There are some people, some choice people, who have a way with a phrase. They can say something in such a way that, like a burr, it grabs hold of our minds and becomes unforgettable. Churchill could do it: “…so that if the British Empire should last for a thousand years, they will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” Theodore Roosevelt could do it: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Shakespeare? Of course. Jesus? The best that ever was or will be: “The blind leading the blind,” the “Light under a bushel,” “He who has an ear to hear,” and “You in Me and I in you.”

Theologians aren’t known for memorable burrs, just big words nobody cares about anyway. But there are exceptions, Martin Luther being one. But they’re few and far between. Yet there’s this one burr of a sentence, that once you read it, it fastens itself, hard-wired to the brain. Louis Sperry Chafer, an exception to the obtuse theologian theorem, wrote: The Bible is not a book man could write if he would, nor a book he would write if he could.”

Perhaps the truth of that burr fastens hardest when we read of the last judgment in Revelation 20. That chapter describes a scene that you wouldn’t write if you could, and couldn’t write if you would.

There’s this dominating white throne that overpowers the scene, just as Stone Mountain overwhelms its geography. In front of this throne are all the people in the history of man and the world who, since the giving of Genesis 3:16, never believed Jesus for eternal life. Cain is there along with Judas, Voltaire, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Standing side by side with them are uncountable numbers of people who, in their lifetimes, were in church every single Sunday without exception (you can tell that because of the “perfect attendance” Sunday school pins they’re wearing), and a lot of people who were there occasionally and some never there at all.

Present at this scene is a registry of names. This book was, at one time, a registry of everyone who’s ever lived. But by this time, it’s a book of all the names of those who believed Jesus for eternal life.

The thing is that all those people around this throne will not be able to find their names in this book. When they died without believing Jesus for eternal life, their names were erased from the book. So there’s just this awful blank space where their names used to be.

Now, here’s the part we wouldn’t write if we could and couldn’t write if we would: those gathered there for this judgment are going to be judged on the basis of their good works, not their sins “ . . . and the dead were judged according to their works…” Rev. 20:12). The problem is that their good works are going to be shown to be insufficient. Not one single person’s will be good enough because the only “good” that’s good enough is God’s perfect righteous which only those who believed Jesus for eternal life have as a gift given to them upon believing (Romans 3:21-22).

But aren’t they going to be judged for their sins? Here’s something else we wouldn’t write if we could and couldn’t write if we would-no, because Christ paid for their sins (I John 2:2; II Corinthians 5:19)! What He paid for, a person can’t be judged for. That’s why Newton sang about an “amazing grace.” We can sing it without even realizing just how amazing it truly is.

Those at this judgment will have to stand, therefore, on their good works. They will stand on them and then collapse on them. Even if they have the good works of a thousand Mother Teresas, those good works won’t be good enough because they aren’t perfect.

Now it’s clear isn’t it? We wouldn’t write Revelation 20 if we could and couldn’t write it if we would. What to do? Believe Jesus for eternal life -- something else our works-oriented nature wouldn’t write if it could and couldn’t write if it would.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor