To Encourage You

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Do you realize that there is a record being kept by God of everything you have ever done in this life? As it says in Revelation 20 above, one day the dead will be judged by that record. All the things we hid from others, all the things we thought we had “gotten away with,” are never really expunged from our record. Rather, they are written in bold relief in the books God is keeping and someday the account of every one of them will be exposed for all to see. We are told elsewhere “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Of course, sometimes this happens in this life to a degree, but it will certainly happen completely in the next.

But then, in the book of Colossians, we are told something wonderful about these sins in the picture of the cross. In Roman times the sins against Rome that a person had committed and that were the cause of a sentence of execution were written down on a document and nailed to the cross on which that person was hanged. It is this image that God gives us regarding the cross of Christ. However, it is not the sins of Jesus that are nailed to the cross, for He never committed any. In this image we are told that it is our sins – those same sins that are written in the books of God – that were nailed to His cross. It is for our sins that He died, not for His own. Therefore, the penalty for those sins has already been paid for all those who have put their faith in Him. With this act of justice on behalf of the believer “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Indeed, the Lord in His great mercy has “cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

What an awesome picture this is! What deliverance God has provided for those who have sinned against Him, if only we would believe. What an awesome God this is! Though He is perfectly just and will call every sin into account someday, He has made a way for us to escape sin’s penalty through the death of His own Son. Listen to these words of invitation from His heart: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

So, what will you hear read on that great day of judgment? Will it be every sin that you’ve ever committed because you’ve rejected the offer of forgiveness made available to all who would call on the name of Jesus. Or, will it be the words spoken to all those whose sin debt has been paid, and whose sins are no longer written in a book because they’ve been nailed to the cross of God’s Son. It is to these God will say “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). It is that same Master who gave His life for us and Who will forgive us for all our sins if we will but turn from them to Him and believe.