Do You Know The Judge?

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. – Revelation 20:11-12

Yesterday, we talked about what our day in court will look like. In other words, what will happen when we stand before the throne of Jesus Christ one day? Will we be prepared to give an account for our lives? Because after all, there are three things we will experience when we stand before the throne, and we need to be ready for each of them. We discussed the first yesterday (I’d encourage you to go back and read that devotion if you missed it). But today, we’re going to look at two more.

The second thing that will happen when we stand before the throne of Christ is that we will experience the perfect virtue of the judge. When we as believers stand before God, we already know when it comes to sin, we have been found innocent, because we know the judge who is also our Savior. When a person without Jesus stands before the judge, he will be his own prosecuting attorney. He will be his own accuser. It will be his unbelief that renders the verdict guilty.

Sadly, the unbeliever will find that no matter how many good things they may have done on this earth, all their goodness will mean nothing apart from a personal relationship with Jesus. Where we are going to spend eternity has already been decided, but how we are going to spend that eternity is going to be determined by how we lived. As believers and unbelievers, we will experience the perfect virtue of this judge. He will get it right.

This leads us to the third thing that will happen when we stand before the throne, which is that we can expect the proper verdict of the judge. If your name is written in the Book of Life, you are recorded as having placed your faith in Jesus and you don’t just say you believe in Jesus, but you showed you believed in Jesus by loving Him and living for Him. You don’t have anything to worry about on your day in court because you settled your case out of court. You will be justified by your faith that was justified by your works. If your name is not found in the Book of Life, you will realize too late it was only because of one thing: to trust in Christ as Lord and Savior.

The difference is that when a believer is judged by their works, that will determine their rewards. For unbelievers, it will determine their punishment. In that moment, each group will go their separate way. One will gain entrance into a forever heaven. One will exit into a forever separation from God. When you stand before God, you have no shot unless you know the judge.

So let me end with this question: Do you know the judge? Have you surrendered your life to Him? If not, I pray today would be the day you would do so. If you have made that decision already, though, I pray that you’ll think about anyone in your life who doesn’t know the judge and begin praying for them and ministering to them so that they might come to know Jesus in a personal way and choose to live for Him.

Dear Jesus, thank you for dying for me so that when my day in court comes, if I’ve placed my faith in you, I have nothing to worry about. You went through an unfair punishment so that I might have access to an unfair reward, and for that, I’m forever grateful. In Jesus’ name, amen.