Revelation 20:11-15

As a personal observation, I have noticed over the years that people used to think about a final day of reckoning before God than they do now. Part of that, doubtless, is a sense of continuity that comes from prosperity. Back on the farm, the phrase “judgment day” referred to a distant time when things would be done, as in, “Yeah, that’ll get done about judgment day.” As I read this text, it began to dawn on me that we’d better get busy fixing that section of barbed-wire fence that we always passed on the way to the beach, because that day is coming rapidly, at the speed of 60 seconds per minute, the speed of time.

The Apostle Paul said to the crowd in the Areopagus at Athens, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31) The text of this present study foretells that day in comprehensive detail, although I believe the Scriptures provide additional information. Paul’s point in this speech on Mars’ Hill was to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as he could, and this was the perfect place to do it.

It does not matter how long we have until judgment day in this sense: none will escape it. There will be a day when God says it is time to bring our creation, broken by our disobedience and sinning over about 6000 years by Biblical accounting, despite a 1,000-year sabbath rest of sorts after that, to an end. The Apostle Peter describes the day. After citing the example of the destruction of all men in the flood during Noah’s time, he further says, “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:7) Our study text this time is that very day. Peter continues a few verse later, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10) Like all of the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments, as well as the doom on Babylon and its destruction are foretold events, this event is also foretold by the Apostle John right here. No one will be able to avoid it, no matter what they do to try.

Right at the outset of this evening, I will tell you that even those whom Christ has redeemed will face Him in judgment. We like to tell everyone that the judgment of the believers will be about rewards and not condemnation, and that is true, but if you are living the life of the unrighteous, you have reason to fear. Paul said, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:10) I can hear the objections now, but I have to remind you that this is not my opinion. The Apostle Paul, our Apostle to the Gentiles, said this. Although our works do not save us, we will be judged by them. We are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. But He created us for good works, and he determined before we ever existed that we should walk in those deeds. Those good works are a result of that changed nature in our salvation, and participation in them is not optional. Peter agreed, and referring to this “end of the universe scenario” we are reading in our text for this study, he says, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!” (2 Peter 3:11-12)

Friends and brethren, I will remind you of the faithfulness Paul spoke of in the command of God, which He described in Acts 17 when he reiterated the requirement of all people everywhere to repent, that is change their mind, change their direction, away from their sin and toward the saviour, If you will turn away from your sin and make a commitment to stop doing those things that shame you, that Christ died the most painful form of execution imaginable to pay for, and will consider that payment enough to cover your sins, you only need one more thing. Follow Him. Confess Him as your Lord, and He will be your Saviour, and will remove from you the penalty, the power, and eventually, the presence of sin from you. He will save you. If you are already His, He will continue to save you! Beloved, repent and turn to Christ.

I have thought about this for a number of years now, and it is one of those passages that truly makes me shake in my boots at the raw display of the power and justice of a holy God being exercised as only He can.

I broke down the text into the following thought units.

KV11: Judgment Day

11: Then 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.

11: The End of the Universe

12-13: The Final Judgment of the Wicked

14-15: The Second Death

I have heard this passage called the day of uncreation, where all things are undone, but I think that’s for the drama of the title. Not everything will be uncreated. All the righteous that Jesus Christ redeemed are alive and with Him, possibly sitting on the thrones we saw earlier in verse 4 of the text (that is my opinion, anyway, and not mine alone). What will happen to those individuals is not the subject of this study, although a few may join from this point. I really do not know. Let’s get into the text.

KV11: Judgment Day

11: Then 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.

This is not a clever euphemism for the end of time, and everyone gets their harp and cloud for eternity. I hate that image because it is anything but that. I can understand people who do not understand coming up with that image of an afterlife, but when our God is so clearly much more than that, all that image does is show the vain lack of imagination of a sinner. I do not apologize for that comment or opinion.

