These are the final lines of doctrine in the Athanasian Creed, and they testify to the general resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment.

Lesson from the Creed

At His coming all people will arise bodily
    and give an accounting of their own deeds.
   Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
    and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

Athanasian Creed, lines 41-43

Explanation from Scripture

Again, the best way to explain this is simply to put each claim made in the Creed beside Scripture. We will see that Scripture bears out the Creed, just as the Creed helps us rightly divide the Scriptures.

At His coming all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds.

Scripture teaches a bodily resurrection. Job says: For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God (Job‬ ‭19‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Job had confidence that, even after he died and his body decayed, he would see his Redeemer in the flesh—that is, bodily, through human eyes.

In John 5:28-29, Christ says: the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (NKJV). All are to be resurrected bodily—they come forth from their graves. Mere spirits don’t wouldn’t be pictured as coming out of their graves—that’s a bodily image (so Jesus raising Lazarus in John 11). And again, this is all. Even the wicked are exiled to hell bodily.

Revelation 20:12 concurs: And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. John saw them, bodily, to standing before God.

Likewise, it says: all people will … give an accounting of their own deeds. Not someone else’s deeds: So then each of us shall give account of himself to God (Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). This is in keeping with divine justice: Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin (Deuteronomy‬ ‭24‬:‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

At the Judgment Throne of Christ, all will receive either justice (what they have earned) or mercy (which God gives in Christ): For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Nobody gets injustice from God at final judgment.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

Those who have done good does need some qualifying, because there’s not a one-to-one correspondence between them, and those who have done evil.

The first and most important distinction that needs to be made is that those who have done good in the eyes of the Lord are those who have believed in Christ. Thus, Jesus said: Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). What is the Father’s will? Jesus says elsewhere: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent (John‬ ‭6‬:‭29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

Faith in Christ is what determines those who have done good. For Jesus continues His teaching: Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬) It is not for want of “doing good” that they are sent away at the Day of Judgement. Jesus doesn’t say, You didn’t actually do those good things. He says: I never knew you. They were not of His sheep, those who believed in Him, whom He knows by name (Isaiah 43:1; John 10:3-4, 14-16, 27-28). This point is demonstrated by the fact that they’re pleading their own works at the final judgment, instead of Christ’s work, which can only be received through faith.

So we read elsewhere that: without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6 CSB). Without the faith in Christ which rests solely upon His merit and promises for our salvation, it is impossible to do a single good work.

All this is further borne out by the final Judgment scene in Revelation 20:12: And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books (NKJV‬‬).

There are three books pictured here. One is the Book of Nature, which had testified to all of a God they should believe in and worship: what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). The second is the Book of Conscience, by which each will be judged according to their own conscience: for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel (Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

But the third book is the Book of Life, in which the name of each believer has been written since before the creation of the world (Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8; 20:15; 21:27). The Lamb’s Book of Life is the decisive book on Judgment Day. Without that Book, the books of Nature and Conscience would surely damn the whole wretched lot of us: For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes‬ ‭7‬:‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

This is all confirmed, first, by Ephesians 2:8-10: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). The good works of believers are not meritorious in that they earn or contribute to our salvation—not now, and not at the Judgment. They’re evidential, testifying to God’s good work in us, demonstrating a fruitful faith (James 2:18).

Likewise, in Romans 6:23, again we read: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Wages are something earned. Sin earns death and hell. But eternal life in Jesus Christ is the gift of God. A gift is not earned, but given by grace.

Thus, when believers are rewarded for their good works in eternal life (not with eternal life—there’s a world of difference between those two prepositions!); they are receiving grace upon grace (John 1:16 ESV). And when, by contrast, unbelievers are rewarded with eternal condemnation for their evil works, is it not as Scripture says: Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; For You render to each one according to his work (Psalm 62‬:‭12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬) God gives mercy to those in Christ. But to the unbelievers, who according to their hardened and unrepentant heart have stored up judgment against themselves (Romans 2:5-6); God gives only what they have earned.

Indeed, Jesus says as much to His disciples when He says: So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do” (Luke‬ ‭17‬:‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). In other words, even your best obedience doesn’t merit anything with God. Your obedience and good works are nothing more than your reasonable service in view of the mercies of God (Romans 12:1 NKJV).

On the whole, however, there’s nothing biblically objectionable or inaccurate in how the Creed presents the final Judgment. For Scripture does teach that those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire (Isaiah 66:24; Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:28-29; 15:4-6, Revelation 20:15, etc). As we disciple believers, we simply need to make it clear by the whole counsel of God that this does not mean salvation by works.