Day 243: Is your place booked? - Revelation 20 vs 11 – 15

11 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.  12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. 13 And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 

14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15 New Living Translation’s paraphrase (English Standard Version link)

The first part of Chapter 20 told of Satan's ultimate defeat and destiny. The scene is set for an awesome event that the Bible says will take place at the end of the ages. How does vs 11 describe the supreme majesty and authority of the one seated on the throne?

One implication is that there is nowhere in heaven or earth that God can't see, and there's absolutely no place for anyone to hide from what unfolded next - which John describes in vs 12. What would you say are the very sombre implications of vs 12?

I'd say that it confirms what the Bible teaches in other places; that there's a coming time when there will be an actual resurrection of everyone who ever lived to stand before God to be judged (as vs 13 tells us) 'according to their deeds'. Jesus said to people He was preaching to: “Don’t be surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.” (John 5:28-29) And when the apostle Paul was on trial before a Roman governor named Felix we read that Felix and his wife “listened to Paul as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. But as Paul reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened and said 'Go away for now. When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.'”  Acts 24:24-25)

Verse 13 tells how in John's vision this awesome day of judgement was pictured as being like a great court room where books were opened in which the deeds of each person who ever lived had been recorded. This would be used in evidence for acquittal or condemnation. Obviously God knows all things so has no need of actual books. But the point is that there is nothing done in secret which will not be revealed on that day. We can delete things from our computers, we can take secret sins to the grave – but we can't hide anything from God. And what is the terrible thing that happens to those whose deeds were evil in God's sight? (vs 14-15)

Remember that this is a vision. We don't know exactly what is meant be this lake of fire. But it is surely meant to convey to us the horror of being cast out of God's presence to spend eternity forever separated from His goodness and love. It is a dreadful thing. And we mustn't think that the result will be a case of balancing the good things we think we've done against the bad things. Our 'good deeds' can never cover the naked shame that sin leaves us with. But, wait, the vision also spoke of another book! What book was that? (vs 12).

John saw a book called 'The Book of Life'. And, rather than a list of deeds, it contained a list of names. Revelation 17:8 tells us that these names were written already from the foundation of the world - and Revelation 21:27 calls it 'the Lamb's book of life'. The only logical conclusion is that these are people who've been redeemed from their sins by the blood of the lamb who was slain. Their wrong deeds have been paid for - and their right deeds were the result of Christ living in their lives by the Holy Spirit. So if we are asked – is your place booked? - the real question is 'have we repented of sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation'? Oh may anyone reading this not do what the governor Felix did when he heard the gospel.