And the books were opened…

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens 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 they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15 NIV)

There are many views of what the Book of Revelation is about – and it isn’t my purpose in this article to detail those views. The end of Revelation 20 shows us a scene of judgment. Whether or not this is the judgment at the end of time I’m not going to argue – but if it isn’t, the scene it records is very similar.

Notice that all the dead, no matter who they were, appeared before this throne of judgment. This is parallel to other scenes we have recorded in Scripture. Paul wrote something similar to the Christians in Corinth: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

John wrote that in this scene there were books present that were opened. The Greek word for ‘book’ is biblia, which can refer to both scrolls and books. It was in the first century that the book (or codex), as we know it, began to be used, with bound pages rather than a rolled sheet. So what John saw could have been scrolls or it could have been bound volumes that we would call books.

There were two types of books that were opened. The first type was a record of the lives of those awaiting judgment. The basis for the judgment, the sentencing if you will, was based on what each person had done. How often do people think that they have gotten away with something because no one saw them? Yet God sees all that we do – and he has made a record of it. Without the forgiveness of Jesus those sins will be held against us.

But there is another book, a more important book. This is the “Book of Life”. This book contains the names of those who are in Christ, who have had their sins forgiven and are living faithful, obedient lives before God. This is the book everyone should want to have their name in! If our name is not in this book, our sentence will be eternal death – as John recorded it, “the lake of fire”. That does not sound like something anyone would want to face!

What is the lesson for us? We are on trial now as we live our lives. What we do will either be held against us or be in our favour. We will “receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad”. This tells us that how we live our lives is eternally important, because we will be judged according to what we have done.

This is why obeying Jesus, being united with him in water to have our sins forgiven, and living a new life for him is so important. It will not only change our lives now and make them better, but it will change our future for eternity. May we strive each day to live for him!

Image created by Apple’s ImagePlayground by Jon Galloway.

Readings for next week: Revelation 12-22