The purpose of judging the unregenerate is not to determine their guilt. Nor is it to decide their future destiny. Both of these are already known. But this judgment at the Great White Throne of justice will demonstrate the necessity of God’s decision of condemnation. All will see why eternal separation from God (the second death) is absolutely necessary for all who rejected His grace and salvation.
God will bring to light every secret thought and motivation as well as every deed. Each person will see in the light of God’s perfection why his deeds were evil. His own conscience will agree with the condemnation he receives from God. The books will be opened to the record of his ways and works (Matthew 7:21-23; Proverbs 12:14; 16:2; 1 Peter 2:8; Ezekiel 7:3, 27; Zechariah 1:6).
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings (Jeremiah 17:10).
God’s power is made known through the Great White Throne Judgment.
What if God, wiling to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction (Romans 9:22).
God’s power is a moral power. It includes both the ability to forbear and wait for men to sort themselves out into groups by their own decisions, and it includes the power to punish that which persists in rebellion.
Justice is completed at the Great White Throne Judgment.
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures! up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds (Romans 2:5, 6).
Since this is a moral universe which expresses God’s righteous character, all creation is longing for the completion of moral separation. Everything is pointing toward the final sorting process when all that is evil will be removed from that which is godly. Until that day, creation is in a state of unrest and anticipation.
The wicked shall be assigned an eternal destiny which fits what they have become.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14, 15).
All who have rejected God will be rejected by Him. All who do not have eternal life will be consigned to eternal death. They shall be banished from God’s presence for all eternity. Their own choice becomes the fixed legal decree of God.
Works will be rewarded with eternal consequences.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).
What we do shapes what we become. Our personality is molded by our choices, our preferences, our habits, our ways of thinking, and our actions. It is not what was done to us as much as what we do about it that determines our character. Every responsible decision we make leaves its mark within us, making us more like or more unlike Christ. Sin corrupts the sinner on the inside, making him more prone to evil with each sinful act he commits. God eventually decrees that the sinner must remain forever captive to what he has made of himself. Redemptive change is no longer available to anyone after death. We are carrying the seeds of Heaven or hell within us now.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still (Revelation 22:11).