Revelation 20:15

This vision comes straight after the thousand years of Revelation 20:1–10. At the end of them Satan’s last rebellion fails and he is thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7–10). With the great enemy dealt with, John turns to the judgment of mankind, and verse 11 sets the scene before the books are opened. It is the turning point between this present age and the eternal state, the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21.

The throne, thrónos, is a seat of authority. The New Testament uses the word for the thrones of God and of Christ, and also for the seats of Satan, the beast, the apostles and the elders, so the awe of this throne comes from the One who sits on it. It is mégas, great, a word for what is big in size, degree or rank, and here it speaks of the scale and the universal reach of this judgment. It is leukós, white, the colour of purity and holiness, because the judgment given from it will be perfectly righteous.

John’s first readers knew what a throne of judgment looked like, since Roman emperors sat on thrones to give justice. They also knew the prophets. Daniel saw a court in heaven where “the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow,” and “the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:9–10). Scripture had long taught that every life ends in a reckoning: “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Before this Judge the whole created order gives way. The earth, gē, is the land and ground beneath the sky, and the heaven, ouranós, is the sky and the heavens above it. Named together, as here, they mean the whole creation as we know it. They “fled away”, pheúgō, the ordinary word for running away, fleeing or escaping. Earth and sky are pictured as though they were people who cannot bear to stand where he is. They flee from his face, prósōpon, the word for a face or countenance and so for a person’s presence. His presence alone is enough to undo the world.

“And there was found no place for them” finishes the picture. The old heaven and earth are gone, and nowhere is left where they can be found. Revelation says it outright a few verses later: “the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Revelation 21:1–5). The prophets looked for this. God says through Isaiah, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17), and Peter writes that the heavens will pass away, and “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10–13).

The world we can see is passing, and God remains for ever. The end of the old creation clears the way for the new one, where God’s presence will be known in full, with nothing fallen standing between him and his people.

John says “I saw”, eídō, the common verb for seeing, used both literally and figuratively, and what he sees is what God shows him of the future. He sees “the dead, small and great”. The phrase takes in kings and beggars, the famous and the forgotten, the young and the old. Earthly rank, wealth and power count for nothing at this throne, and every person must give account. They stand “before God”, enṓpion, which comes from a phrase meaning “in the face of”. Each one is in his presence, fully seen, with nowhere to hide. John calls them “the dead” because they had died, and verse 13 shows that they have been raised to stand here.

“And the books were opened” are the very words of Daniel’s vision, and with them the judgment begins. The books stand for God’s complete record of every life, its thoughts, words and deeds. John’s readers knew books as scrolls kept for legal and official records, and the picture uses that to show that God knows everything and judges on the full evidence, laid open for all to see. Jesus warned “that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). The LORD says, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:10).

The dead are judged “out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”. The word for works, érgon, means toil, effort or an act, and it covers everything a person does, good or evil. The sentence God gives rests on what each person has actually done, so it is never arbitrary. Paul says that God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6).

Beside these books lies “another book”, the book of life. The books are many, and this one stands alone. The books record what people have done, and the book of life records the names of those who belong to God and will live with him for ever, written there by his grace. The two together show the two ways a person can stand before God, judged by his own deeds or found among those whom God has saved.

Verse 13 tells where the dead come from. The sea gives up all who died in it, by accident, storm or war. To the Jews and the Greeks the sea was a place of mystery, where things vanished without trace, and the picture shows that even the deepest and most hidden grave answers God’s call. “Gave up” is dídōmi, the common verb “to give”. The sea gives back the dead it has held.

Death and hell deliver up their dead as well. Death here is the state of being dead. Hell is háidēs, Hades, a word that properly means “unseen”. It is the realm of the dead, the Greek counterpart of the Hebrew Sheol, where departed souls wait for the resurrection and the judgment. The sea, death and Hades are spoken of as if they were jailers who must hand over their prisoners, and every place where a person has ever died must answer to God’s command.

This is the resurrection Scripture had promised. Daniel wrote that “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Jesus said that all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, “they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29). Death is a passing state for every human being. Christ has authority over all of it: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18). Death and Hades give up their dead because the risen Christ holds their keys.

The verse ends by saying again “according to their works”, and this time adds “every man”. The whole of humanity is judged, and each person is judged one by one.

Death, thánatos, has ruled mankind since sin entered the world: “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Here death is spoken of as an enemy, and together with Hades it is “cast”, bállō, thrown into the lake of fire. The beast and the false prophet were thrown there first (Revelation 19:20), then the devil (Revelation 20:10), and now the last powers that held people captive go the same way. Death loses its power over creation for ever, and the place of the dead is ended, because in the new creation there will be no more death and so nothing for Hades to hold.

The prophets promised this: “He will swallow up death in victory” (Isaiah 25:8). Paul wrote that “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26), and he looked ahead to the day when it will be said, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). In the new heaven and earth, “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying” (Revelation 21:4).

Christ won this victory by his own death and resurrection. He took flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14–15). He said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). Verse 14 is the last act of that victory.

“This is the second death.” The word deúteros means second, in time, place or rank, and it sets this death beside the first, the death of the body that comes to everyone because of sin. The first death lasts only until the resurrection, since all the dead are raised. The second death is final. It is the lake of fire itself, eternal and irreversible separation from God, who is the source of all life and goodness, and it is a state of conscious punishment. Of the devil in that lake Revelation says that he “shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever”.

The word for lake, límnē, means a pool or lake, and “the lake of fire” (límnē tou pyros) is a picture found only in Revelation. What it pictures is real and final. Its fire draws on the Old Testament’s language for God’s holiness and wrath: “For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and “who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14). Jewish writings of the time and the rabbis after them also spoke of a fiery judgment and lasting torment for the wicked. Revelation names the lake as the second death once more when it describes the end of the unbelieving and the wicked, who “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

God’s people are promised that this death will have no hold on them. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:11), and of those who share in the first resurrection, “on such the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6).

The passage ends with one sentence. “Whosoever” is eí tis, a plain “if any”: if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. “Written” is gráphō, the ordinary verb “to write”. The deeds in the books show that the sentence on each person is just, and the one test that decides between life and the second death is whether a name is written in the book of life. The phrase “was not found written” pictures the book searched name by name.

The book of life (biblos tēs zōēs) has a long history in Scripture. Kings kept registers of their people, like “the book of records of the chronicles” read before King Ahasuerus, and God’s book is the register of those who belong to him. Malachi tells of “a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD” (Malachi 3:16). David prayed against his enemies, “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous” (Psalm 69:28). Daniel was told that at the time of the end “thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1). Paul speaks of his fellow workers “whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3), and the only ones who enter the holy city are “they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27).

This is the most solemn scene in Scripture, and it shows us who God is. He is holy, and his throne is white. He knows every life completely, and he judges each one justly, so every wrong done in this world will be answered and set right. He is stronger than death, and at his word the sea and the grave give back all they have held. He will make an end of death itself.

The One on the throne is the Son, to whom the Father has given all judgment, the same Jesus whom John the Baptist pointed to as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Judge before whom heaven and earth flee is the One who bore judgment for his people on the cross, and those whose names are written in his book will never be hurt by the second death. Our hope rests in the eternal God and his coming kingdom, and the passing of this world leaves that hope untouched. Because this judgment is final and certain, the good news of Christ is urgent, and the day of grace in which it is offered is now.