The Judgment Seat of Christ
Introduction. (II Corinthians 4:16-5:11) Paul teaches us
here (through the Holy Spirit some powerful points about
life, death, the spirit, the body, judgment and our
responsibility before God. Let’s look this morning at verses 9-11 of
chapter five.
I. “We make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be
well pleasing to Him.” (II Corinthians 5:9).
- Our aim. Gr. philotimeomai lit. “love of honor”
thus. “to be ambitious.” We strive for many things in
life, how many are temporal and how many are eternal
in nature? (Philippians 3:18,19).
- Absent or present. Refers to vss. 6 & 8.
Being “present” in the body (i.e. our spirit -- the inner
man still within the body) we are “absent from the Lord.”
When death comes to the Christian, the opposite
happens. (cf. Philippians 1:21-24).
Leads us to ask how this harmonizes with
the biblical teaching regarding Hades.
Explanation: When someone dies they go to the place of the
dead called Sheol in Hebrew and
Hades in Greek. Jesus went there when He died (Acts 2:30-32). There is
a separation of the righteous and the wicked (Luke
16:19-23; 26). At the judgment Hades gives up its dead,
the dead are judged and Hades is thrown into “the lake
of fire” (Revelation 20:13-15).
Is Paul describing something
different? Paul doesn’t address the place but the relationship.
When the righteous die (awaiting the judgment) from
what Paul suggests, there is interaction with “the Lord.”
This doesn’t have to refer to the place of final reward.
- “Well pleasing to God.” Relationships involve
people caring about each other to such an extent that they
want to please the other person (e.g. I Corinthians 7:33,34
- husband & wife seeks to please each other). A
careful concern for what God wants is not “legalistic” --
so long as it does not bind human traditions over Divine
-- or neglect joy, love and mercy “straining out gnats.”
A careful interest in doing exactly what our
Father in heaven wants reflects a deep and heartfelt love
for God and how we may be “well pleasing” to Him.
II. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ” (II Corinthians 5:10a).
The New Testament reveals that
Jesus will act as Judge on the day of judgment (John 5:22). His
word will be the standard of judgment (John 12:47,48). Every
soul who has ever lived one day will come before Christ in
judgment (Matthew 25:31,32). This means a number of this
for mankind...
- We should not seek any other way to heaven.
- To reject Christ is to reject the judge.
- To disregard the blood of Christ is to disregard the
judge’s act of mercy.
- “That each one may receive the things done in
the body...” (vs. 10b). We will have no
second-chances after death. Example of rich man & Lazarus
(Luke 16:23-31).
- False doctrine of Purgatory. i.e. Catholic
teaching that some do not stand condemned or saved but go to a place where they experience
temporary punishment or purification. Only verse
I know that is used to defend this is talking the work of preachers (I Corinthians 3:9-15) not
a place after death of purification.
- “...According to what he has done, whether good
or bad.” (vs. 10c) It matters what we do. There are
bad things for which we will have to answer to God.
There are good things that God wants us to do in order
to please Him (Romans 2:5-11).
Any religious idea that results in the conclusion
that we can do bad and the Lord doesn’t care -- or that
we can’t do anything that is good (and thus pleasing
to God) is a false doctrine, the product of human
reasoning and contrary to Scripture!
III. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the
Lord...” (II Corinthians 5:11a).
The fear of the Lord is always considered
a valuable thing (Proverbs 9:10). Our relationship with God
in Christ gives the Christian confidence (Hebrews 10:19,20).
In one sense it “casts out fear” (I John 4:17,18). But this is not
to suggest that we do not need to maintain a reverential fear
of God. Paul says through the Holy Spirit that this leads us to do something...
- “...We persuade men...” (vs. 11b) (Acts 18:4).
“persuade” Gr. peitho in KJV often translated “trust,
obey, have confidence, believe.” Thayer says it is “to
induce one by words to believe.” I.e. our understanding of
the Christian faith leads us to “persuade” others to come
to have the same understanding of the Faith.
We do this in different ways (Jude 22,23). We
must be the kind of people that try all that we can to
“persuade” people. Example of
Paul: (I Corinthians 9:19-23).
- “...But we are well known to God...” (vs. 11c).
Acts 15:8 - Controversy over the circumcision of the
Gentiles, in realizing that God had given them the
Holy Spirit as He had the Jews, speaks of “God, who
knows the heart.”
God knows us -- better than anyone else --
better than ourselves! Do we accept this fact or do we
imagine that we don’t have to answer to Him? “We must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”