More About the Three Eternal Destinies of Man

We do not intend to imply that a person may enter the Holy City, or heaven, apart from the blood of the Lamb. The Lamb of God is the only one who can atone for the sins of the world. Only those in the Lamb's Book of Life have citizenship in the Holy City, as is made clear in Revelation 21:27. Everyone else must pay for his own sin, as is equally clear in Romans 6:23. Everyone means everyone, because all have sinned, as Romans 3:23 says. And thus it is appointed to all men to die once, as Hebrews 9:27 states with equal clarity, and then comes the judgment. The purpose of the judgment is to determine whether each person has done deeds worthy of a second death in the Lake of Fire.

As you may have noticed, Hebrews 9:27 does not say that it is appointed to all men to die twice. All have committed deeds worthy of the first death, but not all have committed deeds worthy of the second death. It is only those who have sinned in the likeness of Satan's sin (examples of which are included in Revelation 21:8 and Matthew 25:41-45) who will be judged worthy of the second death, based on their deeds. Those who have NOT sinned in this way will stand at the judgment, having already suffered the first death, and be judged worthy of a second life, based on their deeds, as Matthew 25:34-40 explicitly states.

Note that the Son of Man tells both the "sheep" and the "goats" in Matthew 25 that their judgment is based on how they unknowingly treated a third group of people, His "brothers," who are also present at the judgment. His brothers are the "saints" of 1 Corinthians 6:2, who are there, not among the "sheep" or the "goats" but with Him on the throne, rendering judgment. The reason that these "saints" (which means Holy Ones) are not being judged is made clear in John 5:24. They have already passed out of death and into life. The Holy ("saints" or "brothers") have life NOT on the basis of their deeds, but on the basis of His atoning sacrifice. The Righteous (Matthew 25:37), otherwise known as the "sheep" in the context of the parable, do have life on the basis of their deeds.

This is the main reason that the Righteous and the Holy must be seen as two different groups in this parable. The Holy, who are His brothers, who have the same Father, do not have life on the basis of their deeds, but on the basis of His sacrifice. There is a second reason that the "sheep" are not the same as the "brothers." The "sheep" as a whole are totally unaware that in treating the "brothers" kindly, they are treating the Messiah kindly.

It is unthinkable that a disciple does not know that how he treats his fellow disciple is how he treats his Master. For one thing, wherever the great commission is carried out, the disciples will be taught these things, according to Matthew 28:19-20. For another, I don't know any disciples who are not acquainted with the fact that Messiah lives in our hearts and that we are members of his Body (this is central, foundational, basic teaching).

So to sum up, the Holy have life in the Holy City, based on the blood of the Lamb. The "sheep" or Righteous of the NATIONS (Matthew 25:32) have life in the eternal NATIONS (Revelation 21:24,26; 22:2), based on having paid for their sins in the first death (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27), and having been raised from death to stand judgment for their deeds (Revelation 20:12-13; Matthew 25:40,45), are NOT found worthy of a second death. In other words, life as part of the Holy City, the bride or wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9-10) is different from life as part of the nations, who walk by her light (Revelation 21:24). The Holy City has the glory of God (Revelation 21:11,23), which was given to her (John 17:22), but the Nations who fell short of that glory (Romans 3:23), have a lesser glory (Revelation 21:24).