Revelation Now :
Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation
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The Book of Life is opened : Day 76 
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 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 Great White Throne
Now comes the final judgment. God, the Judge, is on his great white throne which symbolizes his unapproachable purity. The regular picture of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is judge. Jesus said, "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son."(1) In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats it is the glorified Christ who is the judge (Matthew 25:31-46). In Paul's speech at Athens it is said that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by Jesus (Acts 17:31). In 2 Timothy 4:1 Jesus is the one who is about to judge the living and the dead.
The unity of the Father and the Son is such that there is no difficulty in ascribing the action of the one to the other. That is in fact what Paul does. In Romans 14:10 he writes: "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God." But in 2 Corinthians 5:10 he writes: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ."
God is Judge
It may be that the real reason why God is the judge in John's Revelation is that the whole background of the book is Jewish. To a Jew, even when he became a Christian, God stood unique; and it would seem natural to him that God should be judge.
Earth and Sky Pass Away
As John tells the story, the judgment begins with the passing away of this present world; earth and sky flee from his presence. Earth and sky fled. John is thinking in pictures which are very familiar in the Old Testament. God laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of his hands. None the less it is still true that "they will perish . . . they will all wear out like a garment, you change them like a garment, and they pass away" (Psalm 102:25-27). "The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment" (Isaiah 51:6). "Heaven and earth will pass away" (Mark 13:31). "The heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10). The new person in Christ must have a new world in Christ.
Book of Judgment
Now follows the judgment of mankind. It is the judgment of great and small. There is none so great as to escape the judgment of God, and none so unimportant as to fail to win his vindication. Two kinds of book are mentioned. The first contains the records of out deeds. This is a common idea in Scripture. "The court sat in judgment," says Daniel, "and the books were opened" (Daniel 7:10). A record of all our deeds is kept by God. The symbolism is that all through life we are writing our own destiny; it is not so much that God judges a person as that a person writes his own judgment.
At the judgment, the books are opened. They represent God's judgment, and in them are recorded the deeds of everyone, good or evil. We are not saved by deeds, but deeds are seen as clear evidence of a person's actual relationship with God. The book of life contains the names of those who have put their trust in Christ to save them.
Book of Life
The second book is the Book of Life. This, too, occurs often in Scripture. Moses is willing to be blotted out of the Book of Life if it will save the people (Exodus 32:32). It is the prayer of the Psalmist that the wicked will be blotted out of the Book of the Living and not written with the righteous (Psalm 69:28). Isaiah speaks of those who are written among the living (Isaiah 4:3). Paul speaks of his fellow-laborers whose names are in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3). It is the promise of the Risen Christ to the Church at Sardis that the name of him who overcomes will not be blotted out of the Book of Life (Revelation 3:5). Those whose names are not written in the Book of Life are given over to destruction (Revelation 13:8). The idea behind this is that every ruler had a roll-book of living citizens under his control; and, of course, when a man died, his name was removed from the roll. Those whose names are in the Book of Life are those who are living, active citizens of the kingdom of God.
At the time of judgment it is said that the sea will give up its dead. The point is twofold. First, in the ancient world burial was all important; if a man did not obtain burial, his spirit would wander, homeless, neither in earth nor in heaven. And, of course, those who died at sea could never be buried. John means that even such as these will appear before the judgment seat of God. Second, H. B. Swete puts the matter in a more general form. "The accidents of death," he says, "will not prevent any from appearing before the judge." No matter how a man dies, he will not escape his punishment nor lose his reward.
Only those who place their faith in Jesus Christ have their names recorded in the book of life. John's vision does not permit any gray areas in God's judgment. If we have not identified with Christ, confessing him as Lord, there is no hope, no second chance, no other appeal
The Lake of Fire
Finally, Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. As H. B. Swete puts it, these voracious monsters who have themselves devoured so many are in the end themselves destroyed. In the judgment those who are not in the Book of Life are condemned to the lake of fire with the Devil, their master, but for those whose names are in the Book of Life, death is for ever vanquished.
Words to meditate on
Is your name recorded in the Book of Life?
Words to pray
Your word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.
Thank you for the Bible, to show me the way, To live my life for your glory. Amen
Notes
(1) John 5:22 (2) Rev 2:20 (3) see http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2008/04/who-were-nicolaitans-and-balaamists-of.html (4) Proverbs 3.18 (5) Proverbs 13.12. (6) Altered to modern convention
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