This is first mentioned in Scripture by Isaiah in Isa. 2:12, which says, “For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased.” He goes on to explain in vv.17-19, “The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.” This sound familiar because John has used some of the same imagery in Revelation itself. Revelation 6:16-17 say, “and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” This connection with Isaiah should make it clear that this is not a new biblical concept. It may even occur earlier if you consider the flood in Noah’s days a type and shadow of these final events. Pattern of events is also a form of prophecy, it would seem.

The text this evening carries some important information about what I saw as events at that time, all dealing with some kind of destruction of a sort. The first of these is the destruction of the entire cosmos, the second is the destruction of everything wicked, and then, finally, we will see the destruction of the mechanisms and infrastructure of that old creation into what is properly and biblically called “The Second Death,” which is also described. With that, let’s get into the text.

11: The End of the Universe

I recall being introduced to this concept in my seventh-grade science class. Mr. Colfer (my homeroom, English, Science, and Phys-Ed teacher) called it the heat death of the universe. Back then, it didn’t quite mean what it means now, but the concept was about how it would all end. I thought about it at night after I was done with all my homework and tried to imagine everything in existence (including me) melting in intense heat. My teacher explained to us that it was a result of what he called the second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything ultimately moves towards its own maximum state of chaos, otherwise known as entropy. There is a bit more to it, but that’s the gist of it. Back then, the theory was that as the universe expanded, it cooled, and it reached its maximum entropy at absolute zero. I’ve always had a bit of amusement at that being called the HEAT-death of the universe, but hey, sometimes the comedy writes itself. As it turns out, we know EXACTLY how the universe will end, and it is right here in this verse. Let’s see what it says.

11: Then 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.

I can see an order of events between the last few verses. The massive army of the disobedient surrounds the camp of the saints; God kills them all at once with fire from heaven, and then the universe is destroyed. These events appear to precede the Great White Throne event.
The word “great” (a form of μέγα) distinguishes this throne from all the thrones seen earlier in verse 4. It is white, which is classic symbolism for purity and justice. Of course, it is a throne, derived from the Greek word θρόνον, as used in the text. The other primary characteristic that makes this throne different from all those other thrones is “Him who sat upon it.”
There is a bit of debate as to the identity of the One who sits on the throne. For example, Henry Alford posits that this is God the Father, although I have not read his reasoning for this belief. I admit it is possible, but I sense that something else is at play. Some say it is none other than God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. John does record for us the words of our Lord Jesus, when he said, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son…” (John 5:22). Personally, I think it is the unified presence of God, which is all three persons of the Godhead. In John 10:30, Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” I don’t understand how that works, but I can see it could be possible, because it is God. And since the Holy Spirit proceeds out of God, He is also there. We may not know exactly who it is, but we know one thing: the Earth and heavens fled away from His presence.
This is a clear poetic metaphor, describing the uncreation of the entire universe. It may symbolize that everything corrupt in the universe will be destroyed before the presence of Him who sits on the throne. It might literally suggest that the old Earth and heavens are destroyed. As I have been discovering, and as I have been telling you in these studies, there is often more than one level to what is going on in Scripture, and this is a place where this can be seen to be doing both and more.
What this tells us is something I tried to say in my order of events. The final destruction of the universe is said to have occurred before these events. The Greek verb tense is the aorist, and as you may recall, in English, we refer to it as the simple past tense. They “fled away” (ἔφυγεν). That happened before John’s description in the verse. No place was found for them. I think that means they ceased to exist, unlike what my grade seven teacher said. Rather than reaching absolute zero and freezing in place forever, in other words, attaining maximum chaos, it goes away into the nothing that our God spoke it out of in the first place. I wonder why they don’t teach that in science class. On second thought, I do not wonder that at all. My kids told me in their own words that they learned nothing in science class except that math was racist, but that isn’t my topic, so I’ll not talk about that.

