is righteousness, perfect, complete
righteousness (Jer. 23:6; 33:16; 1 Cor.
Don Fortner