What does Revelation 20:7 mean?

At the end of Christ's thousand-year reign on earth, Satan is released from the bottomless pit. He is not paroled or put on probation, but let go. Why? His release is not intended to see whether prison time has reformed him. He is incorrigible. His release is intended to see whether people born during the millennium submitted to Christ's rule from the heart or simply because they had to submit. Did they experience a new birth or not?

The millennium is a period of peace and plenty, but these factors are insufficient to cause people to love and obey Christ. A perfect environment does not guarantee a perfect relationship with God. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment but they sinned. Even with Satan in prison for a thousand years the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), so human beings are capable of rebelling against God. The following verses of chapter 20 make this fact abundantly clear.

In point of fact, this lesson is probably why God chooses to release Satan. Much of what happens in the end times is meant to prove that God's judgment is well-deserved. No matter how much proof, evidence, or experience people are given, some will never submit to God. Those who reject Christ have no excuse (Romans 1:18–20).