Hopefully, this provides some context for what is happening in this text. I like what the Puritan Reformer Matthew Henry has to say: “This will be the great day: the Judge, the Lord Jesus Christ, will then put on majesty and terror. The persons to be judged are the dead, small and great; young and old, low and high, poor and rich. None are so mean, but they have some talents to account for; and none so great, as to avoid having to account for them.” And that is precisely what is about to happen in our text. Let’s move on to that.

12-13: The Final Judgment of the Wicked

What other purpose can there be for “Judgment Day” than to judge the universe in justice and holiness by our awesome God? Let’s get right into it, because the text is what reveals the point.

12: 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 I saw the dead. This brings a question to my mind. Where are the “living?” Christ is the judge of the living and the dead, as per the Apostle Paul to young Pastor Timothy: “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom…” (2 Tim. 4:1) [emphasis mine]
The truth is, Christ judged them 1000 years earlier. Verse 4 of our text says so. Perhaps we should read it, because we have referred to it several times, now. “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” The “living” are the redeemed from all time. Those who died during the millennial reign of Christ on Earth as believers were already translated into their new and eternal body to be like Christ. The verse tells us who they are, and it also implies who they are not. They are NOT the dead.
Jaimeson, Faucett, and Brown say, “The saints having been first pronounced just themselves by Christ out of ‘the book of life,’ shall sit as assessors of the Judge.” Also, “The living are not specially mentioned: as these all shall probably first (before the destruction of the ungodly, Re 20:9) be transfigured, and caught up with the saints long previously transfigured; and though present for the confirmation of their justification by the Judge, shall not then first have their eternal state assigned to them, but shall sit as assessors with the Judge.” I’m not making this up. John told us this about 1900 years ago. Right here.
The dead are now here to be judged. It isn’t like they could go anywhere else to hide, right? There is no more old universe, just this patch of existence before this big, glowing chair, and the terrifying being sitting upon it. Among the dead are the great and the small. All of the dead from the time of Cain to the Second Coming of Christ, and all of the disobedient unbelievers who died during and at the end of the millennium. As the saints have their resurrection bodies, so will these, the dead, because John saw them all —each with a body fit for their eternity. And here, in this place, the wicked will have their eternal portion assigned to them. And as befits a just God, there will be what we call “due process.”
We hear a lot about “due process” these days. In a free society, especially where one is presumed innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, there must be a process to demonstrate the facts and determine guilt or innocence. There will be such a process here. It says “books were opened.” What books are those? There are several books that can be used to present evidence and describe the character of the individual to the judge. First, there are the books of God’s remembrance, which include both the good and the evil. Psalm 56:8 says, “You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?” Psalm 139:4 demonstrates the omniscience of God and says, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.” Notably, Malachi 3:16 talks about a specific book of remembrance: “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name.” In v.17, God says, “They shall be mine,” speaking of those who fear the Lord. Second, there is our own conscience. Romans 2:15-16 says, “…in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” Want to guess what day Paul is speaking of? Hint: we’re here. There will be witness testimony, and that witness is Christ Himself! John 12:48 says, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” Again, he’s speaking of the day we are studying here. The Law itself will condemn the wicked, according to Paul. Galatians 3:10 says, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.’” Not only that, there is the omniscience of God Himself to tell us all the things we have done, both good and bad. It says in Ps. 139:16, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” A book was written about you, friend, before you ever existed. I trust that the rapid-fire verses here accomplished what they did for me: shock and awe, forcing you to think about your standing before Almighty God. I think there will be another book opened as well, and it should sober up any lazy Christians who may see this. I like how Puritan commentator Matthew Henry said this as well, so I will quote him: “Another book shall be opened, the book of the Scriptures, the rule of life; it represents the Lord’s knowledge of his people, and his declaring their repentance, faith, and good works; showing the blessings of the new covenant. By their works men shall be justified or condemned; he will try their principles by their practices. Those justified and acquitted by the gospel, shall be justified and acquitted by the Judge, and shall enter into eternal life, having nothing more to fear from death, or hell, or wicked men…“
Ultimately, another book will be opened: The Book of Life of the Lamb. Though believers will already be judged, it was not to see if they merited eternal life, for their names were already in the Book of Life. As I said, this happened 1000 years earlier. Believers’ works cannot save them, but their deeds are important to God, and the deeds with which believers build their lives do matter. What you do not only tells everyone else about your character, but it can also be used in its formation and sanctification by Christ as you go through trials, Beloved. To be clear, if you were a believer, you are now alive forevermore. You will be seated, perhaps, on one of the thrones of those watching these proceedings. Although our works do not save us, they will still all be seen. May God have mercy on us all. But wait, there is more. Next verse.

