Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 25:32-33

"and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." — Matthew 25:32-33 (ASV)

In the last great day of the Lord, all nations that have ever existed on the face of the globe will be gathered before the judgment seat of Christ. The earth, which is now becoming more and more one vast graveyard or charnel house, will yield up her dead, and the sea itself, transformed into a solid pavement, will bear upon its bosom the millions who lie hidden in its gloomy caverns. All mankind will be assembled before their Judge, “and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”

At first they will be gathered together in one heterogeneous mass, but the myriad multitude will speedily be divided into two companies, “and he shall separate them one from another.” The King will be the divider in that dread day. How He will separate them, no one can tell, except that it will be “as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” Not one goat will be left among the sheep, nor one sheep with the goats. The division will be very close and personal, “one from another.” They will not be separated into nations, nor even into families, but each individual will be allotted his or her proper place among the sheep or among the goats.

“And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” There will be only two companies, one on the right hand of the Judge and the other on His left. The Lord Jesus Christ “shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing,” and all who will be summoned before His dread tribunal will be either alive from the dead or still dead in trespasses and sins. There will be no middle company in that day, as in God’s sight there is no third class even now. All our names are either in the Lamb’s Book of Life or in the Judge’s Book of Death.

Some have taught that the judgment here foretold is that of the professing Church and not of the whole world. There may be some ground for their belief, yet it seems impossible to apply the full meaning of our Savior’s majestic words to any scene except the general judgment of the whole human race.