Each of us is awaiting a trial that will decide our eternal fate. Each moment, we grow closer to the decision and the verdict. When it comes, there will not be an appeals process. No higher court exists nor can we lie or depend upon our legal team to circumvent the law.

In this courtroom, neither skin color, heritage, wealth, prestige or our network of associates will have any bearing on the decision. Exhaustive research on rare court cases will be pointless because we will not even have a lawyer. We will stand, bare and alone, before the bright lights and burning vision of the judge.

Every person will have their own trial and it cannot be avoided. Every thought and action of our lives will be available to the court. We will be unable to hide or shirk this responsibility. The floor will not swallow us nor can we flee.

The judge will be gracious, merciful and patient. Yet, he will be bound to the law (John 12:48), and the inescapable result, the one we have chosen. As strange as it sounds, we will decide our own fate. However, not in the way we may imagine.

In this courtroom, Christ will be the judge (2 Corinthians 5:10; John 5:22) but we will be judged by the works that we have done, ones that have been faithfully recorded by God (Revelation 20:12). Our own lives will seal our fate.

When the verdict is read, we will either enter heaven or be doomed to hell (Matthew 25:31-46). The end will be upon us and we will feel the ultimate joy or the ultimate nightmare. The extremes cannot be more stark or vivid.

Which will we decide? All of us would choose heaven but most of us will live for hell (Matthew 7:13-14). Christ is full of grace, mercy and longsuffering (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 3:9). Yet, we will make the decision by allegiance. Our actions and attitudes will decide whether we have chosen Christ or Satan.

Christ has all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3), but he demands that we give up everything for him (Mark 8:34; Romans 12:1-2). Christ has given us all that we need but he cannot make us choose him.

That decision will fall to us. Which will we pick?

by Richard Mansel