God has Records and We are all going to Give Account!
I have been thinking about the day when we all give account to God. It appears that God is a good bookkeeper and keeps records. He keeps records of believers in the book of life. He records “works” in another book. And then there is a final judgment that simply judges unbelievers according to THEIR works rather than according to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every Idle Word
Matthew 12:36 NKJV — “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
This passage teaches that what we say is the mirror of our hearts. Can our words be likened to the good fruit of a delicious apple tree or are they more like the fruit of a crab apple tree? Crab apple trees bear crab apples. Delicious apple trees bear delicious apples. According to God, sinners produce sin even when they are trying to do good works to make themselves worthy of heaven.
Personal Responsibility!
Romans 14:12 NKJV — So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
It is easy to criticize and judge others but an honest judgment of self is more important. We are often told not to judge; but in fact we are to judge, but we are not to judge hypocritically. That is, in Matthew 7 we are not to judge in a way that we would not want to be judged. But God does not judge hypocritically and He is keeping accurate records.
Final Accounting
Revelation 20:11-15 NKJV — Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
This seems to be the final judgment of unbelievers. Since the Book of Life is opened, some would argue that this judgment determines eternal destiny, that is, that the good go to heaven and the bad go to the Lake of Fire. But there is no mention of heaven or any of the blessings of heaven in the passage. I think the book of life is opened to show unbelievers that their name has been blotted out. Yes, I think every name of every person born into this world has their name in the book of life until their final rejection of the Lord’s redeeming love at which point it is blotted out. Many translations refer to names being written in the book of life in the book of Revelation,. It is assumed that the meaning is that they were written into the book of life when they believed. However, the better translation of those verses is that they were FOUND written there because they had never been blotted out.
Then the Lord judges unbelievers the way they wanted to be judged. . . according to their works. At the great white throne they will finally have to admit that their works were not good enough to get them into heaven. In Romans 3, we find that “all have sinned” and those sins could have been blotted out of the records that God is keeping if they would have believed in the Lord. Our works will never save us, but trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ will. And here, at this white throne, when it is too late, the unrepentant sinner will finally have to face their unbelief. And from here there will be no second chance to be simple enough to believe what God says.
Yes!
God is going to force us all to give account. Saints will give account with regard to their faithfulness. The unsaved will give account with regard to their rejection of a Savior who loved them. How solemn to think that many who thought they were right with God, never recognized that even one sin in their lives would keep them out of heaven. But the Lord offers complete forgiveness (remission of sins). Being in heaven is going to be a blessing bestowed and not a reward that is earned.
Our Great Bookkeeper will either be blotting out our names from the Lamb’s book of Life when we reject Him or He will be blotting out our sins from the records that He has kept when we trust in the Lord. We will all give account,
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of January 7, 2024
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