Chapter 38: He Is the Judge

Since this book is not chiefly about the book of Revelation or about the last judgment, we will look only briefly at the judgment that will be carried out by the Lord of lords and King of kings, Jesus Christ—beginning with the judgment of Satan the devil, and then the judgment of all those who did not reign with Christ, before the great white throne. And let us remember: the Father “hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). The One who will judge is the very One who came to save.

The Judgment of Satan

The first judgment carried out is that of Satan. His condemnation has, in a sense, been unfolding across the whole of history:

• Originally he was created perfect and sinless, until iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:11–19; Isaiah 14:12–21).

• He was judged at the first, and cast down from his exalted place (Ezekiel 28:11–19; Isaiah 14:12–21).

• In the garden of Eden he was judged again, when God foretold that the seed of the woman would crush his head (Genesis 3:15).

• At the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he was judged again—his power broken, his weapons stripped away, he himself rendered powerless (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14).

• And now he awaits his final and everlasting judgment—the lake of fire.

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Revelation 20:10).

The great deceiver, who promised himself the throne of God, receives at last the pit—forever. Every one of his lies is answered; every one of his works is undone.

The Great White Throne

Then comes the most solemn scene in all of Scripture—the final judgment of the dead before the great white throne:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away… And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15).

This is the judgment seat of God, and it is white—white with the blazing purity and holiness of the One who sits upon it, so radiant that heaven and earth themselves flee from His face. Here every unbeliever of every age, “small and great,” will stand. Money, power, clever words, and human excuses will avail nothing; the books are opened, and everything is recorded there. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13).

Judged By Works—or Saved By Grace

Here we must be very clear, for eternity hangs upon it. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour will not be judged at this throne of condemnation; rather, they will judge alongside Christ, for they already possess eternal life, and “there is therefore now no condemnation” to them:

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36).

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Do you see the two roads? The believer has already “passed from death unto life” (John 5:24) and will never come into this condemning judgment. But the rest of the dead will be raised to be judged—and now there is no more grace, only works. Each will be judged according to what he has done. And here is the searching question: whose good works could ever outweigh his sins—in thought, in word, and in deed? Who could stand before the perfect holiness of God on the strength of his own record?³⁷⁰

How much better, then, to accept Jesus now, while it is still the day of grace, than to wait for that judgment! Receiving Christ now, you are guaranteed salvation and eternal life; waiting to be judged by your works, you have no assurance at all of standing. Blessed are those who believe, receive, and follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, for they have already passed from death to life; there is no more condemnation for them, and they will reign and rule and judge together with Him.

The Book of Life

Revelation 20 tells us that when the books were opened, another book was also opened—the Book of Life. There are, then, the books that record each person’s works, by which the lost are judged; and there is the Book of Life, in which are written the names of the redeemed. And the Lamb’s Book of Life is no late invention: Revelation tells us the Lamb was “slain from the foundation of the world,” and names were written in that book “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8; 17:8).

Nowhere does Scripture speak of names being newly written into the Book of Life after creation; but it does speak, soberly, of names being blotted out of it:

• “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:33).

• “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous” (Psalm 69:28).

• “He that overcometh… I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father” (Revelation 3:5).

• “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).

There is deep comfort and deep warning together here. To the overcomer, Christ gives a precious promise: “I will not blot out his name.” Yet the very form of the promise implies the solemn possibility of a name being removed. If a person, to the day of death, rejects Jesus Christ and lives in unrepentant sin, that name is blotted out. Notice how this guards the righteousness of God: He is not arbitrarily choosing some and rejecting others. His book records every detail of our lives—“in thy book all my members were written” (Psalm 139:16)—down to the very tears of His people: “put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8). God is a righteous Judge; no one is erased by divine caprice, but each person, by the daily choices of a lifetime, either clings to Christ or turns away.³⁷²

Death, Hades, and the Lake of Fire

When Lucifer rebelled and became Satan, death entered the created order, and hell—the lake of fire—was prepared. But mark this carefully: the lake of fire was not prepared for man. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. Jesus said so plainly:

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).

God never intended that any human being should go there. But when man sinned and joined the rebellion, those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life follow the devil and his angels into the fire that was never meant for them. This is the heart of the tragedy of hell: it is a destiny chosen, not imposed—a refusal of the God who “is not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9).

Scripture calls the lake of fire the second death, for even death and hades themselves will be thrown into it, and there will be no more death thereafter:

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14–15).

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). The lake of fire is named in Scripture only in Revelation (19:20; 20:10, 14–15); into it are cast the beast and the false prophet, the devil and his angels, death and hades, and all whose names are not written in the Book of Life. The first death is the death of the body; the second death is spiritual and eternal separation from God. It is called the second death because in it the soul is finally and forever lost—as Jesus warned:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

These are sobering words, and we do not soften them—but neither do we end on them. For the whole point of this solemn chapter is to send us running, today, into the arms of the Saviour who came precisely so that we would never have to face that judgment. The Judge is also the Lamb; and the same nail-pierced hand that will one day close the book offers itself, now, in mercy, to all who will come.