13: 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.

It is not entirely clear to me what the “sea” here means. The Greek word θάλασσα, meaning sea, is used, but I cannot tell if this is a metaphor, a literal, or somehow both at once. It is a comfort of sorts that no matter where you died or how, the Lord knows exactly where you are. I used to think this was a special class of people, those who died at sea, but when you consider that it simply means they are dead, I think we can say it is not a special, exclusive category. Hades also gives up its dead, and it is used here as a metaphorical personification along with death. They gave up the dead in them. ALL of the dead are there, no matter when they died or where. No one will escape their “day in court,” so to speak.
All will be judged by the One True King, who is the final arbiter of all. All of the jurisprudence in the world cannot help the sinner here. Now—doesn’t this sound like something one would want to avoid, knowing what comes next? If you know the right answer and don’t give it, then welcome to the second death. The right answer is that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all who will ever turn to Him. He knows who you are, He died for you, and He is waiting for those who must turn to Him. Turn away from your sins and toward the Living Christ, friend. It is the only way to avoid experiencing this day we are studying here. He stands at the door and knocks. Open the door and let Him in. He brings the fellowship meal. These are His words: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev. 3:20)
There is nowhere you can go to hide from Him if you are thinking of taking that route. I have belonged to Him for over 40 years now. He has never mistreated me or done me wrong. I owe Him everything. He is the only one who was able to save me. He will save you also, if you let Him. Call on Him now.

I do not know how many different ways or times I can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with you. If you aren’t getting it, please drop me an email, and we can try to meet, either online or in person if needed. I have Zoom, I have MS Teams, and I have several secure ways of doing the same thing at no cost. Don’t be left out on THAT day.

14-15: The Second Death

This is the heavy part for me. To think that there will be people who, through their own choices, will end up here is a special grief. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 9 that it brought him great grief that some of his own people, his friends and family, might end up here. It is NEVER a joyous thing to hope someone dies and goes to hell, no matter how they have hurt you. I get the impression from some of the more scientific descriptions of how this will happen that it will not be pleasant for the participants. I have been hurt and victimized in my life by people, systems, events, groups, and whatever. But I will not ever wish this fate on anyone, even if I could know that is where they are headed. I will always pray and preach Christ to them if I have the opportunity. That does not make me a good person; that is not an attempt at virtue signalling. I am a worthless nobody, and that’s my entire life. There’s a song by Casting Crowns that says it best. The chorus goes: I’m just a nobody // Trying to tell everybody // All about Somebody // Who saved my soul // Ever since You rescued me // You gave my heart a song to sing // I’m living for the world to see // Nobody but Jesus. I’m not here to tell you you’re worthless and you will end up in hell. I AM here to tell you that you have more worth than you may ever know, and that Jesus loves you and died in your place on the cross. He’s asking you to turn to Him and trust Him for your salvation from this second death. That’s how much HE thinks you’re worth. Let’s get into the text.

