5. The grounds of the final judgment

These will be two in number:

(a) The law of God,—as made known in conscience and in Scripture.

John 12:48—“He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day”; Rom. 2:12—“For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law.” On the self-registry and disclosure of sin, see F. A. Noble, Our Redemption, 59–76. Dr. Noble quotes Daniel Webster in the Knapp case at Salem: “There is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession.” Thomas Carlyle said to Lord Houghton; “Richard Milnes! in the day of judgment, when the Lord asks you why you did not get that pension for Alfred Tennyson, it will not do to lay the blame on your constituents,—it is you that will be damned.”

(b) The grace of Christ (Rev. 20:12),—those whose names are found “written in the book of life” being approved, simply because of their union with Christ and participation in his righteousness. Their good works shall be brought into judgment only as proofs of this relation to the Redeemer. Those not found “written in the book of life” will be judged by the law of God, as God has made it known to each individual.

Rev. 20:12—“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.” The “book of life” = the book of justification, in which are written the names of those who are united to Christ by faith; as the “book of death” would = the book of condemnation, in which are written the names of those who stand in their sins, as unrepentant and unforgiven transgressors of God’s law.

Ferries, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, 2:821—“The judgment, in one aspect or stage of it, is a present act. For Judgment Christ is come into this world (John 9:39). There is an actual separation of men in progress here and now.… This judgment which is in progress now, is destined to be perfected.… In the last assize, Christ will be the Judge as before.… It may be said that men will hereafter judge themselves. Those who are unlike Christ will find themselves as such to be separate from him. The two classes of people are parted because they have acquired distinct natures like the sheep and the goat.… The character of each person is a ‘book’ or record, preserving, in moral and spiritual effects, all that he has been and done and loved, and in the judgment these books will be ‘opened,” or each man’s character will be manifested as the light of Christ’s character falls upon it.… The people of Christ themselves receive different rewards, according as their life has been.”

Dr. H. E. Robins, in his Restatement, holds that only under the grace-system can the deeds done in the body be the ground of judgment. These deeds will be repentance and faith, not words of external morality. They will be fruits of the Spirit, such as spring from the broken and contrite heart. Christ, as head of the mediatorial kingdom, will fitly be the Judge. So Judgment will be an unmixed blessing to the righteous. To them the words “prepare to meet thy God” (Amos. 4:12) should have no terror; for to meet God is to meet their deliverance and their reward. “Teach me to live that I may dread The grave as little as my bed: Teach me to die, that so I may Rise glorious at the judgment day.” On the whole subject, see Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 456, 457; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 465, 466; Neander, Planting and Training, 524–526; Jonathan Edwards, Works, 2:499, 500; 4:202–225; Fox, in Lutheran Rev., 1887:206–226.