Day 258

Today's Reading: Revelation 20

A young man was drinking heavily and decided to go for a swim at a California beach. Fortunately, an older man was watching the young man as he entered the water and saw that when he dove in, he did not come back up for air. The older man ran toward the struggling young man, dove into the water, and saved his life.

A few years later, that same young man was standing in court facing a sentence on drug charges. Suddenly, the young man realized the judge was the very same man who’d saved his life when he was drowning years earlier. He looked at the judge and said, “Sir, don’t you recognize me? You saved my life a few years ago. Don’t you remember?” The judge nodded and then looked at the young man. “Young man,” he said. “Then I was your savior, but now I am your judge.”

While we are alive, Christ is available to all who will trust Him now as their Savior. But if we reject Him in this life, we will stand before the Lord and know Him only as our Judge. Savior or Judge—that decision is ours. What will we do with Jesus while we are alive?

If we do not choose Jesus as Savior, Revelation 20 speaks about the setting and the court we will be in called the great white throne judgment—in this final scene in human history where all will be judged.

This is what John the apostle saw:

I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)

The way we live here will have eternal, unchangeable, and profound consequences. Who we are today—and who we are becoming today—is preparing us for who we will be for all eternity. And only in this life can we impact our eternity.

There are two judgments in heaven: the great white throne and the judgment seat of Christ. The latter is for the saints of God who receive a reward for their Christian life. The great white throne judgment is when it’s all said and done. It’s over for a person if they appear at this heavenly hearing.

A misconception is that while we are at the throne of God, that will determine whether we go to heaven or hell. Whether we go to heaven or hell is not determined in heaven, it is determined in this life right now. There is no opportunity to reroute our travel plans after we have died. One second after we die, our eternal destination is unalterably fixed. If Christ has not bore our punishment in this life, we must bear our own in the next. As Matthew Henry tells us, “It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.”

Your attendance is mandatory at one of two judgments: the judgment seat of Christ or the great white throne judgment. This is an appointment humanity will keep. Which one you will be at will be determined by whether you are born again or not. If you are not born again, you will be at this Revelation 20 great white throne judgment.

Here are the characteristics of this Revelation 20 judgment:

We will be judged fairly: no jury bias, no venue change because none is needed.

We will be judged thoroughly: no loopholes and nothing missed on the evidence.

We will be judged impartially: all proceedings will be fair, and no one can buy off the Judge.

We will be judged individually: no one will stand with us as we stand before the Judge of all the earth.

What makes this day incredible is that the Savior of the world will become the Judge of the world. Jesus tells us that God will not judge us on that day, but the Son will: “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). The day the Savior turns to judge.

When I think of John’s description of this frightening day, my mind goes all the way back to the book of Genesis and a conversation Abraham had with the angel of the Lord. It was right before the judgment and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham made an eternal statement in question form: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The resounding answer to Abraham’s question is yes!

During one of Billy Graham’s final interviews, Diane Sawyer asked, “What do you hope [people] will say?” In other words, she wanted to know how he would like to be remembered” He responded, “I don’t want them to say big things about me because I don’t deserve them. I want to hear one Person say something nice about me, and that’s the Lord. When I face Him, I want Him to say to me, ‘Well done, thy good and faithful servant,’ but I’m not sure I’m going to hear it.” The humility of Billy Graham is staggering. I think he did hear those words a few years ago when he passed away.

C. S. Lewis said this about that day: “Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments.”

The Day The Savior Turns To Judge