14: Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

Here, death and Hades (or Hell in English) are personified as representatives of the enemies of Christ and His Church, and are cast into the Lake of Fire to show (symbolically or otherwise) that Christ and His People shall die no more, or share the fate of disembodied spirits. In fact, I suspect, all those are rebodied with the dead to suffer their fate of eternal torment in that selfsame lake. Paul said that “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26) John also shouts it from the rooftops in 21:4 of this book; “…and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” [emphasis mine] Isaiah foresaw this, also: “He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.” [again, emphasis is mine] This is the day it happens. This is how time can still exist; time becomes irrelevant. I’m looking forward to this because the commodity I have the least of to spare is time. I feel its icy claws on me, dragging me to a slowing and eventual stop, physically and mentally, as my faculties seem to dim with time. But then, Beloved, oh but then, I shall have all the time I will ever need and nothing to stop me. When we sing “…and time shall be no more…” as a part of that song, it is inaccurate, but just as meaningful. An immortal being does not need to worry about death. It will have lost its relevance. Now reverse this blessed thought. For those who end up in that burning pond, time will be the driver of misery. They will not be able to endure one second more of it, and all of the seconds in eternity are their punishment. We see here the need for wise choices and holy conduct, Beloved. If we will not yield to Him as our Lord now in this life, but live in a way that displeases and shames Him, we are not His. We must repent of the wrong and seek to wrong no more in that way, and move on in our sanctification to the next revealed thing the Lord wants to make holy in our lives. Through the course of my life, I have struggled with many sins, both public and visible as well as private and hidden. Christ has revealed them to me as I am able to face my own nakedness and shame before Him. It is he of which the writer of Hebrews tells us, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13) “Open and laid bare” in Greek is γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα, which are, in actuality, combat terms. I have heard it said as stripped [that is, of one’s weapon] and stunned [that is, into a position of complete defeat, from wrestling, where one has been knocked prone and the throat is exposed to the weapon of the other combatant]. We are all helpless to Christ in His position as victor. One may submit to Him and be spared, if you get my gospel meaning. As we surrender to Him, He purifies it from our lives, like what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 6:11, which says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” May it be so with all of us. I doubt any of us wishes any part of the second death.
This is the second death. This is a different kind of death entirely from what we have known to this point. This is not like our ancient understanding of that state of separation from the physical world. That will be discontinued. What replaces it should chill our spines to immobility. It is nothing less than everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, the reverse of Romans 5:21. For the saved, it reads, “…so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now reverse that. If grace is not reigning in righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus our Lord, then it will be that destruction will rule as a tyrannical despot in eternity in that boiling sulphur lake. Beloved, how would you enjoy being a guest at such a party? I know I wouldn’t want to go, and I don’t want anyone else to go either. Some will end there; we know this because Scripture tells us so. We need to prevent as many as possible from going to that fate if we can. We must share Christ as the ONLY way of escape from the finality of that wrath of God upon all wickedness and sin. It is ONLY by the shed blood of the self-sacrifice for us of Jesus on the cross that will have any salvific value in avoiding the second death. If one dies now in disobedience to the command of God to repent and return to Him by faith in Christ, then he or she will experience this eternal death. However, there is more to it, as I can substantiate that last statement with the next verse.

