One must repent and believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour before the day of judgement. On that day, it will be too late. There is no "little review". Jesus will return in glory, and every knee will bow to him, and be judged according to what they have done. As all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, salvation can only be found by calling upon Jesus to cover our transgressions.
Thanks again for these replies. I hope you've been well. I've been thinking/reading more about God/consciousness lately and had some more random thoughts on this.
So, how does the judgement work when one has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior? Like, we are all sinners and when Jesus returns, he judges us all, believers and non-believers the same. Wait, is the return describing Jesus walking the Earth again or when we die?
A believer recognizes that Jesus died for our sins.* He accepts Him as his Savior, because otherwise without him, he's in hell. Because hell is the absence of God. Dark, disorderly, without purpose, absence of light, etc.
Thus, he is saved because he has laid his sins on the cross and is washed clean with the blood of Christ. Is part of repentence living in a WWJD way? Because God is perfect, just, truth, light, goodness, etc., we strive to be these things to become closer to Him.
But we are wicked and live in rebellion to Him. We don't really deserve His grace and have amassed a debt that we can never repay. Even living a very nice and decent life isn't enough because no person is without sin. And becoming one with God again can't happen if you're imperfect, like a square peg into a round hole. So Christ takes all of that sin off you so when you die, you can rejoin God?
So on your day of judgment, which is aftet dying, Jesus reviews your transgressions, regardless of whether he has saved you or not? During this, you'd recognize how you truly don't deserve His mercy due to your sinfiul nature (and likely be blown away in the presence of the Lord, magnifying just how much you really don't deserve His Grace).
But because you have already accepted that He did this for you, He still lets you rejoin Him? Or do you just skip past the transgression review like Jesus is a club bouncer at the pearly Gates letting the homies through without a pat down? Seems more meaningful if the former. I would hope so.
What if you never attempted to be less sinful after the acceptance? Is that even possible with true acceptance that Jesus died for us?
Ok, so nothing can change anything at the review point for non-believers. Not because God is vengeful or doesn't love us, but because we are the ones who rejected Him. And recognizing Him as our Savior in His Glory now doesn't count because it would essentially be forced? God doesn't want a relationship by force, which is why He gave us free will to choose?
So even if we beg and plead and admit we were sinful, nothing can change now. Not because God wants us to be without Him, but because we have already chosen to disassociate with him by rejecting his love and the mercy he already showed us on the cross. And any desire for a relationship with Jesus in this moment wouldn't be genuine, it would be pure selfishness and forced because God revealed himself to you. He essentially removed your free will at that point.
Sorry for how rambling this is. I am sure there are many parts I am misunderstanding and would appreciate where I go wrong.
* So many bits of Christianity are such ubiquitous fixtures in our country that I feel it's detrimental for a largely secular person. Like, you develop an understanding of the terms and phrases when young, but without any connection to/understanding of their meaning. God's Triunal nature is extremely confusing and obviously not something humans can relate to.
I never understood what Him dying for our sins meant or why it mattered, though knew the phrasing. It just sounded to me like this dude came down and died because we suck. Like he died just because of our sins, not also for them (which was essentially buying our debt we can't repay). It also makes it sound like we're all good regardless of recognition of it, which seems dangerous. Maybe that's why spreading the Gospel is important, haha.
