Facing Life’s Record
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behalf of man—to perform the work of investigative judgment and to
make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits.
In the typical service only those who had come before God with
confession and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the
sin offering, were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service
of the Day of Atonement. So in the great day of final atonement
and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the
professed people of God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and
separate work, and takes place at a later period. “Judgment must begin
at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of
them that obey not the gospel?”
1 Peter 4:17
.
The books of record in heaven, in which the names and the deeds
of men are registered, are to determine the decisions of the judgment.
Says the prophet Daniel: “The judgment was set, and the books were
opened.” The revelator, describing the same scene, adds: “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.”
Revelation 20:12
.
The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered
the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples: “Rejoice, because your
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names are written in heaven.”
Luke 10:20
. Paul speaks of his faithful
fellow workers, “whose names are in the book of life.”
Philippians
4:3
. Daniel, looking down to “a time of trouble, such as never was,”
declares that God’s people shall be delivered, “everyone that shall be
found written in the book.” And the revelator says that those only shall
enter the city of God whose names “are written in the Lamb’s book of
life.”
Daniel 12:1
;
Revelation 21:27
.
“A book of remembrance” is written before God, in which are
recorded the good deeds of “them that feared the Lord, and that thought
upon His name.”
Malachi 3:16
. Their words of faith, their acts of
love, are registered in heaven. Nehemiah refers to this when he says:
“Remember me, O my God, ... and wipe not out my good deeds that
I have done for the house of my God.”
Nehemiah 13:14
. In the book
of God’s remembrance every deed of righteousness is immortalized.
There every temptation resisted, every evil overcome, every word
of tender pity expressed, is faithfully chronicled. And every act of
sacrifice, every suffering and sorrow endured for Christ’s sake, is