15: And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I could say a great deal about how this book contains the names of those whom God chose before the foundation of the world to be saved. However, the point of this verse is not to debate Sovereign Election, Definite Atonement, or Irresistible Grace. The actual point here is to show the thing that will qualify all of the dead to go into the lake of fire. Their name will not be written in that book. My memory hears my Pentecostal brother Carman singing a song called “The Courtroom” here. He wrote that song from an Arminian perspective, meaning the sinner has a choice, and I don’t believe that, but it is still a great tune. “Is your name in that book? // Is your name in that book? // Is your name in that book for sure? // If you’ve been forgiven // Then your name is written // Then lift your hands – praise the Lord! // Yes, my name’s in that book // My name’s in that book // My name’s in that book tonight // I’ve been forgiven // And I know my name is written // In the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
What? We don’t have a choice? No, but it does seem like we do from our perspective. From a human perspective, we still have a responsibility to repent; we are still guilty before Him and in need of forgiveness, and He will make us an offer that we cannot refuse. We do not have a choice because He presents us with an option that no person using their brain will say no to. There is no mystery. Not all will say yes, but God knows exactly who they are. He presents that choice anyway. He still offers the hope of Christ to all, and so should we. Some have said (shouted, actually) that this is why Calvinists do not preach the gospel, and that is pure nonsense. God did not tell us the names of those in that book of life, and made us responsible for preaching the gospel to everyone in the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. We won’t look at it for the sake of time, but it is our primary task as the Church to make certain that everyone on Earth hears the real gospel about the real Jesus, who really died on a real Roman cross 2000 years ago, to really pay for all of our sins, and really save us from this VERY real second death. If this is stirring your heart at all, make sure your name is in that book by repenting of your sins, leaving them, and going to Jesus in faith for your forgiveness. If you’ve done this, drop me a line.
The alternative to this is unthinkable to me. Have you ever used a sulphur-based compound to clean a cut? Back in the 1970s, as a 7- or 8-year-old, I stepped on a nail and it went right through my foot. As you would expect, I hollered from the pain, and my mom came and pulled my foot off the nail. She took off my shoe and sprinkled Sulfa on my foot from a can. I can tell you that it stung like the dickens. Now, take that pain and imagine it all over your body. Add the scalding of the boiling sulphur, which I am informed boils at 444.72℃. I’ve been scalded by water that hasn’t boiled at 100℃ in the biology lab, friends. Imagine that. What is the initial reaction to the scalding temperature? To withdraw immediately, no? To recoil as fast as humanly possible. This will not be an option. They will be “thrown” into that boiling lake of sulphur. This will create a type of wound on the skin, to which sulphur will be directly and immediately applied over the entire surface of the body. And they will not be able to die or even pass out from the shock. Now think about the person who hurt you the worst in your entire life. Do you wish THAT on them? I cannot. Not a one. And I have several to choose from. After thinking about this, I pray that they may somehow find the saving grace that our Lord and Master Jesus extends to us. I pray that for every single one of them, they find that mercy and grace from the Father of all mercies.

I wondered why the Lord didn’t form a line and search for each name. It would shorten the whole process, right? I suspect this is where His wisdom and Justice will be shown to be the ultimate. As everyone has their day in court, they will get to try all their little defences that they shout out now. Like a hypothetical feminist will shout, “But it’s my body! It was my right to murder that baby in my womb!” Jesus will answer, “No, it was not, murder is wrong, especially of your own flesh. Now let’s talk about the adulterous relationship where you were the ‘other woman’ that caused it.” Or how about, “I will never bow to you as my master, you genocidal psychopath!” He will calmly answer them, “I am not a psychopath. I did what I did for your ultimate protection as a human, as I am also human.” How about the guy who says, “But I loved my husband! I married him and stayed with him our entire lives together!” He will say, “I created them male and female so that they might reproduce with their love and fill the earth with those who could be like me. Your ‘love’ was a wicked desire, and not love at all. It also produced no offspring, in rebellion against my commanded order.”

There may also be cases that are far harder to judge. He will show on that day wisdom that will be greater than Solomon displayed in his lifetime. No one will be carelessly thrown into boiling sulphur. In the end, Jesus will be glorified for His wisdom and justice as well as His long-suffering mercy and grace. As much as saving the redeemed gives Him eternal glory, so will this final judgment of humanity. With this final judgment, as the wicked go to their eternal “reward,” and the redeemed go to their eternal reward, redeemed humanity has become something other than what we are now. We do not understand what that is completely, but as John said in his letters, we will be like Him. Eternity is now in view, and the next two chapters of Revelation give us the barest glimpse of what it will be like.

That’s what I saw in the text this time.

Next time, we will examine chapter 21, verses 1-4. That might be a bit light; it will be hard to tell before we do the summary. And, as my schedule (and my declining brain) only permit me to do this the week of the study, I’m not sure how feasible it is. We’ll figure out what we do from there.