The Book Is Opened (Psalm 139:16; Revelation 20:12)
I wonder what we would say to someone who told us he possessed as many books as there are in Inverness Public Library. What we say to him if he then said that he had read each of the books in his library? How would we react if he then said that he was the author of each of the books? And what would we say if he then said that he can remember every detail written in each of his books?
We might respond by saying that thankfully we will never meet such a person. If we responded in such a manner, we will find out that we are wrong because one day we will meet One who possesses many more books than there are in a public library, and that person is God, the Judge of all.
In Revelation 20:12, we are informed about God’s library. The books are classified into two categories – there is a general category and there is a category with one book in it and that book is called the book of life. Sometimes, in a library we see books of different sizes, some very big and others a lot smaller. We know the book of life is very big because it contains a list of names that is long that no-one can count them. It must be a very big book.
There are two possible ways of describing the books in the first category. The books are the evidence on the Day of Judgement. It could mean that each person being judged has one book or that each person being judged as many books, and we don’t have any way of deciding. I think that each person only needs one book, although some may be a lot larger than others.
There is a verse in Psalm 139 that can help us understand this idea of a divine book: ‘Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them’ (v. 16). We can begin by asking what this verse says about the divine author.
God the divine author
The first detail that is mentioned about the author is that he has a particular book for David, that this particular book is only about David. So we can imagine this book on a shelf with its name on the spine, David the son of Jesse. Other people will be mentioned in this book, even as David’s name will be mentioned in books about other people. Yet we can deduce from this description that each person has a particular book written by God.
The second detail is that the author is full of knowledge of his subject. David says that God knew about David before he was made. His eyes were looking at David long before he existed. This is similar, in a sense, to an author thinking about the theme of his book. He imagines it before he starts to write about it. As far as the divine author is concerned, he knew the story of David’s life long before it began.
There is something comforting about this comparison between God and an author. After all, most authors imagine several ideas about their characters before selecting which details to use. Some ideas and even some characters are discarded. But when God thought of characters before they existed, he did not decide not to create them. The fact that each person he created has a book for himself or herself means that they are valuable to the divine Author.
Like a good author, the Lord has his chapters in his book. The names he gives to each of the chapters is Day. We have Day 1, Day 2, and so on. It is interesting to note how David describes those days. He says that each of them was formed specifically for him. I would take two things from this description. First, it means that every day is important and, second, it means that every day is full of opportunities for us to discover. We can also say that no day should be regarded as boring, because all of them came from God. Each is a chapter in the book of the Life of David.
What days of David’s life can we mention?
There was the day he was born, there was the day when his father realised that he could look after sheep, there were the days when he experienced his ability to rescue sheep from wild animals, there was the day when Samuel anointed him king over Israel, there was the day when he killed Goliath, there was the day when he married the daughter of Saul, there was the day when he had to run away from Saul, there was the day when he had to pretend he was mad in the presence of a Philistine ruler, there were the days he had in the cave of Adullum, there were the days when he could have killed Saul, there was the day when he became king after Saul’s death, there was the day when he captured Jerusalem and made it the capital city of Israel, there was the days he went to war, there were the days on which he sinned badly, there were the days on which he wrote his wonderful psalms, there was the day when he wanted to build a temple for God but was told not to do so, and there was the day that he died and went to heaven.
And these are only some of the chapters. What an exciting book! Days of opportunity and he took some and did great things for God, and they are recorded in God’s book of David’s life. Other days too were days of opportunity, but instead he used them for sinful actions, and they are recorded in God’s book of David’s life.
What are the features of the book that God has written?
It combines several features and here are some of them. It reads like a biography because the details are impartial, written by an accurate observer, but it also reads like an autobiography because the details are personal, very personal. Moreover, it reads like a well-filled diary because no data is absent. It runs from second to second, mentioning everything that occurred in David’s life, what he thought, said and did, whose influences he followed, what ambitions he had, the successes he enjoyed, the failures he suffered, the things he did that pleased God, and the things he did that did not please God.
Of course, the book that David has in mind here is only the volume that is concerned about his life on earth. In David’s case, there is another book which he is currently living out, and that is the book that describes what God did for him after his death. In that second book, there is the day he arrived in heaven, the days when he heard in heaven that some of the psalms he wrote about the Messiah had been fulfilled, the day in heaven when he heard that the Son of God had become a man, the day in heaven when he heard that the Son of God had died on the cross for David and for innumerable others, the day when the Son of God arrived in heaven and was highly exalted, and whatever has occurred there in glory in the life of David. I suspect it is a much bigger book than his earthly story. And much more will yet be revealed.
Yet, what is important here is the first book described in Psalm 139:16 and also mentioned in some way in Revelation 20:12. Why is it important? It is important because it contains the evidence that will be the basis of the verdict by the Judge on the Day of Judgement. The evidence is the works that David committed.
What kind of works are recorded in the books?
No doubt, there are different ways of classifying them. They could be classified according to his age, whether he was young or old. They could be classified according to their style, whether he was doing something in public or in private. They could be classified according to their motive, whether he was doing something as an expression of worship or of disobedience to God. Ultimately, there is only one option for classifying them because all his works, even his good ones, fell short of the standard that God required. The only option is to ask whether the details in the book of David’s life can be classified as forgiven or unforgiven.
What classification covers David’s life? The details in his life, despite all of them falling short of what God requires of a person, have all been forgiven. He wrote about that reality in the opening verses of Psalm 32 when he says, ‘Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.’ How did that happen? He gives the explanation in verse 5: ‘I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.’ He details an occasion of him confessing his sins in Psalm 51:1-2: ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!’
The book opened and weighed
David will stand at the Day of Judgement and watch the book of his life being opened. He knows what its details make clear, that he is a sinner. Yet he will stand there a forgiven sinner because he was led by the Spirit to confess his sins and ask God for mercy. David knew that One would yet come and pay the penalty for his sins, and on the Day of Judgement, that One will be sitting on the throne.
Everyone else who has ever lived will also be standing before Jesus on the Day of Judgement. No one has any idea of how great a number they will be. What we can say about all of them is that they will stand there either having forgiven sin or unforgiven sin. Some of the forgiven worry that on that day their sins committed in this life will be revealed. Of course, what they are worrying about is actually whether or not some of their sins will be revealed, because the reality is that all they did was sinful. What really matters is whether or not they are forgiven, not whether they are revealed.
The fact that sins are forgiven does not mean that there will not be consequences for wrong behaviour as Christians. There will be rewards given to those who served Jesus more wholeheartedly and the New Testament mentions the possibility of losing out on some rewards that could have been given. The Judge will have observed and recorded the motive for everything that was done. This is a serious matter for Christians, but for now I don’t want us to lose sight of the wonder that such sins will be forgiven through the blood of Jesus.
At the end of the story of the book of your life, what will be the conclusion that will be confirmed on the Day of Judgement? Sometimes an author provides a brief summary at the end of his story to show his readers the point of his chapters. What will be the summary that each of us will have at the close of our books? The two options are both composed of only one word. That word will be either Forgiven or Unforgiven. And by the way, there will be a chapter in your book saying what you did with the gospel offer of forgiveness on May 17th, 2020, when you sat watching this sermon in a time of lockdown when God was speaking loudly in his providence.