It’s the season for giving thanks! It surrounds us, as our calendars, advertisements, and conversations are featuring the word “Thanksgiving.” Among the many blessings which merit giving thanks to God, I want to add a new topic of gratitude to my list this year: judgments. Specifically, thanksgiving for what the Bible tells us about two of the final judgments, the Judgment Seat of Christ (or the “Bema”) and the Great White Throne.
Reasons to Be Thankful Regarding the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10)
The first judgment, called the Judgment Seat of Christ, is where believers will be praised and rewarded, or rebuked, for their works. However, no one at this judgment will go to the Lake of Fire. Believers can find many reasons to rejoice in this coming judgment:
Jesus did the work to get us there
(Eph 2:89)
The only requirement He makes of us is that we believe (realize it’s true) that Jesus, the Lord’s Messiah, is the only giver of everlasting life and does all the work for it (John 5:24 & 21, 1 Timothy 1:16).
God is just
(Is 30:18, Ro 2:5)
God knows what each person did for Him. He also knows the person’s motives in serving Him (1 Cor 4:5), her abilities and circumstances, how much she suffered, and all the other details relating to each one’s service, and He is able to reward or rebuke each person justly (Gal 6:7).
God is generous
(Mt 19:28-291, 25:14-23, Luke 19:11-19)
John 10:10 says that Jesus didn’t come just to give life (i.e., give us life so we can live with Him forever), but came to give it abundantly. As we grow in this life, we experience more of God’s type of life now, but He also rewards that growth with a fuller experience of life in the Kingdom. And the return on investment is phenomenal.
In the parables of both the talents and the minas, the Lord rewards His servants who were faithful in a financial investment by putting them in charge of much more. The caricature of God scrutinizing us so He can punish every little failure is not the picture in the Bible; when He scrutinizes our lives, He rewards even the smallest acts of faithfulness (Mt 25:27, Lk 19:23).
God counts teamwork
(Eph 4:7-16)
In 1 Corinthians 3:5-15, Paul talks of his work and Apollos’ being for a common goal, and the Corinthians’ work furthering that. God does not consider it “cheating” when believers collaborate on teaching, loving others, or obeying God. In fact, He designed the church to do just that (1 Cor 12:4-26), and is happy to reward those who accomplish more by means of working together.
Reasons to Be Thankful Regarding the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15)
The second judgment we should be thankful for is the Great White Throne. This is where unbelievers will be allowed all their arguments of works, but still be found lacking eternal life. This is the judgment where persons will be sent to the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:15).
This is the judgment most people fear, and it is a very serious one. Please do evangelize those around you so they don’t end up here! However, even as bad as it is, the Bible does provide us with reasons to be thankful regarding it:
God is not a “God of the minimum legal chance” (despite several popular systems of belief)
It is true that there is only one way to obtain everlasting life, which is to believe in Jesus for everlasting life (or, before Jesus, to believe in God’s coming Messiah for everlasting life), but the Bible shows that God is a generous God, a God of second, third, tenth, etc. chances. From the second chance God gives Job’s friends, to the Israelite prophet God sends to Nineveh (Jonah), to the many times God rescues Israel after they have fallen into horrible sin, we see a gracious and long-suffering God (Ps 99:8, Ro 2:4, and a whole host of other verses). Acts 17:27 speaks of nations reaching out in the dark, trying to find God, and Hebrews 11:6 confirms that God rewards those who seek Him; even if a person seeking God has not yet found Him, He will reward that person with more truth (Acts 10, 16:9-10).
At the Great White Throne, those who have never believed Jesus alone for everlasting life, based on His works and NONE of their own accomplishments (John 11:25-26), will not have their names in the Book of Life. When the books of works are read (Rev 20:12-13), not only will it be shown that those unbelievers did not live a perfect life (even according to their own conscience—Ro 2:14-16), but the character of God as shown in the Bible lets us know that each unbeliever will have been given many chances to follow truth, and each one closed himself off (Acts 13:46).2
That Jesus alone gives everlasting life, and that He does it on the strength of His effort, not by human effort, is foundational. Believing it is a simple requirement—to obtain everlasting life, you don’t even have to stand up for that truth, just understand in your mind that it is true. If a person never once in their whole life believed that truth, or (for unreached groups) never sought truth enough for God to send more truth, it is sad that they will not be in the Kingdom, but it will not be unjust.
The Lake of Fire is not unbearable
Neither medieval artists nor modern-day theologians seem to go to the Bible for their details concerning the Lake of Fire. The name itself evokes plenty of ideas, and it is a place of torment (Rev 14:11), burning with brimstone (Rev 19:20). If the experience of unbelievers currently is any idea of what the Lake of Fire will be like, we can get some details from the story Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. The description includes “in torment” and “flame,” and the rich man asks for water. Also of interest is that he is not out of his mind with pain—he can still ask Abraham to send Lazarus on an errand, think of his brothers’ welfare, and spout bad theology3. Furthermore, in His rebuke of the generation that rejected Him (Mt 12:41-42, Lk 11:31-32), Jesus says it will be “more tolerable” for some than for others at the judgment. This is not language describing everyone being tortured beyond belief.
Even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 14 describes the king of Babylon being addressed by those already dead when he enters the place of death. Groaning and wailing are not mentioned there; rather, taunting is what he experiences.
Taunting is not pleasant, nor is being in an area with many fires and no water. The Lake of Fire is NOT a place I want to be, or desire for others, but it is not maximum-level torture either.
Conclusion
This Thanksgiving, as I give thanks for family and friends, food, shelter, and a Bible, I also want to be thankful that our God is just, and therefore, His judgments will be too. Even the Great White Throne will show His mercy and justice, and the Bema will definitely be a glorious day of giving thanks.
- For those who correctly note that this passage is followed by the parable of the vineyard workers, in which everyone seems to be paid the same, may I also note that in the verses I referenced, Christ is telling the disciples they will have amazing rewards. Mt 20:15 speaks of the landowner, the Lord, being generous—even to those who believed late in life or late in the age. The Lord does not have to reduce my reward because you worked for Him longer; He can give abundantly to many faithful believers. ↩︎
- For a discussion of those who simply didn’t live a long enough life to have the chance of believing, see the notes under “Numbers 14:29, 31” in this blog.
↩︎ - The rich man desires his brothers’ repentance; Abraham says they won’t believe.
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Annette Halsey is a wife and homeschooling mother who is passionate about theology and the importance of serving God in the responsibilities you currently have.
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