NOTES for Rev 15:4
Belief in the Day of Judgement and the universal resurrection was common among most devout Jews even before the Saviour came into the world. It implied that everyone would come to judgement, whether or not they had belonged to God's people during their lifetime. This understanding of judgement was shaped above all by the recognition that the God of Israel is also the God of the whole world, and that He would judge not only His own people but all the other peoples of the earth as well.
In the light of New Testament revelation, however, Christians came to view judgement somewhat differently from the way Jews viewed and still view it. From the Jewish perspective, this process, if not instantaneous, is at least relatively concentrated in time: it presupposes that the risen come to judgement so that God may take stock of the lives they lived on earth and pronounce the corresponding verdict. For a Christian, by contrast, judgement begins with the Messiah's coming into the world: Jesus says explicitly that whoever believes in Him does not come to judgement, while whoever rejects Him is condemned by that very rejection. In that case, our age could be called the age of judgement: the choice remains possible until the very day of the Saviour's return, when the outcome will be determined. At the same time, our age is not only the age of judgement but also that of the advancing Kingdom. The two are connected: accepting or rejecting Christ also means accepting or rejecting the Kingdom He brought into the world. According to His own words, a person escapes judgement not merely by making one decision or another, but because the decision to trust Christ also means choosing the Kingdom, and sharing in this new life removes the question of judgement.
But if so, does it make sense to speak of judgement in relation to Christians at all? If we who call ourselves Christians were Christians fully and completely, it really would make no sense to speak of judgement in relation to us, just as it makes no sense in relation to those whom the Book of Revelation calls those who 'share in the first resurrection', over whom 'the second death has no power'. In some churches such people are called 'saints', although it would be more accurate to call their lives examples of Christian righteousness, since the New Testament books call all Christians without exception 'saints'. Yet in our spiritual lives we often prove to be Christians only intermittently: we share in the life of the Kingdom from time to time, while mostly living the life of 'this world'. At judgement we too will therefore have to face the reckoning of this divided existence, pulled in two directions. There is only one way to avoid judgement: finally to become spiritually whole people and live solely by the life of the Kingdom—or, more simply, finally to become normal, genuine Christians.