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Revelation 20:14–15
“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Surveying the passages in Scripture on the final judgment, we see that it will be a public event. Everyone will see it, unlike the initial judgment that we experience at our deaths, which is not visible to the friends and family we leave behind on earth. The final judgment will also be more comprehensive, encompassing the whole person individually and all people without exception. Louis Berkhof writes that the final judgment differs from the judgment we receive at death in that “it will not be secret, but public; it will not pertain to the soul only but also to the body; it will not have reference to a single individual, but to all men.”
At this final judgment, all those who have been saved by grace, their names having been written by God in the Book of Life, will receive glorified physical bodies and live in the new heaven and new earth. Some of these will also receive additional rewards for their obedience (Rev. 20:11–15; see 1 Cor. 3:10–15; 15:50–58). Those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, those who have never trusted in Christ for salvation, however, will be cast into the lake of fire, where they will suffer “forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10, 14–15).
The lake of fire is the final state of judgment for those who die outside Christ. It is the place reserved for the devil and his angels and for those who never trust in Jesus (see Matt. 25:41). The imagery of the “lake of fire” tells us that the punishment there will be terrible indeed. Given the symbolic nature of the book of Revelation, it may be that it will not be a literal sea of flames. That should not bring comfort, for as Dr. R.C. Sproul said, if it is not a literal lake of fire, we can be sure that the actual reality is far worse.
All who are cast into the lake of fire will suffer, but some will suffer worse than others. Even the smallest unatoned-for sin is worthy of eternal damnation, but some sins are worse than others due to their effects, the flagrancy with which they oppose God and His created order, the knowledge that the sinner has of Christ, and other factors. Thus, Scripture warns us that those who know God’s will and fail to do it will get a more severe beating than the person who is comparatively more ignorant (Luke 12:35–48). No individual who breaks the law and never trusts Christ escapes punishment, but those who have heard of Jesus and know His teaching will suffer worse than those who have not.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
It is difficult to fathom how some will suffer more pain in hell than others. After all, we know that just being there will be unspeakably terrible. Nevertheless, the Bible does teach degrees of sin and degrees of punishment. We should use that knowledge to encourage us to more fervently warn people of the judgment to come and call them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For further study
- Isaiah 66:24
- Daniel 12:2
- Matthew 18:7–9
- Revelation 21:8
The bible in a year
- Haggai 1–2
- Revelation 16