There has been no defense. No jury decided the case. There will be no appeal. The convict trembles as the Judge reads his sentence: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). What a contrast to the godly to whom the Judge will say, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (verse 34).

The judge is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, “who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:1).

Who is the convict? What has he done? He’s the man that has broken God’s law. (See Matthew 5—7). The good deeds he had thought might save him are the rags now draped over his shriveled soul. Unrepentant in life, he never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ who would have saved him from his sin, and stood by him at this moment. He never received Him as Lord and Saviour, nor did he follow Christ in daily life. Now there is no more opportunity to repent.

The poor man departed this life today, as thousands do every day. He stands at the judgment bar of the sovereign, righteous God, where justice is always done.

Like him, you too will one day give account of yourself to God. “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:11, 12).

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12, 15). May you be found with the godly who “have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the [heavenly] city” (Revelation 22:14).

– Dallas Witmer