In our study in The Revelation, we are brought now to the opening of the 7th vial or bowl judgment. This last judgment will be when God completes His wrath (Revelation 15:1) upon a Christ-rejecting world that blasphemes His Name (Revelation 16:9,11,21). As the vial of His wrath is poured out into the air, there comes a great voice “out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’” (Revelation 16:17) These words from God, “It is done!”, clearly reveal the truth that after fallen man declares all that is to be said about the existence of God or the claims of Jesus Christ, it will be Almighty God Who will get the last word. And His last word is this: “It is done!” When God says this it means that all of the aspirations of fallen man will be laid in the balances of eternity and be found wanting.
Those words from the temple of heaven cause us to consider another very sobering thought. Our lives have an end. Scripture declares that there is a time to be born, and a time to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a). As much as anyone tries to escape the reality of death, apart from those who are alive at the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17), every person’s life on earth has an end in death (Hebrews 9:27). How do we prepare for the inevitable Day of Judgment? At the end of our lives there will not be time to go back and “undo” what we know we shouldn’t have done. Nor will there be time to go back and do what we know we should have done. Since we all have fallen in Adam (Romans 5:12), we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That means that in this life sin and imperfection reign as sure as the sun rises in the daytime and the moon at night, and even the best of us at the end of our lives are still very human (James 5:17). Is there any hope for us?
Herein lies the good news of Jesus Christ. On His cross Jesus cried out the words of triumph, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Those words describe the completion of the perfect sacrifice for sin that was made by Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God (John 1:29), for every lost son and daughter of Adam (Hebrews 2:9). That means that those who repent (Luke 13:1-5) and believe upon Him are declared righteous in the sight of God (Romans 10:1-11). That means that upon the basis of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, we can one day stand blameless before a holy God (Jude 24,25), and we are set free now to live the remainder of our lives on earth for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
