Lesson 51 - The Judgment of the Great White Throne

• And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it [Christ; cf. John 5:22], from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.  ¹² And I saw the [unrighteous] dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne [of Christ], and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the [unrighteous] dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds [good works ≠ God’s righteousness, which is given at salvation to those who by faith trust in Jesus as their Savior; cf. Rom. 3:21-28; 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9].  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 [all unbelievers of all time] according to their deeds.  ¹⁴ And death [which came into existence in the Garden of Eden] and Hades [the place for the dead] were thrown [together] into the lake of fire. This is the second death [eternal separation], the lake of fire.  ¹⁵ And if anyone’s name [among all the unbelievers] was not found written in the book of life [and they will not be], he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:11-15)

The great white throne judgment is for unbelievers only. The three major judgments stated in Scripture include:

1. Christians before the bema seat in heaven (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:10). This is a judgment for rewards, not salvation.
2. The judgment of Gentiles (Matt. 25:31-46), both saved and lost. This judgment concerns entrance into the millennial kingdom.
3. The judgment of all unbelievers immediately preceding the eternal state (Rev. 20:11-15).

     Believers will not stand before the great white throne because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, having trusted in Christ alone for salvation (John 3:16; 20:31; Acts 4:12; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8-9; Tit. 3:5).  Salvation is based on the work of Christ for us (John 10:28), but eternal rewards are based on the works we do for Christ (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:10). The “book of life” reveals if a person has eternal life (Phil. 4:3; Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). Those who have eternal life will enter heaven and those do not, will not.